Thank You, Erma Bombeck (and Katie, too!)

It was going to be a great Saturday for me to work in the yard, do some landscaping and catch up on some projects around the house. You see, the previous weekend had been the wedding of our son, Peter, and his lovely bride, Kristen, and a lot of things just had to wait until that wonderful event was over. Also, my fantastic wife, Ellen, was out-of-town sight-seeing in Arizona with our friend, Karin (from Denmark; here for the wedding). It would just be Nathan and me at home. We could get a lot done. I could get some much needed exercise and maybe sweat off some of the unwanted weight that had shown up on the scale recently. It was going to be perfect!

Then my incredible daughter, Katie, e-mailed Nathan, Andy and me and asked us to be spontaneous. "Since everyone else in the family is out-of-town, how about if the rest of of us do something crazy fun out-of-town, too?" You see, Peter and Kristen were still on their honeymoon, Andy's wonderful girlfriend, Annie, was in New York City conducting a tour.

At first my gut reaction was "I have yard work to do. You guys go on ahead without me and have fun." Then, the voice of Erma Bombeck spoke to me and said, "Really? Are you sure that's the response you really want to give to your precious daughter?"

By now, some of you reading this are asking, "Who in the world is Erma Bombeck?" Erma Bombeck was an American humorist who wrote a syndicated newspaper column from the mid 60's to the mid 90's. Unfortunately, she contracted a kidney disease in 1996 and died following an unsuccessful kidney transplant. But, one of the famous writings she penned after learning that she was sick was "If I Had My Life To Live Over." In this piece (which you can find on Google, by the way), she voices some of the things that probably all of us have done at one time or another, but maybe lived to regret? She closed with this:

"But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back."

Well, that's why I want to thank Erma Bombeck! Because yesterday I think I seized every minute, looked at it, really saw it, lived it, and I'm never giving it back! Thank you, Katie! Thank you, Southwest Airlines! Thank you, Andy! Thank you, Nathan! And thank you, Phoebe, for meeting us in St. Louis!

It was CRAZY from the beginning! The four of us met at 8 a.m. at Andy's apartment. We then drove to Love Field (where Katie works and has fantastic "privileges" as a Southwest Airlines employee for non-rev travel), parked the car, and caught a direct flight to St. Louis. Now I travel for a living (not really, but there are times when it seems like it!). It was so weird for me to not have anything but a newspaper with me on the flight! No briefcase, no laptop, no concerns about the meeting I was about to attend, etc. Yes!

When we landed in St. Louis, we bought day passes on their Metro Rail and embarked on our St. Louis adventure. First stop? My old stomping grounds - University City, Missouri! Yes! When I graduated from college, this is where I lived and worked. We went to one of the places I remembered from the late 70's for lunch - Blueberry Hill - and my niece, Phoebe, met us there! Yes! Did I tell you that we were all wearing matching t-shirts (Andy's idea, sort of) - the Ellwood Pancake Breakfast ones we had printed last year for our 30th annual New Year's Day feed? Phoebe got one, too. It was great!

After lunch we walked a mile or so to the next train stop and just missed that train heading to the St. Louis Arch. Oh well. Another one was coming in 15-20 minutes. But, that meant that our tickets to the 1:30 p.m. boat cruise would be compromised. Rats! So, thanks again to my resourceful daughter, Katie, we called and got the tickets changed to the 3:00 p.m. cruise on the Tom Sawyer instead. Yes!

When we got to the Arch, there were over 200 people there having a pillow fight! Ha. It was CRAZY! We went to the river, the 1840's cathedral there, and just lounged around awhile enjoying the sweetness of the moment under the Arch. Then we got on the boat and took a one-hour cruise on the Mississippi. I got really sunburned! I loved every minute of it.

Did I tell you that our flight back was at 4:40 p.m. and we didn't step off the boat until 4 o'clock? Not to worry. Once again, my sweet daughter, Katie, got on her cell phone and determined that we could probably go stand-by on the 5:15 flight. We were still about 45 minutes from the airport.

After a great train ride with a stop to part ways with Phoebe and say good-bye, after which she called out, "See you next weekend?" (since she had been to Texas the weekend before for the wedding!), we headed for the airport.

Now, I mean to tell you, I have made mad dashes to catch planes in my lifetime, but none quite as CRAZY as this one. We stepped off the train at 5 o'clock and RAN!!! We made the 5:15 flight by continuing to run and by not putting our shoes on after going through Security, and were taxi-ing out to the runway at 5:13 p.m. Yes!

Is that crazy or what? Did we have a great time? You bet. Did it cost me a Saturday working in the yard and around the house? Yeah. Was it worth it? Heck, yeah!

Thank You, Erma Bombeck (and Katie, too!). I am so grateful to God for spontaneity and fun with family! If I had my life to live over, I'd do it all again. You can do yardwork, exercise, lose weight, and things around the house anytime. But, a CRAZY trip to St. Louis for the day may only come along once in your life...