Three Gratitudes - Day 11

Continuing on my quest to feel happiness, I'm going to post three things I'm grateful for for 21 days.

1. That I can maintain my sense of humor when traveling. Here's my last experience with my family. Steven's friend picked up Steven and my parents to take them to the airport. His friend is mostly deaf. That didn't stop my Mom from talking to him in her quiet voice which started Steven's day of irritation. Then, when we got to the airport, I went to the line for people who had printed out their boarding passes. My parents and Steven were already in the other line as they had no passes. Of course, I had emailed Shorty his flight info so he could print them out and check in online. He wasn't capable. Sigh. I had checked them in the day before and texted Steven their confirmation number. He got them checked in but he was on my reservation and the woman seemed reluctant to help him. He had two reasonable options. Tell her he didn't know his confirmation number and ask her to look him up or text me in the other line for the number. He chose to storm out of the line instead. When I printed out my boarding pass the day before, his came with me and I had it in my purse. I sent him with it to the shorter line and then tried to find my parents. I called Shorty and told him to meet us at the gate. Steven got checked in and we went through security and straight to the bar for a breakfast beer. My Mom came toddling over and told us that Shorty had gone down the wrong concourse so they'd had to take the cart to get to our actual gate. At least they were there. We finally got on the plane then were told we were 18th or 19th on the runway so we had to wait. No worries. I had booked a direct flight for a reason. It was good, too, as we ended up getting in an hour late. As we got off the plane, we headed to the washrooms and Shorty took a direct path. To the women's room. Fortunately, someone sent him out right away. Finally, we headed to luggage and I told my Mom to not stop. She walks at less than half speed. Of course, she stopped at every blinky light so Steven and Shorty were way ahead of us. No worries, I took it all in stride. We made it there, our ride was there and all of our luggage made it with us. Everything else that could have been irritating just became fodder for more family stories. It's all in how you look at it.
2. Being close to our extended (and generous) family. I'm grateful to have active relationships with Aunts, Uncles, cousins and cousins of cousins. Some of them come to visit us in Arizona but nearly all of them will come out to see us when we're in Wisconsin. We always have plenty of offers of places to stay, one of my Uncles loans us his car, other relatives host parties or invite us to their homes for meals. And, I say relatives but I include long time friends in this gratitude, as well. We are just as close to them as we are to our blood relatives.
3. Having four weeks of vacation. Yeah, I want more but I realize I have more than the average bear and I appreciate every day. I use every day, too. I'll never understand people who don't take advantage of all of their time off. It's something you've earned and something you need to refresh your mental health if nothing else. Even if you don't travel with it, just spending a day at home away from the job can be a big mental boost.