Sorry it’s been so long since our last update. While things have been happening over the last couple of months, most of it is of interest only to those involved, and I suspect I’m not as entertaining a storyteller as I’ve tried to be. I’ll make an effort here, and you folks can tell me if it was worth the wait.
We went back to the States for a few weeks this summer. The flight there was an absolute nightmare.
We left Rome on time, and arrived at Dulles with no issues. One of our bags though, went missing sometime in the interim, and we had to wait about an hour for it to be located before we could go through Customs and Immigration. Slight delay, but so far so good.
The flight from Dulles to Houston was delayed several times, then cancelled. We waited in the throng of people and were eventually rescheduled onto a flight leaving at 8:30 the next morning, but weren’t allowed to claim our luggage. We were given a voucher for 50% off of a room for the night; this voucher turned out to be worthless, as no more rooms were available at that price, from that company in the Dulles area. We hoofed it to the taxi area downstairs and managed to find (after several false starts) a room available at a hotel about 20 minutes by cab from the airport. I put my credit card down on it over the pay phone. I had no cell phone with me, and left word with relatives to shoot Becca an email and tell her that everything was taken care of, so she wouldn’t worry. We then caught a taxi to the hotel.
I left a wake-up call for 5:30 the next morning and set the in-room alarm, but I was concerned about waking up on time, as it was almost midnight when we got in, and we’d all had a long day. Palmer and I slept in the king sized bed, and Cori claimed a recliner. I wasn’t in the mood to argue with her, so that’s where we all ended up. It took a while to get to sleep, and I had just dozed off when the room phone rang. I snapped awake like I’d been splashed with cold water, and couldn’t believe it was already 5:30. Turns out, I was right; I’d only been asleep for a few minutes, and it was Becca. She had looked at the online banking sites for the credit cards that she knew I was carrying, and had called all the local branches of the hotel chain which had charged my card until she found us. We talked for a few minutes and she agreed to call again at 5:30 our time as an additional alarm clock.
The kids and I woke up before the alarm(s) and spent a few minutes organizing our meager piles of possessions (no luggage, remember) until Becca called. I didn’t tell the kids that she was going to call, and asked Palmer to answer the phone. Imagine his surprise to answer the phone for a routine wake-up call and have his mom on the other end!
We got to Austin “on time”, but our luggage didn’t (of course). It had evidently taken yet another route there, and showed up in the middle of the next night. Our journey there ended up taking 48 hours, counting the luggage and all, but at least we’d finally made it.
The kids and I planned to be there for 5 weeks, and Becca was able to get a 2 week temp assignment to the Austin office during our visit – but we didn’t tell the kids about it; partially because we didn’t know until the last minute if it would work out, and partially because we have a pathological need to surprise them (you saw a hint of this earlier, right).
A couple of days after the kids and I got there, Becca flew in on a late night flight and snuck into my folks house (where we were staying) while the kids were sleeping. The next morning, the kids Skyped with her, unbeknownst to them, from one side of the house to the other. I told the kids that I’d bought something for Becca the night before after they went to bed, and sent them both into the bedroom to get it – at which point they walked into the bedroom to find their mother sitting on the floor. They just about peed their pants.
Becca stayed for her 2 weeks, and we tried to see everyone on our collective lists; friends, family, ex-coworkers, neighbors… the kids and I went spent a week at Schlitterbahn (a local waterpark).
The flight back had only a couple of minor hiccups, and we arrived back in Rome with no major issues.
That’s enough for now… next update, what’s happened in Rome since we got back.
Ciao, y’all!
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