The Departure...***Part 2***

Melora

Disney Dreaming
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Jun 26, 2003
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The Departure

The morning of our departure dawned pink and soft, with clouds wisping gently in the eastern sky. Ahhhhhhhh such tranquility…. Well outside anyway. Inside people were moving in every direction. Luggage was piling up, complete with piles of clothes laid on the floor in hopes of someone (me) finding room for these last minute items. Food was flying in all directions… bagels popping out of the toaster, empty cartons of orange juice sailing into the garbage. There was a 3 year old in the midst, naked from the waist down requesting chocolate milk and a visit to the potty. There was an 8 year old standing outside on the lawn playing “look for the limo“. I finally yanked him back inside so the neighbors didn’t call the police. (or worse yet the HOA). Most people on our block are older folks who I’m sure don’t take kindly at hearing “Its not here yet” bellowed every 3 minutes at 7 AM.

As I was stuffing clothes into the suitcases the grandparents were engaged in “conversation”.

“Did you take your pills?”
“You didn’t give them to me”
“Yes I did, I put them next to your dish”
“No you didn’t, I would have seen them”
“What do mean? You never see them, you probably just left them there like always and the baby ate them”
“Oh the baby didn’t eat them, they taste terrible, babies don’t eat anything that tastes terrible”
“How can you say that, you remember the neighbors baby? She ate cat food, now that cant taste any good, but she ate it anyway.”
“What does cat food have to do with my pills?”
“YOU were the one talking about cat food”
“I never said anything about cat food, we were talking about my pills.”
“Your pills? Did you take them?”
“You never give them to me…”

It was about this time I noticed the 3 year old was now completely naked. Now see I am the ONLY one who notices this kind of thing. The limo could arrive, we could pile in, ride to the airport, get out, board the plane and he could still be naked and no one would notice. In all fairness I have to say that Jeff might notice but only if a bare bottom planted itself on his lap and he suddenly got a warm and wet feeling down his leg.

Upon fixing the nakedness, I heard the limo drive up. With the way Emily reacted you would have thought Johnny Depp himself was driving. Apparently riding in a stretch limo was a life long dream of hers. A little foreign man in a suit began flinging our luggage into the trunk . I looked at the last of the stuff left on the floor and decided that it was OK if we didn’t bring another 3 sweatshirts and 12 pairs of socks. (The socks mind you belonged to the 18 year old who not so long ago went up north to visit his father and packed NO socks. Upon questioning this decision he said, “I’ll just wash the pair I have on every day.” Uh-HUH. Apparently he learned the folly of that and was now overly prepared. Not to worry, I had already made sure he had enough.)

Somehow we got all people and assorted luggage into the limo and got underway. I had never seen the inside of a *stretch* limo before. It was quite spacious, if not a bit cheesy. It had color changing lights on the ceiling shaped like a rose, a non-working bubble light near the back door and strip lights all along the inside edges . I could just imagine a whole car load of teenagers coming and going to a prom all dressed up in stuffy stiff clothes laughing and talking and thinking the limo was so cool and classy.

The older kids were all crammed down on the far end on the seats that faced backwards and towards the passenger side, followed by Alex, Jeff and myself on the next seats facing the drivers side and then the grandparents facing forward in the back. The 3 year old migrated back and forth. I prayed that we didn’t get into an accident since the all the seatbelts seemed to be female. The other (male) ends were missing, or forever lost in the depths of the seats.

Because of the hour (7:30 AM), and it being Friday, we had traffic concerns, We couldn’t take the 405, we’d still be trying to get to the airport at noon. So the experienced driver took us over Malibu Canyon and we got to drive along the beach. I would say it was beautiful, except right about that time my morning coffee decided to make an appearance in my bladder. It didn’t like it in there and it wanted out. Immediately. Apparently I had drank quite a bit more than normal. That accompanied with the fact the 3 year old was dancing on my lap. I was in trouble. As I was about to say something, I looked over at Jeff who seemed to have a similar look on his face. “I’m not gonna make it” I informed him “Neither am I” he said.

We sat together in silent agony, neither wanting to ask the driver to pull over. “Don’t worry” he said, “its not much longer.” Uh-huh.

There really was a moment that I thought I had found a new level of pain, well beyond childbirth, and was resigned to perhaps wetting my pants, when suddenly the airport loomed into sight.

As we pulled to the curb, the little foreign man magically transported from the drivers seat to the back of the limo and began flinging the luggage onto the sidewalk. He had unloaded, ushered us out of the car, and driven off before I even realized that he overcharged us. GRRRrrrrrrrrr.
 
Oh, no! Did you get the overcharge taken care of?

Okay, I'm off to read the next part.
 
No... we didnt fix the overcharge. the guy on the phone told me if I used a credit card it would be a certain amount including the tip. Well Jeff paid cash (so the driver should have taken a percentage off and he didn't). Then Jeff tipped him $20 on top of what he paid him and what he paid him was supposed to include the tip. The driver of course said nothing and I figured it out as we were standing in line to check in. I was really annoyed but realized it didnt really matter that much (well it was probably $30 too much :mad: ) but I figured I would get it taken care of when we got home... I never did of course.

Of course Jeff asked why I didn't say anything AS he was paying.... maybe because I was trying to make sure the 3 year old didnt run into traffic, or I was trying to get the grandparents out of everyones way.. Honestly though I wouldnt have known what TO say.. and like I said, the guy was out of there so fast, it was just a blur.
 















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