Lady of Leisure

For the second time in less than  week, last night the MomQueenBee bags were packed and ready to go. (If you think this is a lot of luggage, don't worry: It's for a two-night trip. As I stacked bags in front of the door I recalled that I once met a two-bag limit when I packed for a multi-year Peace Corps commitment. Who was that girl?)

This stack represents, as much as anything, the new QueenBee lifestyle. Husband has a continuing education seminar out of town today. "Why don't you come along?" he said a few days ago. "Take a couple of vacation days and you can sit in the hotel room and knit and read and order room service and pedicures."

Okay, so those last two things I added but the gist was the same: TWO DAYS of self-indulgence. I was packing before he finished the invitation. It summed up a new phase in our lives that isn't predicated on the care and feeding of offspring.

We arrived at the hotel last night, and once again I marveled at how the times, they are a'changin'.

In the olden days, when we were living on one college professor's salary and the Boys outgrew their shoes roughly every two weeks, hotels were chosen on two criteria: Price, and how much they cost. Oh, I paid lip service to such luxuries as cleanliness and enough towels for six people, but really, as I sat in the car at the end of a long day of travel, four yelping wolf cubs strapped into the seats behind me, all I wanted was for Husband to come out of the registration area with keys in his hand. This led to some truly memorable hotel stays. (I'm looking at you, Knight's Inn in Waco, Texas, and at you, hotel in Lakin, Kansas, whose name I have managed to purge from my memory but whose bathroom remains in my nightmares.)

Last night as we drove toward our destination, I asked Husband how much he had spent on this getaway hotel.

"$55."

Folks, as I've mentioned before, Husband is a Priceline genius! For the price of a Knight's Inn, we have a room that is enormous, with a sweet little sitting area and a couch and easy chair and free wi-fi.

The bed is king-sized, something we didn't even consider when our travel modus operandi was two queen beds and two sleeping bags on the floor. (A king bed may not seem like such a luxury to most people, but some people sleep like slabs of beef, waking in the same position they dropped the night before. I married one of those people. I, myself, am a rotisserie chicken--left side, stomach, right side, back, left side, etc., etc. It can be...disturbing, shall we say, to the slab of beef.)
 
I would go on about the ways I love this room, but I can do no more to describe its awesomeness than to say that when Husband opened the window at 3 a.m. because it was a little stuffy, the fresh air that wafted in smelled like sausage! There are no words.

And now, please excuse me. I think I'll take a nap.