The Eagle Has Landed

Hello friends-

Mrs. (soon to be) Smith is officially home! I wish I could end my post here. But of COURSE... I have a story about my trip back to DC this morning. Only things that would happen to yours truly. Which is why I created the blog.

So my series of events begins with Zeke is dropping me off at the airport at 6:30 this morning. Just as we are approaching the terminal, he does the "Babe, how much do you love me?" game. Now normally, I answer back "one hundred million billion gagillion infinity baby, you know that" and we go on with our disgustingly cute conversation. But this time he just stared at me and said "So no matter WHAT, you love me, right?".

My first thought is- Zeke... what did you do?

He precedes to tell me that he was in SUCH a hurry to come home 10 days ago, and all of the cabs were taken, so he had to drive to the airport and didn't know where the discount lots were, so he had to park in the airport parking garage. He "couldn't remember" how much the parking was per day, but he didn't want me to be mad the whole Christmas visit so he decided to wait and tell me until 1/4 mile from the freaking terminal. Nice move, babe.

So I kiss him bye in a hurry and run into Terminal C (which is where Continental.com told me to go) at 6:30, and my flight was departing at 7:40, so I should have plenty of time, right? 

WRONG! I'm greeted with hundreds of people in lines hundreds deep, several people yelling because their flights were cancelled and they don't know where to go or what to do. So I go to the Kiosk to check in and print my boarding pass, and my flight information wasn't pulling up. I stand there for 10 minutes re-swiping my driver's license and waving my arm for a Continental rep to come help me. No one ever comes... not a rep in sight. As the baggage check line that says "CUSTOMERS WITH BOARDING PASSES ONLY" gets longer and longer, I decide I'm just going to stand in it and explain my situation when I get to the counter. I mean... it's their fault a rep never helped me! 

I get up to the front of the baggage check line only to discover that ModuSpec spelled Elizabeth with an "S" instead of  "Z" when they booked my flight, so there in-lies the problem with pulling up my info. Frustrating. Anyways, I get the boarding pass, check my bag, and head on to security for Terminal C. 

I only had 2 carry on items, my tote bag and my laptop bag that had a laptop and our new hip BluRay player wrapped in plastic. (Zeke and I didn't want to ship it, so I stuck it in the bag to make things easier). I asked the lady if I needed to take out the computer AND dvd player or just the computer. She said just the computer. Well- guess what happens next? They pulled me aside and searched me because I had a plastic wrapped DVD player in my laptop bag that was "suspicious" because I didn't take it out of the bag! This is ridiculous!

So by this time it's like 7:25, I look down at my boarding pass, and it says Terminal E Gate 11. Wait.... what??? I realized that they gave me the wrong gate information online, so I had to catch the inter-terminal train to E. I got to the gate at 7:35 just as the doors were closing, then got stuck sitting behind a couple with a crying 6 month old baby for 3 hours. Attention: anyone with 6 month old babies: PLEASE DO NOT BRING THEM ON THREE HOUR AIRPLANE FLIGHTS! Make the family come see YOU for the holidays. Sheesh. This also reassures the fact that I will always fly AirTran. Why, you ask? Upgrades to business class are only $75-$125 from Houston. You get extra leg room, free cocktails, don't pay bag check fees, and people with kids usually don't sit there. I'll gladly pay extra.

Then, when I arrived at the DC airport and headed to find my car in the garage, Zeke and I had a "miscommunication" aka he gave me the wrong directions to get the car, so and I had to walk around the 30 degree parking garage searching for it for 45 minutes. Then I had to pay $200 in parking garage fees. So needless to say, my trip was a little stressful.

But with that said- I found the car, made it home safe, and am relaxing until I start the unpacking process yet again. And on a lighter note, we just got our confirmed plane tickets to the Bahamas for Zeke's all-expense-paid company trip in February, so that made me a little happier. A free trip to the Bahamas is always a way to brighten your mood!

I have some great stuff to post from my last week in town, but I am about to chew my hand off I'm so hungry. I'm going to head down to P Brennan's Irish Pub and have about 2-7 beers and some beef stew :) Cheers!