The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

Holiday Road Part II

Callie's POV:

Here it was, just a few weeks away from Christmas and I would get stuck attending the mandatory orthopedics conference this time of year. Conveniently, none of my other department attendings were available when I asked for volunteers four months ago, so I decided to attend myself. 

In the end, I figured I could now use this trip to remind the ortho attendings they owed me for doing this so close to Christmas and to remind them what an amazing boss I am. Either way, I planned to use this to my advantage in the coming year if anyone in my department tried to give me a hard time.

Cleveland actually turned out to be a lot warmer than Seattle when I was there. Back home the weather was being effected by Arctic wind gusts. Arizona said while I was gone, they managed to get some snow, but not a lot. Meanwhile it was 72 degrees and sunny in Cleveland. Granted, it was a Winter temperature, but it was still amazing compared to the Seattle snow weather.

The boring conference was mostly going to be about hospital compliance issues, with only one continuing education class being offered. It was going to be a snooze fest, so I wasn't surprised in the least when no one wanted to do it. Heck, I didn't even want to be there, but I tried to make the best of it.

Thankfully we didn't have many lectures to attend and had few lectures scheduled during the afternoons, so I used my free time to explore the city. The conference center and my hotel were right next to the river and was close to lots of shopping, restaurants and a walk along the water. The three days I was in Cleveland, if I wasn't listening to a lecture, I was doing one of the three things I listed.

I was only gone on the trip for a short amount of time, but was ready nonetheless to return back to Seattle and my family. Nothing against the fine city of Cleveland, but I missed my family. It was especially hard not to see Sophia since Sunday and now it was Thursday morning. It gave me bitter reminders of what it felt like when we shared custody of Sophia across the US and I hated absolutely every minute of it.

I had heard from or texted with Arizona periodically during my trip, but I was definitely looking forward to actually seeing her. Our schedules rarely are in sync when we are at home, let alone when one of us travels. So, it was no surprise to me I only got to speak with Arizona two times while I was gone.

Thankfully I was flying in late afternoon on Thursday to the SeaTac airport. I was excited not only to have the rest of the week off with Arizona, but Sophia would also be back home on Friday, early evening. It was going to be a nice family weekend, but I'd be lying if I didn't say how much I was looking forward to having an evening with Arizona.

After what felt like a long couple of flights, I was excited when I finally got off the plane at SeaTac. It took me a while after living in Seattle, but every time I now fly into SeaTac and the flight attendant welcomes the passengers home that live here, I feel like they are saying it directly to me. Even when I lived in New York, landing in Seattle always felt like I was coming home again. Guess my heart knew better back then, what my head didn't seem to.  

As I walked through the airport to meet Arizona, I couldn't help but window shop along my walk through the terminal, which ended up triggering a flashback. In that exact moment, I was quickly taken back to my memory of walking through SeaTac for the very first time. I remember I was just finishing up my intern year in Miami and was excited to be here since Seattle was one of my top ortho residency choices. 

While I was currently gazing at what was probably the same souvenirs I saw during my interview, like t-shirts, tacky mugs, and food items, I also started thinking about how my first views of this airport forever changed my life. It started me thinking about how different my life would be right now without Seattle or Arizona in it.