Airport Drama
November 20th, 2008Yesterday we flew out to North Carolina - we are here for a couple of weeks to spend Thanksgiving and help some of our friends and family with their new businesses. We are looking forward to a fun and exciting trip as our first day into the trip started out full of it! Let me sum it up and then go into some details: Sum of things is we packed waay to much… had lots of negative thoughts - laughed a lot… laughter turned to yelling and lots of frustration which turned into drinking and meeting very cool new people that i already love!
Starting with an early morning 4am wake-up Greg dropped us off to the airport to start our adventure. I was so excited that there were no lines and we got strait to the counter. Well little did we know we realized very soon that we packed too much. our 3rd bag they wanted $50 more to check (and it was the size of a carry on) and our 2nd bag was 13lbs over weight so there was another $50! So we decided that spending another $100 was not worth it… so we moved forward to unpacking things out of our bag into the other bags as well as plastic bags that Gigi (the nice attendant) gave us. When all done we finally headed to our gate with about 3 carry-on’s each and checking our 2 big bags.
Little did we think (really we fly all the time i think we are just sometimes retarded!) that one of the bags we decided to carry on was our bathroom bag… so of course as we all know that all our liquids got taken away… toothpaste, lotions, my fav body spray… all the great stuff! Well we said we will have a trip to Wally World when we get to NC and moved on with a smile and a laugh telling ourselves that we really know better than this… or we thought we knew better!
After scarfing down breakfast at CPK with only a little drama we made it to our plane just in time to board. Luckily we sneaked by with 3 carry on’s as we are only allowed 1 each and got on the plane ready to go. continental seats suck by the way - they are really small, the plane was packed and already we were uncomfortable - but we had a smile as much as we could. We smiled, listened to music, slept…etc for about an hour when finally they announced that we were changing planes as we still had not left the gate sitting in the plane. All of us going to Charlotte had to go back through security to another terminal and were on another flight. So Grady and I got off and went through the other security (they let us through just fine) and got to the new gate. We got there and the lady said we had to go back to ticketing downstairs to get a ticket and that they never should have let us through security, so the only easy way through security is the one time they shouldn’t have let us in - Ironic uh?
Next we haul all our crap out of security, downstairs and wait in line. We became invisible at this point because this lady came over and asked for all going to Charlotte as they were helping us first. Grady and I both said we are pretty loud as well as did the whole waving the hands etc.. we figured it wasn’t really everyone as she took people from the back of the line and helped them then was leaving. We stopped her on her way out and told her were were going to Charlotte… we got an attitude back: “Well i asked who all was going” so me and my nice attitude was like “ya and we practically screamed it out that we were and you ignored us” so she takes us up to the counter and looks at what we have and tells us that we have what we need and never needed to be down there to begin with. So she tells us to go up the to the next floor, take a left and go to line 15 and they will help us. Before we left i asked to please be certain as we are so sick of getting a run around… here we go - we got a major attitude back this time: “I have worked here for so many years and i know what i am talking about”. I tell her we have dealt with many people today that have worked here years and to double check, and attitude back again:” have you talked to me?”.. she repeats like 3 times with a total attitude. So up until this point we are pretty giggle and okay about everything but this attitude rubbed me wrong and i got quite the attitude back with her. We headed up to ‘do what she says’ as Gigi (the great attendant that helped earlier) comes after us to double check if it is okay…. well actually we go up - go right, not left and its line 9, not 15! Ulg i wanted to go back so bad and throw it in the ladies face but Grady wouldn’t let me 
So this time we get on the right track and head toward security - this time its the full search… going through each of our bags - practically have to be stripped and get checked inside and out. For some great reason (my attitude i am sure helped a ton) the lady checking my things made me sit a good few feet away from her, as everyone else got to be with their stuff as they go through it. When she was done i got up and was putting my laptop on my case and this other security guy cam up to me and said “This is not a chill table - move your things” and started to grab my stuff.” That wasn’t the best move - by this time i had just had it i turned around and told him to fucking leave me be and that he needed to chill out - started in on the shit the airport put us through and that if i needed 2 minutes to put my things together that they tore apart then i was going to have it…bla bla bla. Grady thought he was going to NC by himself and i was going to be in hand cuffs.
After another snotty act from the guy we moved on. I wanted to go to the ticket booth to make sure everything was good, but Grady made us go have a drink.. yup started at 8am. And it was the best move, as our bartender was hilarious and made me smile plus she gave me a margarita to go. We also met Nick - a military man who saved us from our last drama. We leave the bar and head to get on our plane - we are running a little late so we are the last ones on. I am trying to down my margarita, talking to Trav on the phone and carrying on my carry-on’s as we are getting checked into the plane. They stop Graydon and I and after all of this they decide they need to follow federal regulations and wont let us and our 3 carry-on’s all on the plane. so we either leave half or stuff or figure something out. I was getting calmed down until this point when i put my margarita down and started in on this flight attendant guy - telling him the hell we have been through and i was not about to start again with this and that they already let us on the plane with it and now they wont…. bla bla bla - Well thank god for new friends. Nick grabbed our smaller item and put it in his bag and then took another carry-on with him… somehow between us 3 we got it figured out to go on the plane. Graydon and I also had seats not by each other, but somehow my seat was next to Nick… weird coincidence. So all in all it turned out good - Nick traded Grady so we could sit by each other then Nick ended up trading someone else so all of us could sit together. 
The plane ride was actually one of the best i have been on - we drank the whole time, the flight attendants were great and bringing us more booze than we paid for, sneaking it in their pockets for us. We got popcorn from their personal snacks, etcc. it was a lot of fun. Nick and Grady hit it off and exchanged pictures and numbers and we plan on a visit from him in the near future. Oh also on the flight one of the flight attendeds shoved Graydon and I into the bathroom together and closed the curtain and told us to become members of the mile high club. Unfortunately for Graydon i had to pee so bad that i had to kick him out as there wasn’t enough room for me to pee with him in there (i have no clue how there is enough room for sex in there!) plus that is just gross.. those bathrooms really are not clean and i guess i am a party pooper in my old age… Sorry Grady!
Anyway it was so dramatic i thought i would share it with all of you! We are in NC now and looking forward to a great trip. We have already seen Ryan and the kids and plan on spending more time with them.
On that note… Gina is so ready to have Oli but he is just not ready to come out. He has had a few due dates so we are not sure what one - i think all of us were hoping it was the original (Oct 22nd), but that day has came and past and still no Oli. Then next due date we were given is Oct 31st…. that was yesterday and still Oliver is hiding. Do you think he hears all going on and wants to stay safe instead of around all of us crazy people?? So that is leaving us with the final and furthest away due date: Nov 14th…. ulg! It has been interesting, fun and an adventure coming home as newly weds and having Gina living with us. I wouldn’t trade it for the world to get to be with her in this special time of life, it is defiantly an exciting adventure on its own.
As far as Dad goes - he is working with FEMA, traveling a bit and doing home inspections for disaster areas. (i loved this picture.. except i cant see dad in a suit and the areas of town he talks about seem a lot more in the ghetto!) He has grown and learned a lot by the experiences so far with this new adventure for him. His biggest challenge was the computers, but i believe through ‘just doing it’ he has overcame that challenge for the most part. There are some factors in his schedule of how often he will be gone with this, but for now it seems to be a good direction for him. He was in Chicago for a few weeks and just got home - it is nice to have him home as well. Travis wants him back in NC for a new project so he might be heading out there again for a little while too. I guess he is like a leave blowing in the wind - he seems to just go wherever he is needed! His health seems to be okay, with the weather changing he is aching a bit and feeling a little down - but i think he is doing pretty good on his recovery. While dad was in Chicago he drove down to Iowa where he was adopted and met with the orphanage. There are a lot of hick-ups on finding his birth mom and possibly brother, however he took his first steps to fulfill the hole that resides in him, this was on his birthday and i thought was one of the best birthday presents for himself. We are going to now work together to do some more research… i will keep everyone posted.
When dad was gone we had a girls night while Grady went camping with his dad at Lake Powell and had a ‘boys night’. That was a lot of fun and enjoyable for all parties involved i believe (except for the crappy movies i chose for girls night).