Nov 23, 2007

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.

10 comments:

doodlebugmom said...

Glad to have you back!

And I am never flying! :o)

Anonymous said...

Flying sucks. I'm sorry that things didn't go as planned. Pisser!

Jaq

Pumpkin Ceeds said...

Yatzee rules!

Hi Val!

Susie Q said...

I have so missed you sweetie!! I have one or 10 of those travel stories and they are only funny after you have many months between you and when you tell the story! The it gets hilarious! *smile*

But the point is you GOT There and had a great holiday. I will have to run over to see Brendan's account! But your story WAS funny. Even without the many months between you and it!!

Love ya,
Sue

Melissa said...

I've never flown on Thanksgiving, but I have flown on Christmas Eve. Probably not much different! I'm glad to hear that you all made it there safely in spite of the problems.

And, no Yatzee on our trip, but there was a game of Scrabble at which I came in fourth. Out of five people. Beaten by, of all people, my mother-in-law.

Oh, the irony.

Steff said...

Sorry that your airport adventure turned into a misadventure! Hope the holiday made it worth it though! :)

Steff said...

Damn...I hate this word verfication thing. GRRRR

Sorry your airport adventure turned into such a misadventure. Hope the holiday was great for you! :)

Steff said...

Wow...would you look at that. The one I thought got eaten got there anyway. If you want to delete the curse word one and this one I'm okay with that!

Anonymous said...

Sure makes me glad that I was able to stay here in Las Vegas. All over Las Vegas but I stayed here.

Sophie said...

Welcome to our fair city...Reno...sigh...your travel story was hilarious...and who knew people traveled on holidays???