In the Middle of the Night...

...in a hotel room in a strange city...

Sounds like the beginning of a bad B movie don't it?  LOL

Let me back up a bit... back to two weeks ago when I left Texas to return home.

The first day of my return trip went fairly well.  I packed up quickly and the dogs were more than happy to jump up and settle down in the car.  Although it was sunny, it was also cold and windy.  By the end of the day (550 miles and 9 1/2 hours) my arms hurt from holding onto the steering wheel all day - especially since I had tripped over one of the dogs 2 nights before.  I was soooo looking forward to going to bed that night.

So there I was... in the middle of the night... in a hotel room... when I woke up... with a pain that went right through me from between my shoulder blades!

Great!  Well - that wasn't actually the word I thought... as I lay in the dark... in the middle of the night... in a hotel room in a strange city... just me and two dogs...

Wondering if it was really a heart attack or just muscle spasms from pulling, jamming, twisting my arms in the door way as I tried to not squash the dog the other night. 

As I lay there... waiting to see if I was actually going to die... I wondered...

How long would I lay there before someone would brave the barking dogs and come in to find out why I hadn't left?

If I called 911 would I be able to give them enough information about the dogs and their medicines so that who ever took care of them wouldn't make them sicker until The Engineer came to pick them up?

In the few 'logical brain cells' I had operating at 2:30 AM... I knew it was just muscle spasms.  But there were not enough 'logical brain cells' awake to veto all the other 'what if brain cells' that were running amok and going through every possible scenario imaginable... and a few more... (I've got lots of 'what if' brain cells) 

Then I had a hot flash... which I knew was a hot flash... but 'what if' it wasn't... LOL

So at 5:00 AM when it was apparent I wasn't going to die or sleep I got up and got my shower.  I knew then that it was truly a muscle spasm because it hurt to raise my arms to wash my hair.

So I dressed and feed the dogs - who were a little confused at having to get up so early.  I had a quick breakfast courtesy of the hotel, threw my stuff in the car and got on the road.

Next time I travel... I'm packing more 'logical brain cells' for the trip!