This past week I took a whirlwind trip to the UK for my high school girlfriend's wedding! She and her husband moved there last year for her job and will be there for the next 3-7 years. They had a small family-only ceremony before their move and planned to have a more traditional service at a later date. Since high school and more regularly over the last four years, the four of us (pictured above) try to get together at least once a year for a girls trip. With one of us now across the Atlantic and 3 babies among us, this wedding would be our best shot at our yearly get-together. Whirlwind that it was, I'm so glad I went!
I left DFW last Saturday at 4:30pm, landed at Heathrow at 7am Sunday morning (London time), got my bag, breezed through Customs, and hopped on the Piccadilly line to London Kings Cross train station where I was going to link up with my other friend and her husband. After a little confusion buying my tube ticket I successfully schlepped my rolling suitcase, my backpack and my other bag onto the train. Thankfully the doors only closed on my bag once trying to get onto the train car. Whew. Okay. Feeling accomplished. A little rusty, but I know public transit. I can do this. Time to lay my eyes on all my essentials. Phone. Passport. Wallet....ugh. No wallet. Somewhere between entering the tube station and getting on the tube my wallet went missing. Awesome. Let me just check in with my friend and see if they're headed to the National Rail Station. Ugh. No messages going through. Nothing is working. Cool cool cool. No wallet and no phone. Calm down. Get to the train station. Connect to wifi. Use the Uber app to pay for Uber from Cambridge to the hotel. Worst case you meet them at the Hotel.
I had already been second guessing my decision to take this trip for many reasons - work, finances, mom guilt, etc. In fact, I had originally RSVP'd no to the wedding. So with the way things were starting off it seemed that my first thought to skip the trip might have been the right one. If you know me, rushing through airports, being unorganized for travel and not having all my necessary things with me is actually my recurring anxiety dream. The movie Trains, Planes and Automobiles is actually my worst nightmare. Nothing like a little travel anxiety to get your wheels spinning. Even as I am typing this now my hands are getting clammy. But I digress....
I get to London Kings Cross and as I'm schlepping all my luggage (but no wallet or working phone) through the station I literally run into the friends I am supposed to be meeting there. This train station is huge. How did that happen? Can I get an amen?? The first divine intervention of the morning. Quite literally, thank God! Within minutes they fixed my phone (Setting > Cellular >Travel and turn on Data Roaming), we realized tap pay was accepted literally everywhere and both of my issues were essentially fixed. Whew. I finally started to relax a little.
Everything else goes off without a hitch. Cambridge is absolutely stunning. It is an adorable little town full of quaint shops, pubs and buildings with incredible architecture and deep history. We go punting, have an incredible fish and chips dinner, the smoothest beers and best gin & tonics of my life and the next day head north about 15 miles to Ely for the most picturesque English countryside wedding, complete with Ely Cathedral and a sunset in the backdrop. The next day we all head to London for one night with just enough time before our flights to walk to Buckingham Palace and through Trafalgar Square, have dinner in Covent Garden, see Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club, pick up some goodies for our loved ones and sleep (at last).
My journey home did not disappoint my pre-travel anxiety. Wednesday morning about 10 am we start our trek to Heathrow. After 45 minutes or so on the tube (with a delay for trespassers on the tracks), lots of luggage schlepping (again) and a hike to my gate, my flight gets canceled (with just over an hour before takeoff). Thankfully I was quickly rebooked on another flight but it was taking off on the other side of the terminal in about 10 minutes. I sprinted to the new gate just in time to make this flight albeit now covered and sweat and coffee spills. Thankfully I had packed an extra shirt. I would now be connecting in Chicago (where the international United terminal is under construction resulting in 60+ minutes of waiting to get through customs) with only 90 minutes to make my connection at the terminal/gate as far as possible from my arrival gate (obviously). Another sprint through the airport, this time requiring a change of pants - another item I thankfully had in tow. Whatever. I was on the flight. I was going to get home (but not with my checked bag). The biggest blessing of the day though was that both of my flights were only half full (see still some optimism left in me) and I had a row to myself LHR to DFW.
So I sat down on my final flight, in a completely different outfit that I started the day in, reeling in some trip/travel anxiety again and I opened my Instagram to finally do some mindless scrolling. The first post to pop up was from the beautiful Nicky Newman (@nicknacklou) who just so happens to be from the UK. She is/has been an incredible advocate for the Breast Cancer community for quite a while now. Of course she crossed my mind as I was (sort of) in her area this past week. I have never met her or even talked with her but I found her page a while back when I was seeking literally any type of positive affirmations from people about my age going through a similar situation. Gosh, she looks so happy. No way she has Stage 4 cancer. A thought that crossed my mind several times. She preaches to her followers: "Go grab life!" and she lives that message all day every day, even if it just means sitting in the sun for a few minutes.
The post that popped up was an update for all her many followers; she had made the impossible decision to stop her treatment. Ugh. Not the update I was hoping to see. But after reading her post, after (another) crazy travel day that left me second guessing what made me change my mind and book this trip - I knew it was her. She was that first little voice in my head back in July that said, "you can make this work. Do this for you and do this for your friend. Go grab life. Take the trip!!" Thank you, Nicky! I'm so glad I listened to you ;-)
We make the effort, we schlep the bags, we push through the travel anxiety, we miss our families for little and we make it work because that is what life is about. That's what life has to be about. We have to take the trip, we have be there for our friends/family/supporters, we have to do something for ourselves and we absolutely have to #gograblife.
10 things to be grateful for today:
The ability to run through an airport
That travel anxiety can be my biggest issue of the day
The ability to travel without permission from a doctor
A family to love and miss
18 years+ of friendship with these travel buds
Two healthy children and the ability to have more if we choose
Saying goodbye without thinking it might be our last
A husband that says "go ahead"
That my exhaustion comes from small children, jet lag and a busy schedule that gives me purpose
That my biggest decisions these days are not medical
To Nicky,
I am thinking of you and Mr. G as you are processing your latest treatment decision. Thank you for your vulnerability and transparency so others may see and understand what it means to be a Breast Cancer patient. Thank you for being a beacon of light for people in dark places. Your inspiration travels farther than you know - even beyond Texas! I know it is not easy to share your life with the world. However, we are so very grateful. Your legacy and incredible approach to life will live on for centuries; I am sure. Most of all, thank you for teaching us all, for being that little voice in our head and giving us the extra push to change the RSVP from "No" to "Yes" and to Go Grab Life all the days of our very precious lives.
Lightning bolts unite!⚡️
xx,
Trina
Glad you are grabbing life! It’s well worth the effort to stay connected to your friends near and far!