6

Within one week I had gone from Chicago to Seattle to Minneapolis to Orlando to Tampa to St. Petersburg and the final leg had come. The day after the wedding we were to get on another plane and head back. I desperately did not want to leave. We had a few hours to enjoy the sunshine outside and it was never going to be enough.

I must face the facts: I am a warm weather person. I cannot live where there is no sunshine or where there are blizzards. My destiny in a warm climate awaits me and everywhere else isn't going to cut it.

Luckily the groom drove us all the way to the airport and probably saved us a ton of money. I complained that I didn't want to leave! He said that he had offered to help me settle there in Tampa many years ago, and I declined. It was true; I don't see myself in Florida, especially since the allergies were horrendous. But the sun! The sun! The warmth on my skin!

After an incredibly long journey back across the country, I wasn't well. Exhaustion took over my entire being. I don't remember much of anything after we boarded that plane in Houston. Our plane landed too late and we couldn't get the train, but to my surprise a friend came to pick us up. I thought I had dreamed it. On the way home, I kept thinking about the sandals I wore earlier in the day and never being in need of a jacket the whole weekend. I laid in the back of the car watching the rain on the windshield and wondered if I really wore a backless halter dress that morning. Was I just in a wedding the night before? Did I walk outside in a strapless dress without even a sweater? Was it all a dream? What am I going to do tomorrow?