Right now, I'm supposed to be snuggling the new grandpuppy in Little Rock. But circumstances conspired against that plan. And by circumstances, I mean, air travel.
This February break was supposed to be a trip to visit all the kids- first stop in Little Rock, then a jog over to Keller, then hop back on a plane to NY. I was really excited about this trip.
We dropped Tucker at day care and headed straight to ITH. After a lovely little TSA pat-down (Why? I have no idea.) we settled in to wait for our flight. We were a little worried about having only a 45 minute layover, but figured, eh, we'll run if we have to.
But then, there was wind.
It was so windy (this is where you say, "How windy was it?") that the plane we were waiting for turned around and went back to Charlotte. Delayed, then delayed, then delayed. Oops. But no worries, the airline booked us automatically on a flight from Charlotte to Little Rock the next morning. We waited on a long line of people trying to figure out what to do, and the very nice ticket agent tried a bunch of options but nothing really worked. So, okay, we wait until the plane comes in, we spend the night in the Charlotte airport, we hop a plane to Dallas at 5 AM, and then change planes in Dallas and head to Little Rock... not the ideal, but still doable.
HA! said the universe.
The flight got cancelled entirely. No more flights out of Ithaca today, folks.
We huddled and debated and considered and at one point even thought about driving to Charlotte to catch the plane at 5 AM but by this point it would be tough to make it in time.
So, we gave up, we picked Tucker back up, and we decided to go to the condo and rebook the Pate Family Tour for April break.
I spent hours (hoooooouuuuuurrrrrrrsssssssss) on the phone trying to get refunds and credits- and at the time of this post, am still waiting for American Airlines to fix things (7 to 10 business days to review your request).
I cried. I'm sad that we can't see the kids. It has been 6 months and I'm really, really unhappy that I have to wait another two months.
Today, we went for a walk on the beach. That helped.
And all of this has really helped to reinforce for me the need to make this move. Once I'm not tied to the school calendar, if they say, "We can rebook your flight for Monday.." I can say, "Okay." I'll have more flexibility. I'll be more in control of my own time and my own plans.
I have appreciated that I was on the school calendar while I was raising kids. But now that they're raised, I want to be on a "me" calendar.
I don't know if this post has a theme. I suppose if there's any theme, it's: Everything in its own time.