LancesWorld.com Journal

The holidays are meant to be a time of peace, joy and happiness. Of course, they are also frequently accompanied by a lot of stress. It can be hard to get together with family, sometimes, but in the end the goal is to have a good time. Unfortunately, this holiday season has been one possibly the worst in my life.

The worst part is, this was supposed to be one of the best holidays in years. I had plans to see my dad in Denver, my mom in Salt Lake and then to visit my amazing girlfriend Laura at her home in Washington. When I left San Francisco on December 19, I had mixed emotions because I was excited that I was going to get to see so many people, but at the same time, I was heartbroken that I had to leave Laura for 10 days (I was meant to fly up to Washington on December 29).

Side note: This reminds me - in my last entry I made a comment about how Laura was "mostly" supportive of my social endeavors. My friend Adam picked up on this as you will see if you view the comment he left on that entry. I realized when he wrote that, that I may have come off a little too strong, so I made a comment in response about how it was intended primarily as a joke - Laura just works really long hours in her job and wasn't always able to attend things with me, but she was always fully supportive of my undertakings. I couldn't have asked for a more supportive girlfriend. I now highly regret having ever made that entry.

Back to the story - things started to go wrong pretty quickly on the 19th. First, my flight into Salt Lake City was delayed by about an hour. Not a huge deal, but something of an inconvenience. Then the bags took nearly 40 minutes to come off the plane to baggage claim. Very annoying, but not the end of the world. I was to spend only one night in Salt Lake and then leave on an early morning flight to Denver on Wednesday the 20th. For anyone who was trying to travel on the 20th-22nd, you probably heard that Denver was hit by a blizzard starting and ended up shutting down for 2 and a half days. We found out on our way to the airport on Wednesday morning that our flight had been canceled. As it turned out, they had rebooked me on a flight on Friday morning and rebooked my sister on a flight on SUNDAY morning - Christmas Eve Day. We tried everything we could to get the schedule rearranged such that my sister and I could fly together, but too many people were being rebooked so we ended up canceling my sister's ticket altogether and planned on having it be just me going to Denver on Friday. Lo and hehold, though, Friday's flights were canceled, too, and so they tried to book me on a flight on Christmas Day. I was beyond upset about this - that would never work. I was meant to be in Utah for Christmas and then head up to Washington - so it looked like Denver was out.

To top it off, on Wednesday, my sister and I went to the food court at The Gateway Mall in Salt Lake while we were waiting to try and get on an afternoon flight as standby passengers (that flight was canceled). All my sister wanted was an ice cream cone from McDonald's after we ate lunch... she went to get one, paid the cashier and then stood by waiting for her ice cream. Lo and behold, the machine was broken. No ice cream for her. We then headed to a movie theater where we wanted to see the movie "For Your Consideration," the new Christopher Guest film. We were convinced that we would get to the ticket counter to be told that the show had been canceled. Thankfully, that wasn't the case - but my sister wanted popcorn... and that they didn't have. Another problem.

Add to all of this the fact that my grandmother passed away on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (something which I haven't yet mentioned here on the blog), and you've got yourself a pretty stressful holiday in the making. My sister and I were simply beside ourselves with the whole thing. I was so much looking forward to the Washington trip - it was to be a breath of fresh air after all of the stresses here in Utah. But then... Washington got called off. I was extremely sad about this - I was so looking forward to seeing Laura and meeting her family. But, oh well, it is what it is, right. At least I'd be back together with Laura in San Francisco when we both returned in the first week of January.

And now, as they say, for the main event. To be honest, Laura doesn't really like it when I write a lot about her here on the journal, so I've tried my hardest to avoid writing anything personal out of respect for her. But this next bit is almost impossible to say without mentioning her at least somewhat. I was blindsided last night when Laura broke up with me. To be honest, this was a shocking event because I felt like things had been pretty good between us. The holidays are a stressful time, I know, and I won't deny that there were some tensions, but to lead to this - I would never have expected it. Out of respect for Laura, all I will say is this - I'm sorry, Laura, for everything I did to make you feel that this was the best thing for you. I am truly sorry.