So Delta kindly lets us board their aircraft and on the way down the ramp I was taking swings at the older girls for allowing the little one to call 9-11. They are very good at dodging and weaving, by the way. I know its really mine & Dh's fault for assuming that a 14 & 17 year old can keep and eye on one 6 yr old while their parents are sitting on the other side of a glass wall, but it's usually better to have someone else to blame? I think so.
The flight from Manchester, NH to Altanta was, ohh, I'd say about 5 minutes. Xanax to the rescue!
I was woken up to beatlebum(14) saying "Mom, your drooling on my homework."
I wasn't really drooling, I was testing the underwater durability of the paper, there is a difference.
We somehow ended up on another flight that took us to Orlando, but I'll be honest here, I was in a fog. I remember being dragged off the plane by commando Nikki (17), who at this point, probably could have used the Xanax more than me. She was on overload. "People, lets move, move, move!!"
We got to baggage claim, and I was feeling fresh as a daisy. Then it occurred to me that our limo wasn't there! I tell the crew to stay put, do not move, I will be right back. I am walking back and forth past all the other people holding signs with other peoples names, but none of them are ours.
Thinking, maybe I have forgotten how to spell my own name, I check a third time. Nope, nada. I had thought of pretending we were another family, but I got over it. One lady holding a sign asked me which company I was looking for and I said Star limo and she said, "Oh, that’s too bad."
Apparently, they aren't very prompt. "You will have to call them to get them to come." I never had to call Tiffany Towncar. They were always there, with the sign and my name spelled correctly.
Great, someone has to go tell commando Nikki, we have no ride yet. I flip open my cell, left the cordless at home, called Star and they said "yeah, someone will be there, eventually."
Well, that’s mighty nice of them. I was very afraid to go back and tell the crew that for right now we didn't have a ride. This could get ugly. So, I started skipping back over to them. Yes, really skipping. Dainty fingers in the air and everything.
Well, what would you have done to distract them??
Commando Nikki (17) is a very smart child. She knew instantly there was a problem. A normal 17 yr old would have been mortified that their mother was skipping across an airport, but my kid knew I was trying to create a diversion. "Okay, Star is a no show. I will call my brother or a cab and see..."
That’s as far as I got. Commando Nikki calmly said "Ah, pardon me, mother (like a dirty word) are you saying we have no ride?"
Oh she's a quick one.
She actually turned white, began to sweat, and for a quick second, I really believed she was gonna faint. Thank the good lord at the same time, a limo guy was running across the airport. Just before DH tripped him, he was yelling our name. Only 25 minutes late. Whats 25 minutes to three girls who are dying to get to Disney and a mother who hasn't seen her Air Force son in months and a DH who is really wishing there were some men to talk to. Not a problem.
We went out, carrying our own luggage because the limo guy was busy trying to find his keys or something. We didn't care about that, we just wanted out of the stupid airport. As the limo guy and DH are loading our 1/4 ton of stuff into the trunk, I started to say something to him about our 1/2 hour grocery stop that I was guaranteed. "No, no, no I have no paperwork for that and we are running late, your going straight to Port Orleans Riverside or your paying me an extra $25.00."
WE?? We are running late?? I'm sorry, I didn't notice him skipping across the airport. I already paid them $200.00!! I wasn't paying him more. So because this clown was late, I didn't get my grocery stop. Wow, was I mad! But I was at the point that I just wanted to see my family and I knew that I would do this:
ATTENTION TO THE 55,000 MEMBERS OF THE DIS BOARD: STAY AWAY FROM STAR TAXI/LIMO. THEY CHARGED ME $200.00, THEY WERE LATE, RUDE, TRIED TO GET EXTRA MONEY FROM ME AND THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME MY GROCERY STOP!!! ON THE WAY BACK TO THE AIRPORT THEY WERE 45 MINUTES LATE AFTER I CALLED THEM TWICE!!
Ahh, that feels so much better, Thanks.
So, we finally made it to Port Orleans Riverside.....