Good Night Jess

Why Getting Away For a Night Rocks:

 

1. If you book a night at a nice hotel by yourself, then that nice hotel will employ wonderful people who rush to take your big basket of books from you as you enter the lobby. One of them will hand you a warm lemon-scented hand towel while you check in for the night. Your eyes will well up with tears as you dab the cloth all over your hands because it feels so darn nice.

2. A kind man named Tom from Greece will carry your bags up to your room while you sip on the bottled water he has handed you. Tom will tell you that he is working until eleven tonight and he can get you anything you need. He will hand you five pieces of chocolate. He will get you ice.

3. You can watch Hannah Montana without fear that your husband will walk in and roll his eyes. You can laugh out loud at Hannah doing a crazy “Poison Ivy” dance during an interview and not worry that you are lame for laughing out loud. You can rewind the parts you missed when you were in the bathroom because the hotel has Tivo.

4. You can go to sleep at 9:30 because you are by yourself. No little children will invade your bedroom to tell you about a sibling conflict involving a purple doggie. Your husband is not there to keep you up late. As much as you love him, you don’t love his night-owl tendencies.

5. You can order room service and eat your French onion soup while reading your Whale Watching book. You can dream about your next whale watching trip. You can think about the migration of the Humpback whales. You can feel sad as you read about the history of whaling. You can do all of this because you don’t have internet access and you are pausing to refresh.

6. You can pray about all the things you haven’t taken the time to pray about for the last two horrible weeks. The main takeaway from your prayer time is the gentle voice of the Lord telling you that you MUST make time to pray – even when you are at home. It must be your first priority. You take a breathe as you meditate on this truth.

7. You can sleep in. You can sleep in. You can sleep in.

8. You get to take two really long baths and shave your legs and use fun bath products made in England that leave your skin smelling like ginger and other herbs. Somehow, you don’t smell like a savory chicken. No. You smell great! Your legs look great! You rub body butter over your legs while watching Hannah. She is so fun.

9. You can linger – really linger – over your Bible reading the next morning. You can write out thoughts from Matthew 14 and verses from the Psalms. You can dance around your hotel room to worship music and know that no one will come in because you have put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the outside of your door.

10. You can drink an entire pot of Starbucks coffee brought up to you by the wonderful hotel staff while you are still in your pajamas. You can add fresh cream. You can drink out of the delicate little cup. You can take your time as you pour cup after dainty cup.

Merry Christmas to me! Note to self: remember to have FANTASTIC attitude when passing over Christmas check from in-laws to husband for this night. So worth it. So worth it.