Queen of Rambles

I should be boarding a plane to Dulles right about now, but instead I’m coming to you direct from my parent’s living room. I decided I love everyone so much I have to stay an extra few weeks! Whoo-hooo!

Or my flight got cancelled.

Either way, I’m here. The first re-booking had me flying out at 5:24 am tomorrow, but after consulting with Mike we realized it would be impossible. He couldn’t pick me up and I don’t have a car seat with me. Every alternative plan we came up with came down to the car seat. Oh well. At least this new plan will save us money and I might get to sleep a little more. I’ll be leaving at 7:46 am on Wed. One more full day here, then I’m outta here.

We went through security and sat around. We watched our plane land. We watched them take forever to unload a guy in a wheelchair. We saw the baggage handler guy come in and pick up the intercom. We heard we had a mechanical delay and they were clearing us all out of the secure area so they could sweep it. That made no sense and people were grumbling.

Cell phones started ringing off the hook and everyone was getting word that the flight was cancelled. It took another ten minutes for them to announce it was cancelled and start dealing with the problem of 21 angry people.

I’ve had flights cancelled before. Big flights. I’ve never seen the level of anger over cancelled flights as I saw in that airport. At one point a policeman showed up and hovered over the guy yelling the loudest. It was pretty crazy.

I was second in line, but people kept taking cuts. The old ladies in line started yelling at me, as if I was letting them. I finally spoke up and was brushed off by both the cutter and the counter guy. GRRRRRRR!

Erik had a screaming tantrum as befits a three year old. He wasn’t as poorly behaved as some of the elderly people in the room. He just wanted his daddy, and I can’t say I blamed him. I wanted his daddy too.

Let’s just hope I get out on Wed. Several of the people had their flight cancelled yesterday and again today. No wonder they were so angry. Not that the anger was helping the situation.

Other than that fiasco, I suppose the day has been ok. My sister has been absent, which helped my mood considerably. She had my niece’s birthday party at a park with a swimming pool, so I sent Erik with my mom. There was just no way I could trust myself to behave and no way I wanted to watch whatever was going to happen. I guess I’m just weird, but when I have a party for a 4 year old I expect most of the guests to be 4 years old. Maybe some siblings of the other attendees. Possibly some very close family friends. But 4 years old. Isn’t it supposed to be about the birthday girl and not every person the mother has ever befriended? I’m glad I wasn’t there because it sounds like it would have irritated the hell out of me.

Don’t worry, though! My day wasn’t crazy-relative free. I spent some time with Granny and I’d say she is mentally recovered from surgery. She’s baaaaaaaack! Her and her non-stop nattering were in fine form today. At one point she kept going on and on about how she wished she had a toy or something for Erik for the flight. I told her not to worry about it, that I had plenty of stuff. But I just didn’t understand! Did you know 3 year olds get bored and need something to do other than sit and look at the back of the seat in front of them? Why, I declare! It’s a revelation. I finally said, sweet as pie, “I guess I’m just too stupid to know that my child needs some sort of entertainment on the airplane. I’m glad you’re here to teach me all these things.” Then I went on to chronicle all the things I had packed in my bag for him. She didn’t get the point. Silly old lady.

Oh! Did you also know that they make these things that you plug into the wall? They heat up and then you can roll your hair around them and make a little hump in your bangs like they have on TV. She has one, but she’s never tried it. If I would just go in her back room and find it she could teach me how to use it.

Apparently she doesn’t like my new flat ironed style of straight hair.

I finally had to leave on an unhappy note when she would NOT SHUT UP about Erik picking up the toys he had taken out. First, she was pissed at me because I wouldn’t open her toy chest and pull out every blasted piece of toy crap she’s collected over the last thirty years. If he wants a toy, he can get a toy. He knows where they are. He prefers to run around in circles in bark. He finally got out a toy guitar and a ball. (Do you want to take the guitar home? No thanks, we have several. But are they like that one? No, they are a little different. BUT DO THEY PLAY MUSIC????? Yes, yes they do. Most toys in the year 2009 play music.) When it was time to leave I told him to put them away. He was in a funky mood and was being a little stubborn about it. I was doing my 1-2-3 Magic on him and it was going to work, as it always does, but she would not shut up. She was trying to bribe him and nudge him and trick him and tell me that it was ok. I asked her twice to please stop talking to him and let me handle it, but she yelled at me that it was her house and she could talk if she wanted. At that point I got up, threw the toys in the box and huffed out of there. I am so mature. I can only take having my parenting under minded for so long. When we first got there she was trying to give him candy and ice cream. It was 10:30 in the morning! I certainly give him more sweets than you can shake a stick at, but not until the afternoon.

The bright spot in all this? Erik really is friggin’ adorable. He is polite (most of the time) and curious. He is learning how to read and write, sorta. He keeps asking me to teach him to read, so I’m playing rhyming games and doing a lot of phonics games with him. He’s not going to be picking up the New York Times any time soon, but he’s having a lot of fun with simple three letter words. He’s charmed the pants off all the drunks that hang out here. They think it is hilarious to hear a child say “excuse me” when he wants to talk to an adult. Not that he says it politely, but we are working on it.

Now, tell me, has anyone read Fractured by Karin Slaughter? I bought it because it was on the $5 rack at Freddy’s. It is sort of good, but it is also really weird. The main detective is illiterate. I don’t understand how that’s supposed to work. Should I finish it or cut my losses? So far none of the characters are very likeable.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 1:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.