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Trees- one of the best analogies for life
and representative of the beauty of this trip:
we grow and struggle;
we are powerful yet dependent,
shaped by our surroundings but enduring still.
(A painting commissioned by a co-worker at Birth Choice)
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8 years. That's how long my family lived in Rhode Island.
The longest I have ever lived anywhere.
10 years. That's how long it's been since I had been to Rhode Island. My family moved from Rhode Island a couple months after my 13th birthday.
13 years + 10 years = 23 years.
I moved when I was 13, 10 years have passed and, now, I'm 23.
Simple math.
But, not so simple years that were enriched and complicated with hormonal adolescence, a couple more moves to the different cultures of the Mid-West (Indiana), West (Colorado), and then two different flavors of the South (South Carolina and Tennessee).
I have lived in Tennessee for the past 5 years- longer than anywhere else in these past 10 years, long enough to call it home- but I still claim New England as my roots.
It was time to go back. 10 years was long enough.
I had the time.
The round trip ticket was about $100 and I could afford it.
Being single, I had no family obligations and was able to call the shots by myself.
Adventure is out there.
I watched the plane ticket prices rise and fall for the month of October...
And took the plunge.
2 round trip tickets:
Leaving on Thursday, December 15th from Nashville to Boston
Returning on Tuesday, December 20th (early morning) from Boston to Nashville
(5 days for a visit to Rhode Island)
Leaving on Tuesday, December 20th (evening) from Memphis to Denver
Returning on Thursday, December 29th from Denver to Memphis
(9 days in Colorado for Christmas with my family)
I had many ideas, but mostly, my plans for my Rhode Island trip were extremely loose.
What was certain:
1) House sitting for my family friends, the Mellos while they were in Indiana for Abby's graduation from nursing school.
2) Picking up their car from the T.F. Green airport in Rhode Island.
3) Taking care of Carol Mello's (I feel like I should still say Mrs. Mello) plants.
4) Picking up the Mellos from T.F. Green airport before the end of my stay.
The rest was yet to be determined.
So, this is what happened:
Thursday, Dec. 15th:
Because I lived almost 3 hours from the Nashville airport and my flight out to Boston was mid-morning, I drove up and spend the night at a dear family's house in Nashville (the Pedens). Mr. Peden graciously dropped me off at the airport on his way to work, sharing some wisdom and encouragement for most of the 20-30 minute drive.
I flew JetBlue from Nashville to Boston, arriving around 3pm.
SIDE NOTE: (I love flying. It's amazing to be defying the fact that we are land-bound by flying thousands of feet at such a great speed with people of all shapes and sizes and styles from all different backgrounds and walks of life. But, my severe and deathly peanut/nut allergy can be stressful on a plane, especially when I haven't flown with the airline before. It's a very small and very close-knit atmosphere, thousands of miles away from any medical aid besides my epi-pen that will only slow and not stop my anaphylactic reaction.)
I made it. Now, what to do? I was still trying to figure out how to get from Boston to the T.F. Green airport where I would pick up the Mello's car. I decided to hop on the bus from the airport to South Station so that I could catch a train to T.F. Green Airport.
South Station was full of brash Boston accents and everyone rushing to their next destination, stopping only as they waited for their train, staring at a large screen of times coming and going.
It was awesome. But, I had to catch the train in 3 minutes!
And, missed it. Thankfully, I was supposed to buy the ticket on the train so I just waited an hour for the next train to Wickford, RI because they would stop by T.F. Green right before turning around at Wickford.
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My train ride from Boston to Rhode Island
(yes, that is a carpet bag and leather hand bag
and yes, I found them at Good Will)
I chatted with the conductor, who was from New York: he made sure I got off at the right spot around 5:30pm and we argued about whether Moe's or Chipotle was better. (He was wrong, of course, Chipotle is always better.) It was great.
So, after much walking and a little searching, I finally found the Mello's car and drove to get some Chipotle and Dunkin' Donuts before heading out to their house. (When in New England, always get some Dunkin'.) When I got to the Mello's, I made sure that I knew the combo to the garage door before stepping out into the brisk weather of 20 degrees. And, the code didn't work. I watched the video Mrs. Mello had sent me a few times, trying different ways to punch in the code. No success.
I called and didn't hear from them. It's been about 30 minutes at this point. I started to think about back up options- well, there's always the car, but I knew that I would need to take care of the plants.
As I am punching in the code again, the next door neighbor drives up and I decide to flag him down.
"HEY. Do you know the Mellos? I am a friend of theirs who is staying with them; did they tell you that I was coming? Their garage door won't open and I can't get ahold of them."
"Uh... No? Yah, I know them. But, no, I didn't know that."
At this point, I realized that this was not one of the neighbors that Mrs. Mello had told me that I should contact in case of an emergency, but then he said, "Do you want to come inside while you wait to hear from them?"
And I say sure, as I assess what to do in case he tried to attack me or hold me hostage and whether or not he would do any of those things. Warmth sounded pretty nice.
"Do you want a beer, some water or something?"
Warmth is just fine, thanks. "No thank you. I appreciate this so much!"
Then, I get a FaceTime call from KR Mello, the oldest of the two girls. Carol pops up looking worriedly between her fingers at me.
After assuring her that I was fine, showing her that I was at her neighbor's house and thanking him profusely some more, I went outside and we tried the code a few times with her walking me through it. No success.
It had frozen.
"Okay, Kaitlyn, I want you to go around and open the back of the porch and climb over the plants. You are going to have to break the glass panel above the door knob to open the door."
What.
"Are you sure, Mrs. Mello?"
"Yes! You need to get inside!"
And, so I walk around and do as she says, opening the door, climbing over the plants.
I look down at the screen of my phone. Blank and black.
NO. My phone died. Dang it.
Okay. Just got to do it. No time to go charge it at the neighbor's and try to explain. Just gonna have to do it.
I look all around the porch for something that wasn't breakable. Finally, I went outside and searched for a rock that was big enough to have some weight but not big enough to break all of the panels of glass on the door.
One, two, three. Doing it. Done.
I did it. Breaking and entering (with the permission of the owners and their permission to post this story) on night one. Check.
I opened up the garage door from the inside as I saw one of the neighbors rushing from down the rode. Okay, that was one of the neighbors that Mrs. Mello was talking about. She told me that Mrs. Mello called and asked her to check and make sure that I was okay, "Did you get inside the house?"
"Yah. Everything's fine! Please tell her that I am fine and that I will call her as soon as possible! Thank you so much!"
She didn't need to know about the whole breaking and entering part. Unnecessary information.
I brought everything inside, charged my phone then called Mrs. Mello back.
"I am so so sorry. I really didn't want to have to do it."
"Kaitlyn, I am just glad that you are inside and that you are safe."
Haha. The Mellos are awesome.
I knew it was going to be a great trip, but what a way to start.
After I taped up the window and swept up the glass, I went to bed. It was 10pm or something. That's enough adventure for the night.
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