Hello Panama!

I’m here for a travel show and excited to meet with Caribbean, Central and South American travel suppliers. It’s five days of in-person meetings with all the wonderful places I can send people!

And six nights alone in my own luxurious hotel room. I already finished a book.

BB expressed her concern with my being gone. First she said,

“You’re going to be gone for MCAS!”

Nope!

“You’re going to be gone for my field trip!”

Nope!

“I don’t want you to go!”

I know!

Never mind that I have nothing to do with MCAS or the field trip.

BB doesn’t want me to go. RB will miss me, but isn’t having a crisis, Captain is on board and OPAL wanted to know why the heck we woke up at 4am yesterday, but was ready to seize the day until I didn’t take him with me.

We love that cat. He is CRAZY but also ADORABLE.

We took him for his first vet visit before I left. I filled in all the information online ahead of time, including medical records, gender, age, etc.

We walked in and they said,

“How can we help you?”

I pointed at the cat in the plexiglass backpack and said,

“This is Opal!”

“Oh hi Opal! She’s here for her first visit?”

“Yup.”

If we were talking about a person, I would’ve corrected the pronoun, but Opal, Opie, Opester, Opemania, Opalicious, Opamillion doesn’t know the difference and the amount of time I would’ve spent over the last 2 months correcting people would be ridiculous. And for what?

It’s an uphill battle for a testicleless cat, with a “girl” name, for whom gender is a meaningless construct. He has refused to wear his blue bow tie, so what else can we do?

We were shown to an exam room while Opal continued to be referred to as a she.

He enjoyed the room. There were counters to jump between, a window with a bird feeder right outside it, a keyboard to stomp on and a sink to snuggle into.

Aside from the needles, it was a great playdate.

We returned to the waiting area to check out. The woman at the desk, who had greeted us when we first came in, reviewed the notes, gave me a grave look and asked,

“Did you know Opal was a HE?!”

“YES!” Or a they or a whatever.

We picked the name, then got the cat.

Also his parts may be tiny and his sac empty, but it is still very obvious he’s a boy, especially considering the whole area had a close shave for neutering.

He has a light colored body, and dark hair on his face, paws and tail. His pubic hair is in stark contrast to his body. Captain marvels,

“I didn’t know his carpet would match the drapes.”

So it does.

But enough about him.

I disembarked in Panama City and was met at my gate by a VIP meet and greet. She whisked me through the airport, through immigration, through customs and I was in the transfer to my hotel before I knew what happened. I recommend this.

It was lovely, but also did not give me time to stop in the airport for a donut. I will rectify this on the way out.

People were asking what I was doing for Mother’s Day. We went out for Indian lunch buffet, but being away this week is Mother’s Day enough for me.

RB couldn’t remember the restaurant and asked,

“Indian lunch buffet? Do I like that?”

“You better take snacks along.”

As we walked up to the restaurant door, RB exclaimed,

“I LOVE the food here!”

“You do?!”

BB and the rest of us went straight to the buffet and piled our plates up, RB sat down and opened a bag of Pirate’s Booty.

It’s starting to feel like the home stretch to summer vacation!

BB just finished learning all of her states and capitals.

I was surprised to learn that’s still a thing. What is the point of memorizing them? I don’t know who of my peers has retained them, but I have not.

I have now spent many weeks managing BB’s anxiety about learning them. They did one section of the country at a time over the course of months. A perfect score on the practice test earned an exemption from having to take the actual test.

BB is more self-motivated than I ever was. She was determined to get a perfect score on all the practice tests.

In an effort to dispel her anxiety, I tried to reassure her that I didn’t think learning this mattered.

That did not help at all.

Then the first practice test came home with a perfect score and I was surprised to find myself outraged.

The test provided a list of states and capitals. The kids just had to match them up and remember the abbreviation and geographical location.

I found myself ranting,

“When I was a kid we had to memorize it all! There was no list provided!”

BB just stared at me.

Yes, I went from saying I didn’t understand the point, to saying the test was too easy.

I do think there’s value in understanding the geography. I was just chatting with Captain about flight routes to Tahiti. He was curious about why it’s such a long flight.

I explained that it’s past Hawaii and how long it would take. He nods his head,

“I guess I always think of Hawaii in that box not too far away.”

The good news is that Panama is a lot closer than that Hawaii box. It’s a 5.5 hour direct flight from Boston and only an hour time difference. I’ll keep you posted. Eventually.