What a girl wants

What a whirlwind of a trip to Utah these past two weeks! Emma and I did so many fun and special things (see list in previous post) that it was hard to leave. I wanted to focus this post on how lucky I am to have good family and good friends, especially my mom. I had an early morning yesterday (Friday) and knew that I would be driving back to Los Angeles with Emma. Emma did not sleep well the night before, so she slept with me most of the night when we got home that evening. I was ok with this because I had not seen her much that day and I missed her. However, I had to get up at 6 a.m. and knew that if she was still in bed with me when I got up, it would wake her. So I finally placed her in her bed at 2 a.m., which she did not like, but fell asleep after 5 minutes. I actually started driving at 11 a.m. yesterday. I was really fatigued, but knew that I had to get back to Los Angeles safely. So I drank a lot of Coke, but it wasn't really kicking in. My gram, mom, and dad called a few times to see how I was doing, and I said I was tired, but that I would be fine. At about 2 p.m., I got a call from Gram, telling me that my mom would meet me at the airport in Las Vegas to drive the rest of the way. I said that she didn't have to do that, but was secretly relieved. Emma and I stopped in St. George to see some good friends who took us to Cold Stone's (yum!) and Ems ran around with Tara's kids for a while, then we starting driving about an hour later. Once I met my mom in Vegas at about 5 p.m., I asked her to drive and almost fell asleep instantly. However, I must admit that we did stop at the outlets at state line for about 45 minutes. (I did find some pants at the Lucky store for $6.99....I am a bargain shopper....haha....was still tired though) I fell asleep once we we got back in the car. Fortunately, Emma was almost asleep at this point and if she had been crying, I don't think I would have had the energy to help her. I woke up when we were on the 210 passing Santa Anita and the song, "What a girl wants" (Christina Aguilera) came on the radio. I used to really like this song, and I contemplated it for a few minutes. I'm aware that she is singing about a boy, but I thought about other people that this song could refer to. (Sorry for using a preposition at the end of a sentence - that drives me nuts and I just did it). I have written some of the lyrics below. I thought about how we - girls - want so many different things in life, but some of the things that we take for granted in life aren't usually thought through as wants, ie our family. Usually our families, whether parents, siblings, relatives - are there for us at many points in our lives, so we tend to take them for granted, or at least I do - so I do not tend to view them as a want. But as I was listening to the lyrics, "what a girls wants, what a girls needs, I'm thankin you for being there for me," I thought about the people who have always been there for me: my family, good friends, and people who really care. Yes - we have probably all had rough times with our families, but they are still there when we need them. Why is it that we want and need our families so much, but don't think about it all the time? I have decided that it's the consistency with them. They are there with us through thick and thin. We can always come back to them when other people come and go in our lives. It's the same with good friends and others who really care about us - they are consistent in the way they treat us and care for us. We want them in our lives, but more than anything, we need them in our lives.

Thanks, Mom - for driving the last 5 hours. I don't know if I would have made it....

What a girl wants, what a girl needs
I'm thankin you for knowing exactly
What a girl wants, what a girl needs,
Whatever keeps me in your arms
You're ready and willing to give me
What a girl wants, what a girl needs
You let a girl know how much you care
About her - you're the one who always knew
I'm thankin you for being there for me...