Yesterday was the nicest day of the year, and today is even better. So warm and sunny, it was registering 78 degrees in the car thermometer. You guessed it, I was not on the 649 today. I was on my way to the airport.

Right now I am sky high above the Chesapeake Bay on my way to Charlotte and then on to Kansas City. I am missing my crew and thinking about them as I look out the window. It feels like summer because the sun is high and hot, and there is a significance haze in the air, especially along the coast, where the water is still cold. The difference between the temperatures of the air and water are creating a marine layer, just like what happens in LA.

I got to drive Olivia to middle school this morning and she and I talked about the school play that just happened last weekend. “Why didn’t we go to the play, and why weren’t you in it?” I asked. “Because it was a 6th grade only play,” she said with a look like I was so dumb. “What grade are you in?” I asked knowing the answer I think, but wanting to see her response. This time she really gave it to me, and turned to fixate out the window because Dad was obviously so embarrassing. Ha!

Still I pressed on saying how she should be in the plays. It is so fun, and when you get old like me, you will wish that you took advantage of the opportunity and had gotten up there. I remember I was in a musical my senior year in high school. I had a duet with Cami Ellen, and she was really cute. At the end of our song “….who do you love, I hope? Who do you love I hope? I hope, I hope it’s me!…” we kissed and the lights dropped. I remember thinking at the time that I should make out with her movie style on the last night of the play, instead of just a sweet kiss on the lips. I could only imagine the whoops and hollers from the crowd had I done it! In the end, I stuck to the script, and everything went off as predicted. But 30 years later, I am still wondering what few second of courage might have produced. Telling Olivia that story may have gotten her thinking, and who knows, maybe she’ll go out for the 7th-8th grade play.

Back up here at 30,000 feet, I think of college and my niece-cousin who is going to Tulane next year, and of my niece-niece going to Boston College this year. Gregory will be off to college in a few years, and we’ll have fun talking through the choices and engaging in the decision making process. We already visit colleges in every town we vacation in. And of course we threaten him with getting good grades so he can get into a good college, so he can get a good job, so he can work his butt off for 2 weeks of vacation and a mortgage and go through bringing up his own kids! Holy Cow, I sound like the Race to Nowhere movie.

Up here, above the clouds, things seem much more peaceful. Families traveling together make me want to have my crew with me. Seeing all the cities along the way make me want to show them to my family. It is nice thinking about the future up here without the stress of being on the network, or within cell range, of having to check emails that might arrive, answering questions and putting out fires. Everything looks green and the future seems bright. Big things from this view are clouds, and everything else is really tiny. It sure seems like the normal stresses and issues must be even tiny-er!

I think I’ll take the family on a flight just to give them the view from up here. This might jump start a discussion of big things and making big moves, fitting the big pieces into the puzzle of life, wanting the best for the ones you love, and feeling that what you really miss are the most important things.