We got up early this morning... Drew was dropped off at his Mimi's house and I headed to the Hwy 114 traffic with Josh enroute to the airport. It was raining, yes, nothing earth shattering, just a steady, slow, constant rain.
We get to the gate parking area and are unable to find a parking place ANYWHERE! So, I resort to 1 hour parking and away we go. The wait at the ticket agent counter is only two people and I get the woman that loves to use "honey" "sweetie" and "love" freely. I think those are just endearing coming from someone that is old enough to be my grandmother's age but coming from someone that's maybe got 8, possibly 10 years on me, it's maddening. I know being from the South, I should be used to that with that "good 'ole Southern hospitality" but coming from someone with an accent like she's from Boston or New York, it was just... ackward. I don't like it. I was at a restaurant once and the waitress couldn't have been over 17 years old and she kept doing that crap and she came over (after we had our food, mind you) and I finally said, "I'm a good tipper. If you want a good tip, please just call me April or ma'am because the only one that gets to call me "honey" or "sugar" is the person that put this ring around my finger." She laughed it off at the time but I'm sure I was called a few choice words when she walked away. Do I care? No. I just think it's disrespectful and just... oogey! I ain't your HONEY! Dig?! Kapeesh?!
So, anyway, I digress. Back to the story.
We get to the counter, get his ticket, my pass to escort him to his gate... wait in line at security (short line for spring break, I was very surprised). We walk to the departure gate and go to the counter to check him in with the agent. On a typical day, they take his paperwork, keep it at the front and then he's escorted on the plane first. I sit at the gate watching the plane and then continue to check in with the agent until he has confirmed that the plane has left the runway and is in the air. That is the only time I ever leave the airport. This agent asks if I mind if he boards Josh last and then says, 'just a minute' and starts boarding the plane. About 20 people get on board and then he takes a phone call. They shut the ramp down and discontinue boarding - something with the canopy. (don't ask me, I don't speak plane). I realize this may turn into something... and I recall I'm parked in the one hour space so I leave Josh standing under the supervision of the agent and I ran out to move my car. It was POURING rain by this time (lucky me, no umbrella). I move from one 1-hour spot to another because I didn't want to have to take too long to find a place and get back to him should they start boarding. But basically, the rest of the people in line had to go back and sit down... I come back in drenched and he tells me "just a moment" again so we're still sitting at the counter. The flight that is at the gate on the other side of the counter has now been cancelled. Those passengers line up to be rescheduled and we're still waiting at the counter. They call... reopen the ramp... he starts boarding. All but 3 people, and Josh are on board... and then he gets a call. They have cancelled his flight too. Since we're at the counter, he immediately books us on the next flight that leaves at 1:00 p.m. so we head to the car to move it to a real parking space and then we head to TGI Friday's to eat.
10:30 a.m. we're having lunch at TGI Friday's. :) Josh had his first Mountain Dew.
We finish up and head to the bookstore where I purchase him a couple of teenie magazines b/c they have Jonas Brothers pictures on the front (his new favorite band), some Mentos and me some Rolos and a pack of gum for the flight.
Then we head to the gate. We're there about 20 minutes and get notification of a gate change. We head to the new gate. There is a HUGE line waiting at the ticket counter so we just take our place on the floor along the wall b/c all the chairs are occupied. Phone rings -- this flight is cancelled too. Once the line is down to about 5 people, we get in line to see about rescheduling. The soonest they can get him on is at 7:10 tonight. We decide to go pick up Drew and head for home. It's now 1:30 p.m. I get Drew, get him home and in bed. At 5:30 p.m., AA flight status calls me, his 7:10 flight has been cancelled as well. By the time I could get in on their 800 number, the soonest he can leave is now Thursday morning... :(
I was looking forward to scrapping. I feel kinda crappy having no plans now for Wednesday -- I think it's going to be an Incredible Pizza Company kind of night, wasting Tuesday at the airport and really crappy weather (they had over 1,000 flights cancelled so we at least were lucky enough to have a comfortable home to go back to and not be sleeping on the floor or a cot at the airport, stranded.. no thanks! My friend, Jim, works for AA... he said at last count they had over 40K checked bags that were piling up due to cancelled flights. I called to find out what I'm supposed to do about Josh's bag...??? I guess we're going to have to get there really early to find out where the hell the bag actually IS.
OH well :) At least it's one more day with my boy -- not that I'm feeling 100% yet and Drew still has a really bad runny nose and cough. Drew and I just keep getting one another sick I think. Crazy thing is that he won't even give me kisses so I have no clue how we're spreading germs. hmm...
