I woke up Saturday morning before four a.m. Oklahoma time to catch an early flight. As hard as we tried to get there with enough time to grab a bite, it didn't happen that way. We got there just in time to board the plane, and had to wait until we got to Atlanta to even fathom eating.
The issue was preceded by the hotel's inability to find our car. You see, there was some kind of festivity the evening before, and the place was completely packed. There was quite literally ZERO parking. So I asked the hotel employee directing traffic in front of the hotel what he suggested and he said if I was a hotel guest they would valet park the car for me. So I gave him the keys and away went the car, while I went to my room to get packed, knowing I had to be up quite early.
When we tried get the car in the morning there were two problems. First, we were up earlier than any valet parking folks had reported for duty, so the front desk clerk had to not exactly joyfully help us in that regard. Second, the description of the car written on the slip attached to the keys was "taxi", which was of course entirely incorrect. In fact, I can't begin to imagine how they confused the gold (not yellowish, but metallic gold) Oldsmobile Alero that was rented to us for a taxi of any kind. Well, after much searching, they did finally find our car, which apparently was parked on the grass somewhere on the hotel grounds. Sweet.
So back to our story already in progress. In Atlanta, we had thirty minutes at most to get a quick breakfast, and a Burger King in the terminal was our last best hope for a speedy path to hunger discontinuation. Unfortunately, our BK hosts were less sympathetic to our haste (ironic I thought for an airport establishment), as we were in line for more than twenty minutes. I was finishing up my much needed breakfast as they called for boarding.
I knew the enjoyability of my flight was in jeopardy at the onset as I had a middle seat, as opposed to my preferred aisle seat. But beyond that less than comfortable situation, the agitation factors grew rather quickly. Being the last weekend before Christmas, there were many families on board the flight, including small children and more than one baby. Also on board were a few dogs. Yes, apparently you are allowed to bring a dog on board the plane if it's small enough.
So imagine if you will a moment during the flight, when the person to my left had fallen asleep -- thereby comfortable and spread out -- and the person to my right was using his laptop computer, which isn't exactly something that can be done without consuming a good amount of space. So there I was, quite confined, meanwhile with a young chatty kid going on about something just behind me, a crying baby screaming a few rows up, and a barking dog several rows back (with barking periodically interjected with the owner's loud and ineffective "shhhhh" command). And those few moments of sleep I tried to get myself were interrupted by the captain getting on the PA with geologic commentary (for example... "hey folks, if you look out the window to our left you'll see the mighty Mississippi and all the small lakes around it that were created by the river's change in course over thousands of years"). Needless to say, by the time of deplaning, I was quite jittery with feelings of shut-up-ness (you know, where you just want to tell everyone and everything making a noise to just shut up), and I was quite relieved to be away from the odor that started to spread through the cabin (presumably some mix of dirty diapers and sweaty animals).
After a tolerable wait for luggage and my journey and arrival home, it was one in the afternoon, and I was quite tired. But resting was not in my future.
Having had little time or motivation to get much Christmas shopping done to this point, I did what could only be described as the stupidest thing imaginable in that regard. I went to the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. I had immediate regrets about this decision, as the traffic and parking were worse even than I thought they could be. I think I was stuck in traffic for forty-five minutes before I finally got a parking spot, but even then I believe I was nearly at the furthest point from the mall while still being on the mall grounds. I estimate it was nearly a quarter mile walk just to get into the mall. I'm not sure I want to guess how much walking I did in the mall itself.
After three hours of shopping, my hands were as full as they could be with shopping bags without me keeling over, and I still had to walk back to the car with all that stuff. Mind you, I wasn't finished with my shopping list, but rather had given up trying to carry more as my fingers were turning purple for lack of circulation.
Once I was through shopping, I immediately went to a family gathering where the kids were, who I hadn't seen since being back in town. It was great to see the kids again, and they were all over me at first, but the environment was kind of fraying on the nerves at first (as I was pretty tired by this point). There were some rowdy kids (not mine), rowdy animals (annoying chirping birds, a frail barking dog), and come to think of it there were rowdy (not entirely sober) adults, too. The event was generally enjoyable, but I certainly could have done with less calamity.
The kids were supposed to stay with family, but Shelby started to run a fever, so they went home with me instead. Hopefully this is not the start of a serious illness.
We left so late, by the time we got home, it had been 22 hours since I last had sleep. Talk about being tired... but we have more family stuff tomorrow, so rest is still not immediately in my future (and this is not to mention the fact that I'm still not done Christmas shopping).
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