Road dog diaries is back!

Hey everybody! I’m indulging in a self care face mask right now 🎉 I made it to Pittsburgh alive and well. I’m actually staying outside of Pittsburgh about an hour but I’m excited to be back out on the road.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, I got to spend the morning with Jeremy as he drove me across the island to San Juan to catch my flight. We had such a wonderful time together as always and it’s great to sit here and reflect on how blessed I am to have a partner that encourages my freedom and curiosity in this life. I don’t tell him enough how proud I am of him and how much he means to me but I’m going to start saying it more because life is precious and these are the kinds of things we need to hear.

Drive to San Juan was ridiculous and hilarious as we rifled through my Cardi B collection in celebration of WAP😂 which I love, hands down.

Jeremy drop me off at the airport handed me $10 so I had a little bit of tip in cash. I didn’t tell him but I already had tipping cash in my purse… But now I have $10 more, hooray! Thanks Jeremy.

I had a great luggage attendant who helped me bring my things into the airport, he got me checked in and made sure I got to my gate.

San Juan is always good for that! I pulled out $20 handed him his tip and probably won’t see him again till the next time I fly out but I love that the faces at the San Juan airport are so familiar all the time. The airport was busier than I expected but not crazy busy. And usually a sample San Juan airport is always crazy busy!

Going through TSA I had a flash of anxiety thinking I was going to hyperventilate and then I realized that it was just my mask. It is anxiety inducing to wear a mask all day for travel so I understand why people are uncomfortable with. Not only do they prevent you from taking the proper breath you would like to take but they hurt the back of my ears so I found a way to wrap them around my headphones and I just leave my headphones on the entire time as well. It’s uncomfortable but it’s necessary. It made me feel comforted to see everybody else wearing a mask. And even if it is just a placebo, which I don’t think it is, at least it’s something that we can do to put other people at ease.

I bought a ton of rubber gloves to wear on the flight but I did not end up wearing them. Instead, I opted for antibacterial wipes and easily used 50 of them by the time I landed. I did notice that everything was closed in every airport so far, there’s usually a CIBO or some sort of convenience store that is open now, you probably are gonna have to walk for a while to find one but there is one available in each airport but not much more than that. Thank the gods I anticipated that. I had a little bit of a snack and some doTERRA drops that I love just in case I got thirsty and couldn’t find water. Everything worked out OK, my anxiety was for nothing, the flights were easy, the flight attendants were easy, TSA was easy, everybody just wants to be calm and respectful right now from my personal opinion.

I got off my plane and saw the most beautiful image I could have possibly seen, haley was waiting for me at baggage claim and I know we’re not supposed to but we hugged it out real good man, both of us took our Covid tests so we know we’re both negative, we sat in that hug for a fucking minute! Masks on of course. We realized at the same time that we have not seen each other in over seven months! Seven months! I have not been away from Haley for more than two weeks at a time for seven years so it seemed like a lifetime since I had seen her.

We got in the rental car that she had already prepared for us and took off immediately, blasted the music, got to the hotel, smoked up, drink some whiskey, gossiped and gossiped and gossiped until we both were ready to pass out, and we ate! We ate so much mediocre bar food from the hotel bar that was kind enough to feed us upon our late arrival and that mediocre bar food tasted fantastic! We were so thankful to have food in the hotel at this hour.

The funniest part of all of it was that as soon as I got off my flight to Pittsburgh I went to the restroom and started my period… I swear to God, the road is always the bringer of the blood. So as you can imagine I medicating myself and taking a little self love day today since I have a rehab day before we start picking tomorrow.

I’m excited to be out on the road with Robbie, we always have a good time together. I’m super elated to be with my road family right now. I have not seen any of them in about five months and I have missed them all terribly! I really feel like this is going to be an incredible trip. I know they were going to be uncertainties and frustrations. I have not been back on United States soil in five months so I feel a little out of my element and I’m definitely missing my island life I could not be happier to be here with my road family and feel some sense of normalcy again. Five months without a paycheck has been brutal for all of us, and I even had savings put away but man, I can’t imagine had a not have that to fall back on, like most of the world right now…

and I know everybody desperately needs to get back to work and if we don’t move forward a lot of people are going to be affected so it’s imperative that we keep pushing forward that we keep our road family employed and we keep diversifying our understanding of history and unlearning our covert acts of racism as we go. I’m so proud that my entire crew has embraced The humanity in what is happening in the world right now. I feel safe with these people. I feel confident and secure and I know we can do this.

It’s important to realize that everybody is feeling off kilter and a little scared of some thing right now. We might not all be afraid of the same thing people are feeling a lot of fear right now. I think it’s a really important thing for us to be kind to one another, be helpful to one another, and Understand that everybody is in their feels right now. I’m just thankful. I’m thankful for my life, for my kids, from my partner, from my road family, from my job, for you all, for my opportunities and my privilege, for my friendships and for the fact that I have the physical and mental ability to still do this intense job. This is a big test run for us, we’re gonna see how it goes.

I’m hopeful that everything will work out.

Until tomorrow 💗🦋🌟🤗