ME AND COREY

As Corey and I like to do now and again, we spent a good hour or more at last Friday’s visit talking about a trip abroad in the years following his release in a few years time. Of course there will first be Half-Way-House time, getting a job, returning to school (with luck he hopes to attend the University of Washington in Seattle) to complete a Bachelors Degree, and then, a few years after release, with these things accomplished, he harbors hopes/dreams of a gift to himself of a few months overseas. A trip where he could be free of the business of getting down to business, the business of making a living once again and taking on the responsibilities that come with all that. Who knows if the plans will ever bear fruit, but what fun we have, painting pictures with the colors of his dreams (don't ask me where THAT came from, it just popped into my head and made sense to me at the time LOL!)

As we often do (you see we’ve been working on the plans for this trip for some time, time being the one thing we have plenty of) we spent lots of time drawing maps, outlining a "general plan", which cities, which routes, where to stay, just everything you can imagine, in great detail…we laugh a lot, or we get very serious, its almost like being children planning what we’re going to do or be when we grow up LOL

Corey has been to Europe and has a pretty good idea of where he wants to start this particular journey, where he wants to make his central hub if you will, a small apartment perhaps in Prague, central to most everywhere he intends to journey and explore. With luck (and the grace of God) Rod and I will meet up with him at some point, as will his brother from Oregon (whose wife and children just may have different ideas regarding his taking off for a few weeks, LOL) and we’ll have just a short period of super quality family time, making a memory that will last our lifetimes. These plans we plan, Corey and I, sometimes Dad and Corey, over and over, over the years, are fun, sometimes silly, but with them comes laughter and dreams…and the hours pass.

We also spend our time planning remodel jobs of properties owned, small business ideas, we talk about movies, current events, share stories about whats been going on “inside” for him, and “outside” for me, the past week …and the hours all too quickly pass.

Its always a surprise to check the big clock on the wall and see it is time for me to leave. But its always with a smile, a hug, knowing all's as well as well can be, for now, in these prison years.

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage. ~Regina Nadelson