jennymouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2001
- Messages
- 4,175
Friday October 25th:
Your Cast of Characters:
Me, 44 year old mother & grandmother: Planner & financier of this trip who ate PB&J & bologna sandwiches and did rewards programs for ten months saving for the trip.
DD, Jess, 28: Poster child for premenstral syndrome and offical spoiler of trip. Seriously, she gets pms BAD & won't take medicine.
DGD, Skye, 7 turning 8 11/15: The most well behaved, sweetest granddaughter any grandmother could ask for. Loves rollercoasters.
Our flight on Delta was scheduled to leave at 4:45pm. Jess & I had the day off and poor Skye had to go to school until 1 o'clock. We did our last minute packing, loaded up the car then went to collect Skye from school around 12:30. Our flight itinerary didn't leave any time to have dinner until we were to arrive in Orlando at 8:10pm so I took us to Applebee's for a big lunch. Neither of us was very hungry for some reason so we didn't eat much. No problem. I had booked the Hampton Inn by the airport for our first night and there were restaurants nearby...we'd eat when we got there.
Just as our meal ended, it began to rain which brought a chill of dread upon me I couldn't explain. I had caught a cold just 3 days before but used the Zicam which had at least stopped my nose from running like a faucet and I felt pretty good. This was also the week that Jessica gets "the curse" of bad PMS before a usually painful period. (Sorry, men folk...I had to use the P word.)
Then there was my mother I was worried about. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and had her right lung removed, but she had been doing great. She'd gone back to work...even worked through her radiation treatments and her prognosis was very good. The Monday before we were to leave she had a spell at work but she wrote it off as being a reaction to some medicine her doctor had perscribed for congestion. Still I was worried about her.
I drove us to Mom & Dad's house. Mom was at work and Dad drove us to the airport...a ten minute trip from thier house. We don't let Dad drive much...he messes up sometimes. But, he got us there safely. We did the curbside checkin and proceeded to the gate. Jess set off the alarm. I knew about shoes having metal in them, but totally forgot. She took it well, we got a laugh out of her having to take her shoes & belt off. I told the guard I had been hoping for a cavity search, but he said he didn't make that much money. We all had fun going through security in Lexington.
We were early and there was a fairly empty bar right by our gate so we decided to park ourselves in there. Skye's teacher had given her a folder of work to do while we were gone so we got her busy on that while Jessica and I had a beer and struck up a conversation with a gentleman seated at the table beside ours.
After about a half hour, I noticed a crowd forming around the departing gate sign. I went to investigate and found that the flight leaving for Atlanta right before ours was cancelled due to weather in Atlanta. Our flight was leaving for a connection in Atlanta. It wasn't long before that same sign was announcing that our flight was being delayed until 5:30...we were supposed to connect to our Orlando flight at 6:05 and it takes an hour and a half to get to Atlanta from Lexington.
I talked to the Delta representative at the gate and she reassured me saying that they weren't letting any planes in or out and that our connecting flight would be delayed too. We shouldn't have any troubles connecting. When I returned to the bar, my beer was sitting getting hot while Jessica was on her third.
The nice man at the table next to ours suggested that we get ourselves on standby for a later connection to Orlando, just in case we missed our flight. He even offered to call from his cell phone for us since he's a regular and had the number programed in the phone. We thanked him and he dialed the number and let me talk. When the conversation was over, I noticed the nice gentleman had ordered my lovely daughter another beer since her glass was now empty. She's in a good mood and said we shouldn't be worried...after all we were on vacation and weren't on any time schedule. I agreed as our flight was now pushed back until 6:15....
The bar was getting full of people who's flights were cancelled and delayed, it was getting smokey and I wanted to get Skye out of there. I asked for our tab....which was $27. Now, THAT wasn't in my budget. I suggested, since it was getting close to boarding time, that we go sit near the gate in case there were any more announcements. "Can't I finish my beer first?" "Sure, you can join Skye and me with your finished." She chugged the beer and set the empty glass down a bit hard on the table....or did I just imagine it was hard?
We board and our flight gets underway. The visability was a mile near the Atlanta airport the pilot said. There was turbulence and the plane teatered from side to side as we approached the landing strip that couldn't be seen.
We landed pretty hard, but we made it.
We were at the "A concourse" and our connecting flight, which still showed "delayed" on the board was leaving from the "E Concourse". We high tailed it to the shuttle, walked fast to our gate only to see our flight pulling away from the loading ramp. Panting, we asked the Delta lady what to do. She looked us up and reminded us we were on standby for the 8:15 flight. My daughter pipes in with "And what if they don't have room for us on that flight? We paid a lot of money to fly on that plane, it should've waited for us." The attendant told us there was another flight to Orlando at 10:30. "This is a bunch of ...... We might be here all night! I'll never fly again!" Jess replied. "Calm down, Jess. It's not her fault." We hoof it to "Concourse C?" where the 8:15 flight was leaving from. At this point, Jessica is in a full blown meltdown. Under my breath I told her to shut up. People are starring at us and I'm embarrassed. "If you don't like me, why did you ask me to come...Do you want me to go back home right now, I ...... will!" "Whatever Jess." "I'm leaving." Jess leaves me and her daughter sitting there...Skye's in tears...I cringe from the looks of pitty in the peoples faces....that dread feeling is all over me and I want to cry. I hated my daughter right then...I really did.
Five minutes later, Jess comes back, takes Skye by the hand "Since we're going to be here all night, I better go get her something to eat." She walks off before I can explain that we might get lucky and get on this flight. It wasn't long before they started boarding passengers. Us standbyers are starting to hoover around to see if we were going to be lucky enough to have our name called. I saw Jess & Skye with Pizza Hut boxes sitting on the other side of the gate area. At least they were close.
Like dogs waiting for a spare bone, we standbyers stare down each other and the gate attendants as they begin to call names. Several names were called...the relieved clutched thier carryons as they darted for the gate. The rest of us, rejected, began making calls from cell phones and collasping into chairs defeated. "Goodman, party of three, come to the desk..." What! Is that us! I spring from the chair as if I'd won the lottery, I looked over at where the girls were sitting and they were gone. I look down the concourse and there they were.....way down there. I tell the gatekeeper "We're here, just a minute." I call out to Jess...what the heck, we've already made a scene. Jess turns, I wave her to come here...she flips her long blond hair, rolls her eyes and keeps on walking. I want so bad to get on that plane and leave her, but saw Skye's scarred eyes looking back at me. "Come on, Jess! We're on this flight!" They come running.
We get our boarding passes and head for the gate. Glancing at our passes, I see we aren't seated together, but two of the seats are in the same row....I gave those passes to Jess and kept the other. They scanned my ticket and as I enter the ramp thingy, I look back and see Jess giving the ticket scanner person a hard time about something....I just keep on walking....I don't even want to know. My seat is a window seat, I excuse myself to the oriental lady and she stands to let me squeeze in. Jess walks past and says "Our seats (hers & Skye's) aren't even together, they said it's up to me to ask complete strangers if I can sit by my own daughter."
As plane gets off the ground, I burried my head into the window and cried. Through the flight I'm running my opptions through my head. I could cancell all our PS's, give Jess thier passes and let them do thier own thing while we're there. I even considered getting a return flight back to Lexington the next day. When we arrived, I deplaned first and stood and waited for them. Silently, we went to the train, got to baggage claim where I went and got a cart to load our six bags. They followed behind as I wheeled our cart to call the Hampton Inn for our shuttle. Down the elevator and the shuttle was waiting for us. (Thanks GAIL HAYDEN...I did good!
)
It was midnight when we arrived at the Hampton Inn. We checked in and went to our room. I called for a 6am wakeup call. Yourride was going to be there at 7am with the surprise limo. Yeppeeeee! We're here!
Your Cast of Characters:
Me, 44 year old mother & grandmother: Planner & financier of this trip who ate PB&J & bologna sandwiches and did rewards programs for ten months saving for the trip.
DD, Jess, 28: Poster child for premenstral syndrome and offical spoiler of trip. Seriously, she gets pms BAD & won't take medicine.
DGD, Skye, 7 turning 8 11/15: The most well behaved, sweetest granddaughter any grandmother could ask for. Loves rollercoasters.
Our flight on Delta was scheduled to leave at 4:45pm. Jess & I had the day off and poor Skye had to go to school until 1 o'clock. We did our last minute packing, loaded up the car then went to collect Skye from school around 12:30. Our flight itinerary didn't leave any time to have dinner until we were to arrive in Orlando at 8:10pm so I took us to Applebee's for a big lunch. Neither of us was very hungry for some reason so we didn't eat much. No problem. I had booked the Hampton Inn by the airport for our first night and there were restaurants nearby...we'd eat when we got there.
Just as our meal ended, it began to rain which brought a chill of dread upon me I couldn't explain. I had caught a cold just 3 days before but used the Zicam which had at least stopped my nose from running like a faucet and I felt pretty good. This was also the week that Jessica gets "the curse" of bad PMS before a usually painful period. (Sorry, men folk...I had to use the P word.)
Then there was my mother I was worried about. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and had her right lung removed, but she had been doing great. She'd gone back to work...even worked through her radiation treatments and her prognosis was very good. The Monday before we were to leave she had a spell at work but she wrote it off as being a reaction to some medicine her doctor had perscribed for congestion. Still I was worried about her.
I drove us to Mom & Dad's house. Mom was at work and Dad drove us to the airport...a ten minute trip from thier house. We don't let Dad drive much...he messes up sometimes. But, he got us there safely. We did the curbside checkin and proceeded to the gate. Jess set off the alarm. I knew about shoes having metal in them, but totally forgot. She took it well, we got a laugh out of her having to take her shoes & belt off. I told the guard I had been hoping for a cavity search, but he said he didn't make that much money. We all had fun going through security in Lexington.
We were early and there was a fairly empty bar right by our gate so we decided to park ourselves in there. Skye's teacher had given her a folder of work to do while we were gone so we got her busy on that while Jessica and I had a beer and struck up a conversation with a gentleman seated at the table beside ours.
After about a half hour, I noticed a crowd forming around the departing gate sign. I went to investigate and found that the flight leaving for Atlanta right before ours was cancelled due to weather in Atlanta. Our flight was leaving for a connection in Atlanta. It wasn't long before that same sign was announcing that our flight was being delayed until 5:30...we were supposed to connect to our Orlando flight at 6:05 and it takes an hour and a half to get to Atlanta from Lexington.
I talked to the Delta representative at the gate and she reassured me saying that they weren't letting any planes in or out and that our connecting flight would be delayed too. We shouldn't have any troubles connecting. When I returned to the bar, my beer was sitting getting hot while Jessica was on her third.
The nice man at the table next to ours suggested that we get ourselves on standby for a later connection to Orlando, just in case we missed our flight. He even offered to call from his cell phone for us since he's a regular and had the number programed in the phone. We thanked him and he dialed the number and let me talk. When the conversation was over, I noticed the nice gentleman had ordered my lovely daughter another beer since her glass was now empty. She's in a good mood and said we shouldn't be worried...after all we were on vacation and weren't on any time schedule. I agreed as our flight was now pushed back until 6:15....
The bar was getting full of people who's flights were cancelled and delayed, it was getting smokey and I wanted to get Skye out of there. I asked for our tab....which was $27. Now, THAT wasn't in my budget. I suggested, since it was getting close to boarding time, that we go sit near the gate in case there were any more announcements. "Can't I finish my beer first?" "Sure, you can join Skye and me with your finished." She chugged the beer and set the empty glass down a bit hard on the table....or did I just imagine it was hard?
We board and our flight gets underway. The visability was a mile near the Atlanta airport the pilot said. There was turbulence and the plane teatered from side to side as we approached the landing strip that couldn't be seen.
We landed pretty hard, but we made it.We were at the "A concourse" and our connecting flight, which still showed "delayed" on the board was leaving from the "E Concourse". We high tailed it to the shuttle, walked fast to our gate only to see our flight pulling away from the loading ramp. Panting, we asked the Delta lady what to do. She looked us up and reminded us we were on standby for the 8:15 flight. My daughter pipes in with "And what if they don't have room for us on that flight? We paid a lot of money to fly on that plane, it should've waited for us." The attendant told us there was another flight to Orlando at 10:30. "This is a bunch of ...... We might be here all night! I'll never fly again!" Jess replied. "Calm down, Jess. It's not her fault." We hoof it to "Concourse C?" where the 8:15 flight was leaving from. At this point, Jessica is in a full blown meltdown. Under my breath I told her to shut up. People are starring at us and I'm embarrassed. "If you don't like me, why did you ask me to come...Do you want me to go back home right now, I ...... will!" "Whatever Jess." "I'm leaving." Jess leaves me and her daughter sitting there...Skye's in tears...I cringe from the looks of pitty in the peoples faces....that dread feeling is all over me and I want to cry. I hated my daughter right then...I really did.
Five minutes later, Jess comes back, takes Skye by the hand "Since we're going to be here all night, I better go get her something to eat." She walks off before I can explain that we might get lucky and get on this flight. It wasn't long before they started boarding passengers. Us standbyers are starting to hoover around to see if we were going to be lucky enough to have our name called. I saw Jess & Skye with Pizza Hut boxes sitting on the other side of the gate area. At least they were close.
Like dogs waiting for a spare bone, we standbyers stare down each other and the gate attendants as they begin to call names. Several names were called...the relieved clutched thier carryons as they darted for the gate. The rest of us, rejected, began making calls from cell phones and collasping into chairs defeated. "Goodman, party of three, come to the desk..." What! Is that us! I spring from the chair as if I'd won the lottery, I looked over at where the girls were sitting and they were gone. I look down the concourse and there they were.....way down there. I tell the gatekeeper "We're here, just a minute." I call out to Jess...what the heck, we've already made a scene. Jess turns, I wave her to come here...she flips her long blond hair, rolls her eyes and keeps on walking. I want so bad to get on that plane and leave her, but saw Skye's scarred eyes looking back at me. "Come on, Jess! We're on this flight!" They come running.
We get our boarding passes and head for the gate. Glancing at our passes, I see we aren't seated together, but two of the seats are in the same row....I gave those passes to Jess and kept the other. They scanned my ticket and as I enter the ramp thingy, I look back and see Jess giving the ticket scanner person a hard time about something....I just keep on walking....I don't even want to know. My seat is a window seat, I excuse myself to the oriental lady and she stands to let me squeeze in. Jess walks past and says "Our seats (hers & Skye's) aren't even together, they said it's up to me to ask complete strangers if I can sit by my own daughter."
As plane gets off the ground, I burried my head into the window and cried. Through the flight I'm running my opptions through my head. I could cancell all our PS's, give Jess thier passes and let them do thier own thing while we're there. I even considered getting a return flight back to Lexington the next day. When we arrived, I deplaned first and stood and waited for them. Silently, we went to the train, got to baggage claim where I went and got a cart to load our six bags. They followed behind as I wheeled our cart to call the Hampton Inn for our shuttle. Down the elevator and the shuttle was waiting for us. (Thanks GAIL HAYDEN...I did good!
)It was midnight when we arrived at the Hampton Inn. We checked in and went to our room. I called for a 6am wakeup call. Yourride was going to be there at 7am with the surprise limo. Yeppeeeee! We're here!
