The Storm Before the Calm

Seeing as it’s my first post back after Christmas holidays and my first post of the year, allow me, if you will, to get all my woes poured out at once. Yup, I’ve got a case of the Negative Nancies, the Peeved Pats, the Irritated Iras.

We finally got back here yesterday morning at around 3:30am. We left Winnipeg at 1:15pmCST and flew through Minneapolis, then Detroit, then all the way back to “Airport City.” We found out at the airport first thing that the weight limit per piece of checked luggage was a full 20 pounds less than we thought it was so we had to pay an overage fee. We weren’t too upset because there wasn’t time to be and it would’ve been more expensive for my Mom to mail extra stuff. Going through customs worked out all right since the customs officer grew up in the city the Husband works in; we got talking about all kinds of improvements/changes in town and where he grew up eating the best ice cream.

On our first flight, they were also looking for Volunteers. You know, the travelers with flexible travel plans. We didn’t have a flexible schedule because the Husband had to work at 7am yesterday morning (yes, that’s exactly 4 ½ hours after we got back here). They were offering a $300 travel voucher or a free round trip ticket anywhere NWA flies in North America, in other words, for us, two free tickets back to Manitoba! Oh that would’ve been sweet! Alas.

Our first flight went fine, although the Little Goat had no real interest in sleeping. We had a decent layover in Minneapolis so we actually got to sit down and have lunch at Quiznos. Yum! Our second flight was also fine. It was a bigger plane and the LG slept for almost the entire flight except towards the end where the air pressure was getting to her. For our third flight, however, they had the nerve to announce that each person would only be allowed ONE carry-on item; “Ladies, this includes your purse.” We were thinking we would be fine since one of my carry-ons was the diaper bag and the website repeats in various spots that a diaper bag won’t count toward you carry-on allowance. That was a good thing because there was too much for the diaper bag and I ended up putting the LG’s medications, etc, in my bag. The check-in person would not budge on the issue, however and when I asked her what I should do, she’s all, ‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe pack it different.’ Argh! So we’re supposed to be pre-boarding and here I am, with all our stuff littering a large area close to the check-in counter….I wouldn’t let her put the valet tag on my carry-on and I seriously considered not valet-checking it. In future, I will NOT, since technically, I could fit both of my carry-ons under the seat together AND the flight wasn’t even full! That’s right. It wasn’t. even. full. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having a carry-on limit, but I agree that a diaper bag shouldn’t count and I’m not just saying that because I’m a mom traveling with a sixth-month-old. What I think is ridiculous is when a passenger is WHEELING their SUITCASE down the center aisle of the plane and can barely lift it into the overhead bin - that’s not a carry-on - by definition of the word, right?

Anyway, we finally got back to Airport City. The Husband caught the hotel shuttle back to our car which given one more night, would very likely have been buried until Spring. He finally managed to dig it out enough to drive away and came and picked me up at the airport where the Little Goat and I rang in the New Year staring at a clock display, with only the night security guard for company. Woo. Exciting.

We drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of horrible snacks on the way home (read: beef jerky at 3am) but we made it back mostly awake. Only to discover that yes, our NEIGHBOURS STILL SUCK. I don’t know about you, but where I was raised, if you notice that your neighbour has been gone for a while but you’re pretty sure they’re still coming back (since there’s no For Sale sign and the house isn’t empty), you might be so kind as to shovel their driveway. Or at least the part at the end leftover from the snowplow…..but no. Evidently, in Northern Maine, neighbours don’t DO neighbourly things like that. We had at least 15 inches of snow on the driveway. We ended up parking on the street and shoveled enough of a path to get us and the luggage into the house. Really! You’d think living on a street where no less than eight people own snowblowers and the across-the-street residents are OBSESSED with either lawn mowing or snowblowing (in season), SOMEBODY could’ve been nice enough to do our driveway at least once. The guy directly across the street was snowblowing parts of his BACKYARD a few weeks ago for crying out loud! His BACKYARD!!!

If all that wasn't annoying enough, the Husband got up to go to work at 6am. He was back by 7:30 because guess what? He wasn't on the schedule after all. So we could've been Volunteers and gotten free vouchers, not to mention a much better sleep the night we got home. I told him to punch his supervisor for me. (When he called this afternoon to inform me that he's scheduled to work on Saturday AND be on-call all weekend, I told him to punch his supervisor again - obviously, once is simply not enough.)

At any rate, we’re home. There’s laundry going and lots of mail to open and our Christmas Vacuum Cleaner is ready to go. Home. Sweet. Home. Arrrrh!