The renewed vow

The last time I traveled alone with a co-worker after Congress was in 2004 after Fukuoka, Japan when I went to Tokyo with Jessica since Jim wasn’t meeting me. Jessica, (who is from Nicaragua) and I spent 3 days in Tokyo and I told Jim when I got home that in the future if he wasn’t going to meet up with me, I would be coming straight home after Congress. You really learn a lot about a person when you spend a few days of 24-hour-straight-time with them. I learned that Jessica was very spoiled and decided I didn’t like her that much. Before the alone time, we were semi-friends but we didn’t really hang out outside of work Besides her being 20 years younger than me, our backgrounds and upbringings are quite different. We didn’t fight or anything but I did have to bite my tongue quite a bit. After all, we did have to go back to the reality of work at JCI together when we got home.
Since then, Jim & I have traveled with some of my co-workers, but we were together in our own hotel rooms which enabled me to escape and be alone with him. Well, although I didn’t forget my vow, I did it again. The lure of seeing historical sites in foreign countries got the best of me. Congress ended and I traveled with Earl, a man from my office and his wife, Mary. Originally, there were supposed to be a bunch of us taking a post-Congress tour for five days. We were going to travel in a private van or mini-bus with an English-speaking guide to see Ephesus which is where the Virgin Mary lived out her life after the crucifixion of Jesus, Pamukkale which is an area with limestone deposits that look like a bunch of waterfalls and some other sites before ending in Istanbul to see the Hagia Sophia which was a Byzantine church turned into a mosque by the Ottomans dating back to the 5th century BC and the Grand Bazaar, among a few other things. Well, the trip was planned, people backed out and then the situation in Turkey got a little bumpy with the USA. Needless to say, that side trip was cancelled.
Earl suggested we go to Istanbul for a couple of days and then to Athens for a couple more. There was going to be me and another girl from the office along with him and his wife but the other girl ended up backing out so I was the third wheel. So now you have a little background information.
Earl and I get along real well at the office and are sort of confidants. I like his wife, Mary real well, too. We left Antalya Sunday the 11th and flew to Istanbul, arriving at our hotel in the early evening. We took the suggestion of the hotel manager where we stayed and went to a dinner-show at The Orient House. It was pretty neat with a whirling dervish, belly dancers, singers and other weird stuff I’ve never seen. We got back to our room a little after midnight. Yes, we shared a triple room (I was trying to go cheap, Barb!). Well, we were getting ready for bed when I noticed a contraption Earl was plugging in. Lo & behold, a breathing machine! It seems he has sleep apnea. Unfortunately, I have sleep menopausea! I haven’t been able to sleep a full night straight through in months! Although he assured me that it wasn’t loud, it totally made my already torturous sleep even worse. Not only that, but I was also unfortunate enough to hear the unmistakable sound of flatulence during my perpetual sleeplessness. I would say the only good thing about the face mask he had to wear was that he couldn’t snore with it on but his wife made up for that. So, I had a horrible week of sleep. I was actually looking forward to the flight back to St. Louis if you can believe that. I awoke at 4:30 AM and started from Istanbul to London to Chicago and I arrived Lambert at 6:15 PM. I usually can’t sleep on planes no matter how long the flight is but I figured as sleep-deprived as I was, I’d take my little “helpers” and zonk out. I decided to wait until the longest leg of the flight from London to Chicago which was 8 hours before taking my cheaters. I didn’t realize I had a seat smack-dab in front of the toilet….
So, I'm renewing my vow to Jim.