We rose early and had our final breakfast with Mom & Dad. And before we all knew it, our time was up and we headed in separate directions. Mom and Dad home to Canada, EQ & I off to spend the night in Miami.
At least that was the plan. Until we realized that finding a hotel might be a bit more challenging that we had expected it to be. What we thought would be an easy last minute find, turned out to be an Orange Bowl headache. We actually spent the rest of the morning looking for a hotel room. We stayed on the ship for as long as we could, but that wasn't long enough to search out a hotel room. Miami was sold out of hotel rooms and those left available were outrageously priced.
And so, we had to be flexible. We looked into changing our flight to fly out today. That turned out to be as expensive as the remaining hotel rooms in the city. It's a busy time of year for travellers. Strike one.
We thought we struck lucky when we booked a 5-star hotel on one of those discount sites. Then the first email from the broker site informed us that we would have to wait 24-hours for an actual reservation code. Well. That was helpful. An hour plus later and a phone call to the broker and hotel booked reveals that there is no availability. The hotel is overbooked. Strike two.
EQ complained that travelling with me wasn't the same as travelling without me. Well duh, I suppose it isn't, but I'm no fancy princess. I can roll with it. I actually figured we might end up sleeping at the airport at this point!
Then I started looking a little deeper into the folds of possibilities. Motels. Honestly, they are really a hit or miss thing. Sometimes I've been lucky and found a gem. Other times it was a complete dive. Unfortunately (or in our case fortunately!) not all of them are online with websites and/or listed on the big broker sites which means they don't get the traffic of the bigger hotels. I figured it was worth calling a few.
And so we did. After a lot of apologetic conversations about being booked for the past two months due to the Orange Bowl, we struck gold with a motel very close to little Havana.
It was a stressful morning and afternoon as we fought through the piles (and piles!) of non-available conversations. Arriving at the motel was a relief. EQ called it a "hooker-hotel". It really wasn't too far off that, but at least it was clean and close to the airport. From my perspective it was quaint, and obviously not a high class place. It was also outrageously priced for what they offered, but it under the circumstances, it was a room and a bed for the night. It would certainly do the trick.
And then it rained. It poured actually. I spent the afternoon in this hooker hotel catching up on emails as EQ took a calming bath. It was good to catch up and reconnect with my world back home. It was strange to be disconnected for a week.
And then it was time for our dinner date with EQ's business partner; he offered to take us out for dinner. It was my first time meeting EQ's business partner. What an incredible soul! Not that I'm surprised, knowing that EQ respects and trusts him without falter.
Phew - all this to bring you around to today's moment. It felt necessary to share the high stress of today because today's moment presented the exact opposite of the rest of the day. The moment happened when EQ & I were on our way to dinner with his business partner who lives in the area. I sat in the back seat of the car so that EQ and his partner could catch up - it's been months since they last saw one another. It allowed me to be more focused on the surroundings flying past as I partially listened to their conversation.
The rains had stopped and the clouds had parted. It was dusk as we drove into little Havana to the well known Cuban restaurant for dinner. And there they were:
Tons and tons of black birds sitting on the wires above the street happily chirping and enjoying the last of the day, fresh from the rain. I enjoyed their song for the fleeting moment that I was beneath them.
I smiled and enjoyed this passing moment. As we drove on, I reflected back over our stressful day and how we conquered it. (maybe not in style, but we conquered none-the-less!) Now with the rain behind us, we were out celebrating with a delightful tour of the area and were about to feed ourselves with delightful local Cuban flavours. I found myself greatly enjoying those last moments of our day, much like those black birds sitting and singing high above the street.
Given our roller coaster day, I was reminded that storms will come and go and when they do pass, life around dries and the birds come to sing once again. Much like life. Storms in life will pass and when they do and things settle down, those around you sing once again. My heart was singing once again.
I love when that happens.
Moments pushing through the stressful moments of life.
Moments celebrating the song around you.
