The Trip from Hell.....

The worst vacation I ever had was to Jamaica. It wasn't because of the place, mind you, it was because of my traveling partner.

It was at the very tail end of my marriage to my second ex, and I knew the marriage was destined to fail. Why I agreed to go on that trip is beyond me, and why I subjected Sweet Girl to it is even more of a mystery. I don't know if I went because I had some misguided notion that it might save the relationship (fat chance) or if it was because in 9 years of marriage he had never taken us ANYWHERE, and I felt like he owed it to us (more likely).

Either way, it was a disaster.

First of all, the timing was awful. I didn't realize when we booked the trip that we would be flying out of the Atlanta airport the day after the Olympics ended. You know, the ones in Atlanta? What a nightmare. We were advised to get to the airport at least three hours in advance of our flight, which we did, only the Air Jamaica counter didn't actually open for two hours after we got there. I was kind of wishing I still smoked; at least it would have given me something to do.

I won't go into all the horrid details, mainly because I've tried to block them out. This is one of those times it would be nice to have a "delete" key in my brain. Suffice it to say that the ex did not play well with others, and a month later I would come home to find the front door of our house shot up with a shotgun, and I never spent another night in that house. The film from that trip wasn't developed for a couple of years, by which time I had married Hubby. I shoved the package of pictures away, only saving the ones of Sweet Girl and the rare one of me. I found the stack of pictures one day, and Sweet Girl had cut or torn the ex out of every single picture he appeared in. (Keep in mind that he was NOT her father.) I thought that was so funny, how much trouble she went to to tear him out of the pictures.

If only it were legal in real life.

Hubby and I have talked about going to Jamaica. I'd like to give the island another chance, since it wasn't its fault that I had a miserable time. Maybe we should take Sweet Girl, too. She didn't get much of a vacation that time around.