It's been a long, loooooong summer. I'm beginning to realize why my mother always looked so damn happy to see the school bus arrive at the bottom of our driveway every year. I'm beginning to feel the same way -- get those kids back to school! I'm tired of MY kids, my NEIGHBOR'S kids, and just about EVERYONE'S kids. Back to school with you all, hellspawn!
I haven't blogged much at all, because I just haven't had the energy and sometimes I wonder if anyone ever reads the drivel that I'm writing... but who cares, right? That's why this is called digital effluvia! Just the flotsam and jetsam of my everyday life, online.
The best part of summer, so far, was my trip to Michigan to visit family and friends. We even did 2 days in Chicago and crammed in as much of the Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium as was humanly possible with two young children. Chicago is a great city, by the way, I highly recommend visiting. Wonderful museums, shows, and shopping. I would guess that the restaurants are superb, but again, with two small children, we didn't have the time to explore fine dining.
The WORST part of the summer (and pretty much all of 2007 to date) was getting to Michigan.
Face it. Travelling is difficult. Flying sucks. Flying with two small children? Just take a big, steaming poop on me and get my misery over with, OK?
Going to Michigan was awful. We arrived at the airport too early, the flight was delayed by two hours getting in (the airlines - Delta - sent the plane to ANOTHER AIRPORT and then made it take off and finally come to my airport... how crazy is that?) then my cushy layover in Atlanta was completely eradicated. We RAN LIKE MAD DOGS through the Atlanta airport only to arrive at our gate and find that not only had the plane NOT taken off on time, it, too, was delayed by an hour! Then we sat on the runway for 40 minutes waiting to have permission to fly north. When that flight took off, we got to Michigan only to have to circle the airport because there was a storm! Another 30 minutes. Oh by the way, the kids were insane by the time we reached Michigan and my stupid DVD player broke and was useless for the entire trip.
Not only were our flights delayed going, but Delta (my new winner for worst airline... congrats, Northwest, you're now the second crappiest airline!) cancelled our flights after we checked in on our return day! Have you ever tried to extricate your luggage from TSA once it has been checked? YEARCHGGGG! After being paged while in the bathroom (fun? not!) and rushing back to the check-in counter, told our flight was KO'd due to mechanical troubles and we had NO CHANCE of making any of our other connection options, we had to arm-wrestle our bags back from Lansing Airport's TSA, then had to drive the hour back to my parents' house. Next morning at 4am, we had to get up and go back to the airport to do it all over again. Oh yes, we also got one additional flight just to make our return perfect. Double fun was when I got home and realized that Lansing TSA had jacked my luggage zipper out of whack and I couldn't unzip the zipper more than 15 inches. Note: some clothes require more than 15 inches of zipper to get out of the bag. Grrrrr! New bag, fucked-up zipper. (I did take the bag to a repair shop and they managed to wrangle the zipper into some semblance of order, but the zipper is NOT the same nor will it ever be again. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Yes, I plan on filing a TSA report to get my $10 repair fee back, but face it: the bag is not anywhere close to the nice perfection that it was when I left it with TSA in Lansing.)
Other than my flying "issues", the summer has been hot, long, and humid. I have gotten some reading done, and enjoyed finishing the last Harry Potter as well as reading the newest Laurell K. Hamilton -- 'The Harlequin'. I also read 'Truck: a Love Story' by Michael Perry, which was funny and reminded me of my small hometown. Two thumbs way up! I saw a few movies and went to a few shows/plays, so I feel like I'm attempting to expand my cultural horizons.
Maybe it's time to just bring on the Fall. Shut down the pools, put away the tank tops and swim suits, and bring out the fleece jackets and snuggly throw blankets. No more travelling for me for a while, and that suits me just fine.
2 comments:
Just to let you know that there are those of us out here who DO read your blog! I've missed your comments and was wondering what had happened to you. Sorry to hear about the travel fiasco. We flew to Maine in June and every flight we had was delayed. Seems like an epidemic. Our bags, both of them, did NOT arrive with us in Maine. Had to wait until the next day for the airline to bring them to us. NOT fun. Hope things improve once the kids are in school.
Thanks, Nancy! I hope your trip to Maine was a good one, other than the bags going AWOL. I've always wanted to go to Maine and drive the coastline... mug a few lobsters... mmmmm!
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