It's a memory.

some philosopher once said, 'The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'

if i ever find that dirty bird, i'm popping him one square in the mouth.

before i begin my tale, allow me to wish you all a belated Happy Thanksgiving. hopefully, your day was filled with love and family and lots of full bellies to boot.

i'm coming to you today from my sister-in-law's office-slash-scrapbook room-slash-spare bedroom. cousin Marlen is celebrating her birthday with us here in the States, instead of Ireland, and considering she spent WAY too many hours at the airport, well, it's a miracle she's still got a good attitude.

her flight originally left Ireland Sunday morning around 1pm PST., due to arrive in San Francisco about 12:30pm, then a puddle jumper over the hill to Reno. her layover in San Francisco would be longer than the flight.

truer words never spoken. or written.

fog had rolled in to The City by the Bay. flights were being cancelled left and right and yes, hers was amongst them. the three hour layover stretched into a four, then five, then six hours.

she finally got in to Reno around 10:30 pm Sunday night.
oy indeed.

then came Thanksgiving morning.

B & i were up around 3am, he only having two hours sleep, i with four. and those of you who know me well, also know a)how cranky i am with little sleep much less b) how cranky i am in the a.m.

let me just say, poor planning and the Powers that Be were not working in our favor that morning.

we got to the airport in what would be, on any other day, be plenty of time. what neither of us took into account, even me the self described Most High Princess of Planning, was that IT WAS A FREAKING HOLIDAY!!!! THERE WERE PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT!!! A LOT OF PEOPLE!!!

why? you should've left yesterday! most busy travel day of the year, blah, blah, blah.

um, hello?! do they send the news crews to the airport to report on the insanity of travelling on Thanksgiving day? NO! they're there on Wednesday.

which is when all these people should've been at the airport. not on Thanksgiving. not when the Princess and her Consort are flying!

Mr. Murphy? writer of Murphy's Law? meet Mrs. O'Mahony.

if you've already read Brendan's account of the story, then i won't bore you with the details. let me just tell you this: when we did get into San Jose to change planes, and i saw that the plane we were on stand by for was boarding, i uttered a few profanities, rushed up to the counter and said, 'i have no idea where i am, but i want to go there (frantically gesturing at the sign with the flight number to Reno).'

i am positive i gave the chick behind the counter the best laugh of her day.

i am a firm believer that i am blessed beyond reason. we were blessed beyond all reason yesterday. by all rights, we, due to our poor planning, should never have made it. i was prepared to actually plan on flying to Reno today, when things were a little more calm.

but once again, God is better to us than we deserve, and here we are. only two hours later than i originally planned.

plan. hmmm. perhaps it's a word i need to work on just a bit more.

photos later.

(oh and by the way? we had about six people, including my nephew playing Yahtzee last night. the kids all got bored and left the game so it ended up being just a few of us. and yes, Dean, He Who Would Be the King of Yahtzee, left the game as well. after totalling up all the game cards, the boy STILL would've won. so, as he predicted, i went down in a fiery ball o' Yahtzee flames.)

smarty pants.