If you’d like to start at the beginning of my story click here!
Well, this was December 16th and the next flight was completely booked. So they sent us to wait for the next flight, and the next, and the next, and the next. Twelve hours later they told us there was only one remaining flight.
I have to say that through those long horrible hours of waiting on standby for nothing, Jason and I held together pretty well. We didn’t fight or blame each other, and Jason did more than his fair share of entertaining the kids. But when they told us there was only one more flight and it was booked too, we’d all had it. Jason said, “Forget this, I’m going home.”
We went back down stairs, past the security, and got back in line at the ticket counter to find out what to do. After we described our day to the guy at the desk, he said that for an additional $25 a ticket he would give us seats on the last flight. Thrilled, we paid the money. I was so overjoyed to actually be going somewhere.
We got back in line to go through security, and would you believe they flagged all of our tickets so that we all had to be searched? After all we’d been through I couldn’t believe it. Jason had to go with the man, so I had to take both girls for a woman to search us all. Faith did okay, but Joy screamed her head off and they were both running all around while I had to stand there spread eagle and get searched in front of everyone. It felt like everyone in the airport was staring. It was all more than I could take, and I just started sobbing. When Jason was free, he grabbed Faith and asked if I was okay. Amidst my sobbing, I nodded yes.
The next thing I knew he was starting a conversation with some guy he recognized as a student from when Jason had been at the University of Nebraska. So as I was holding Joy as she continued to scream, and I couldn’t quit crying, Jason turned to introduce me to his acquaintance from ten years ago. I had to shake the guy’s hand with tears and snot rolling down my face! The guy finally left and I was livid. “You mean you leave your wife sobbing and holding a screaming baby after a horrible day and just being completely humiliated all because some guy’s face looks familiar?” Jason’s reply was anything but pacifying, “I asked if you were okay and you said yes….”
I cannot possibly imagine spending a day like that with the kids and then having to be searched. I thought they just started doing that recently. Now, I’m sure you and the girls looked dangerous!
How you didn’t lunge for his jugular after that comment, I will never know! 🙂
I CANNOT, repeat CANNOT stand traveling with kids. Especially air travel. I think i would have spontaneously combusted at that point. Poor thing!
Oh my goodness, that sounds miserable! We had to be searched when my oldest was a baby, it was awful! They even searched in her diaper!
Wow! What a nightmare!!
Wa ha ha! Yes, part 2 sounds like I was imagining it would. I become more and more convinced that if I ever visit the States I’ll keep away from air travel (if that’s actually possible). I feel for Jason – you’ve got to love men and their ability to “read” an emotional situation.
Thanks for the good laugh, and for wandering across to my blog so faithfully…
Oh, yes, one more thing quickly, related to Jason’s reply at the end – I saw you posted a Tim Hawkins video on your Facebook page recently – well this one is pretty appropriate:
Tim Hawkins: Things you don’t say to your wife
Oh, and no, most people don’t mind if I take photos of them. In fact, the camera is often a great ice-breaker to get chatting. And they normally thank me profusely afterwards. Except for the drunks, of course…
Robin, That’s one of our favorites, probably because he DID buy me a treadmill one year and it WASN’T what I wanted! 🙂 But alas it has proved useful!
Oh my goodness, I could feel your pain through your words! I’ll be back tomorrow to find out if you actually made it. Hope you are having a much better today. And hey, maybe that package will be waiting for you when you get back, if you ever left.
That is such a man for you! If you say you are ok, then you must be ok. Never mind the tears and snot. that’s just background noise. LOL
i hope when you got here (i’m in vancouver, canada) it got better jeez…
Ok so when Jason asks a question about how you are doing…it’s best to reply honestly?!
We just talked about this with another couple yesterday, how our challenge is to understand what we are “communicating” by what we say and by our body language, etc. And though it sounds like your message was coming across loud and clear … in man language I guess it was translated differently. 🙂 It takes much grace and much work to learn to interpret the messages we receive and think about those we send. And somehow traveling seems to make it all harder! 🙂
OMG! I saw on the news where they searched a six year old and it helped to get some rules changed on random searches. I had a friend that they tackled – he was wearing camo after a hunting trip and they lost his luggage – he’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet – but security decided he was dangerous. Well, the good news is it got you blogging!