So after that exciting encounter we settled in to play Nintendo DS. My day continued on pretty much the same except for being excited for them. And happy they were on a direct flight home and could get home a few hours earlier. And happy they would get to fly somewhere else on vacation when they thought it would be two years before they got another trip. Yes, in general excitement. But quiet excitement.
We boarded our on time flight and had an uneventful flight home. I just remember I couldnt stop pondering we would land soon and then that would be really awful. Im not sure Ive ever wanted to stay on an airplane before. But I kinda didnt want to get off. It was a two hour flight so it was around 2:00 p.m. when we arrived in Ohio.
And then they kicked us off.
You will get off in this freezing, icy place. You will stop seeing palm trees every day. You will go to school and work. Off, off, get off our plane. OK, so they didnt say that but they might as well have. I was digging my fingernails into the carpet as they dragged me up the ramp.
In reality, I got off, grabbed the bags from the overhead compartment (did I mention Donald had Boo and I mostly just played DS and chilled?), and headed out. I grabbed the gate checked stroller and we were off.
Donald went to get the van while I went to the luggage area. I was a bit worried about him as it was really not nice out and we hadnt taken our typical photo of where we were parked. It had been so dark and miserable when we arrived that I had just forgotten. And truth be told, he didnt know where it was. He wandered in the ARCTIC parking lot with two carry-on pieces of luggage. In retrospect, he should have walked to the luggage area with me and just left everything but him there. But no. He had luggage because he was trying very hard to take care of his totally out of it sick & drugged wife.
He said it wasnt THAT big of a deal, but I could tell it had been unpleasant. And the van had been covered in ice so that wasnt fun either. Where is a palm tree when you need one?
The kids waiting:
I, on the other hand, had gotten my luggage quite easily and had set up a little spot by the door to wait. It was right next to the roses machine. I mention this because I was fascinated by it. It is a vending machine with roses in it. I examined them all very closely. Half were almost dead. Some were quite pretty. Pinkish orange. But no man would ever choose those.
Basically it was half dead roses from a vending machine next to the door of the luggage because you couldnt remember to get your wife something nice wherever you just were. Whoever owned that vending machine was an enabler of neglectful dhs and I had nothing but spite for the owner. Thats right. Spite. I also had spite for the guy who looked rather slimy who we had to move for while he bought some half dead roses for his special someone. And yes, I watched his choice. Totally bought the cheapest ones. And not an interesting color either. Just plain old red and dead and cheap.
Anyhow, I was obviously bored to tears waiting for Donald. I even had Ariel in a big discussion about which dead roses she would enjoy getting.
Before long, actually a lot faster than I was expecting, Donald pulled up right next to where we were and threw everything into our van. Our cold van, even cold after being heated up by my lovely dh (who buys me flowers regularly but never from an overpriced vending machine cause he knows I would hate that.)
We piled in. And we started driving. But not without an argument first. The GPS was telling us to go home one way & I wanted to go home another way. I just absolutely knew my way was right. Donald just REALLY wanted to follow the GPS. He was driving. He won.
So I just shut up, which was easy for me. We then stopped to grab a quick bite at Arbys. Except they werent running the deal they were advertising. So after a few questions to figure this out with negative answers and then complaining through the little speaker, we drove away with no food. There was a McDonalds nearby so we just went there. Not as good as Arbys but a lot cheaper. And we were back to cheap world, ya know? The one we live in.
And then we got on the road in earnest as we were pretty sure we were gonna hit some bad weather.
Sure enough, we were in SUPER crappy weather before you could say blizzard. We all went very silent. Suzy called and they were also on the road and had gone the way I wanted to go and didnt have any bad weather at all.
So then I was giving Donald the silent treatment cause I was really irritated at him for dragging us the long way through a blizzard. Unfortunately, he didnt really notice I was giving him the silent treatment since I had already been doing that for 48 hours.
After about an hour things broke a little bit and we were going a bit more normal. We started talking at that point about our great trip and the drive started to go more quickly. All in all, the bad weather delayed us a half hour. Not too bad. But the stress levels made it seem more like 2 hours.
To top it all off, we live on a giant hill and when we got there it hadnt been touched. We really, really, really almost didnt make it up that hill. No joke. Donald was chanting, Come on, come on, come on in increasing amounts of intensity. Mulan started to say something at one point and both Donald and I together said, SHUT UP! Probably scared the poor girl to death. But really, it took us way too long and was way too scary getting up that hill. And I dont think one giant SHUT UP after 10 whole days of being together is too bad.
And then we were home. Our cat was desperate for attention, we were all hungry again, and Donald was literally shaking. He had bore the entire burden of the stress of that day. So thoroughly had he done that, that I have mostly positive feelings of this day. I mostly sat around waiting for him to do things. I hadnt had to carry any luggage, hadnt dealt with Boo, hadnt ran to grab food, or scraped ice off a freezing van, hadnt driven white knuckled in a blizzard. Id just flipped randomly through fluffy magazines and played my DS. Itd been a piece of cake.
And to his even greater vindication, Suzy & Milo called us MUCH later to say that they had been delayed an HOUR by the weather they eventually hit (tho it was still earlier than it would have been on their original flight.) When Donald heard that, I got a stern looking at. A real I told you so look. And I deserved it. For giving him such a hard time and the silent treatment he didnt know I had given him.
After relaxing enough, we went to bed. The next morning we slept in and looked at/organized photos for most of the day. I was sick. And for the first and only day of my illness, I laid around, took my antibiotics and numbing stuff and tried to get healthy. And that was it. The end of our great, 10 day Disney adventure.
Here is the view out my window:
And here is the photo patrol. Boo had to be involved in ALL PHOTO LOOKING AT MOMENTS. No looking at Mickey Mouse without Boo.
But dont be sad. This doesnt have to be the end of your tutorial. Stay tuned while Suzy & I divulge and repeat all our little tips and the things we learned as well as all our favorites.
As a side note to the end of this story, Donald got sick that first week we were back and was desperately ill for 2 whole weeks before going to the Dr. and getting himself antibiotics. For him the cold had turned into a sinus infection. That was one doozy of a cold. And then he had an allergic reaction to the drugs which lasted another 2 weeks.
So that little cold that Jack-Jack had plagued our family for 5 weeks. Some viruses are just soooooo obnoxious that no amount of Echinacea nor Vitamin C is going to help. But as youve seen it didnt really keep us down much and it certainly didnt ruin our great time at all. Being sick at Disney is way better than being healthy at home.
We got off and on again two or three times because there was no line and I knew there would be one later.
I usually stay off of it. But I kind of enjoyed Astro Orbiter. It didn't make me too sick just dizzy.
We're flying home with you guys.
