Salt Lake City Solo

I’m on a plane to Seattle right now. First time being on my own since before I was pregnant with Una (Except for that one ridiculous 24-hour work trip to Seattle, when she was 3 months old). It feels totally unreal and totally normal at the same time. Like, oh, I’m still me, I just haven’t had a real chance to feel this ME for the past four years. I’ve felt so many new sides of me, particularly the mom me, partly the employee me, sometime the wife me. So in other words, I have spent most of the past four years exploring the sides of me that are in relation to other people.

Today, I am just ME. Going to a genealogy conference in Salt Lake City to explore and learn about something for me. That’s pretty trippy. J only had to mentally slap me twice yesterday, to get me to stop future-micro-manage his time with the kids.

I’m going to sleep alone for four nights. That alone is both exhilarating and terrifying. How does that even work? It will involve multiple rounds of pumping breast milk I’m sure. While I have done my best to prepare Will for this transition, he likes to sleep with a boob in his mouth. This is another reason, why this trip is being executed. Get our littlest one to let go of me a little both physically and mentally. He loves his dad, so I hope it will be a good transition for him.

Back to ME. Four days of learning about something I’m extremely passionate about: genealogy. Meeting and learning from seasoned genealogists. A hotel room, a bathroom, a TV, room service. No interruptions. Time to reflect. Time to exercise. Time to eat a full meal.

Okay, I know it’s only four days, but compared to what I usually pack into a day, this feels like an endless amount of time. I hope I will be able to balance missing my little family with enjoying and rediscovering myself.

P.S. This post was written four days ago - I'm on my last night in Salt Lake City and still here ;) I worked the whole time and this is the only photo I took of my surroundings.