Bills, babies and hamburger buns

My stomach hurts. I’m going on my first business trip today and I’m a baby. A big baby who is scared to do things like fly and sleep in strange hotels and wear hairnets. I don’t like being uncomfortable, which is what I am certainly going to be on this trip. It’s new, and I like old. It’s change, and I like constants. And, it’s thousands of miles from home, and I like home. Sometimes, it’s funny to remember that I am an adult. I’ve got a real job and real responsibilities and real bills to pay. I have a real husband and a real dog and very real mortgage. And, I have friends with babies. So, no matter how hard I try to pretend – to fling myself back to Columbia where I could hide my head in my studies and friends and college issues – I’m not in college anymore. I am a coffee-drinking, issue-driven adult who has a business trip and I need to be okay with it. It’s short, really. An in and out trip. I’m touring a plant where McDonald’s hamburger buns are made, which is where the hairnet fits in, and then, I’m writing a story about it. I can handle this because I have to make it, I have a baby shower to attend back home on Saturday for yet another of my girlfriends who is pregnant. Thirteen total just this year, no joke. Had to add baby gifts into this year’s budget, which is another reason I need to go on this trip. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. It’s that simple. I leave in three hours. I’ll fill everyone in on how McDonald’s hamburger buns are processed when I get back. Then again, maybe you should just read the story.