Back to Reality (and My Sewing Machine)

My husband and I got home last Tuesday after a very full, very satisfying vacation. We covered a ton of figurative and literal ground in our ten days on Prince Edward Island: quality time with family on both his side and mine; visits to beaches, towns, and what pass, in that tiny province, as cities; the obligatory tourist stuff such as the Green Gables House (had green gables and thus lived up to its name) and the Canadian Potato Museum (had potatoes in coffins and thus surpassed my high expectations for it); and lots of good food (oysters, lobsters, ice cream, Acadian delicacies … my culinary adventures deserve a post of their own, so I’ll refrain from elaborating for now).

There were, of course, a few challenges, but these were minimal. Although flying as a wheelchair user isn’t ever fantastic, it’s been getting easier and easier, a trend that continued with this trip. We dodged a travel-related bullet by booking our flights with Porter, not Air Canada, whose flight attendants went on strike while we were away. There was a historic heat wave that slowed us down but didn’t hold us back. What I was most concerned about in the week leading up to our departure was how I’d cope with being separated from my usual power chair and from my sewing machine since I rely on them so heavily in my day-to-day life, but this ended up being less of a deal than I’d feared. On the mobility front, my travel chair did its job, albeit not a fantastic one, and I was able to manage where it couldn’t thanks to my increasing physical capabilities. To fill the crafting gap, I had a make-do embroidery project.

That said, I was beginning to feel it by the halfway mark and was really feeling it by the last weekend. I did my best to stay focused on the fact that I was able to do and experience way more than I’d anticipated I would, but the things I couldn’t—the top two being get around independently and “productively distract,” as I put it, by means of sewing—were wearing me down. We left at exactly the right time: when we could’ve stayed a bit longer but were getting eager to return to normality and, in my case, to my emotional-support devices.

On the plane, I planned my next five projects and fantasized about where I’d go on my first solo outing upon our arrival in Toronto (the library, in case you were wondering). Despite a slow start due to a “welcome home” migraine that lasted until Friday, I’ve added a good ten kilometres to my chair’s odometer and clocked at least fifteen hours in front of my machine.

How nice it is to have a life I’m content to resume and plenty of upcoming travel to look forward to. Still, I already miss the people, the landscape, the seafood, the proximity to a culture I’m proud to call mine. Until we go back (next summer, I hope!), I’ll do what I can to maintain and strengthen my connection to PEI, whether by researching potato blight, attempting to bake Acadian molasses cookies, or eating through the many cans of lobster paste I bought there. And when that doesn’t work, I’ll productively distract at my sewing table.