The Blissful Ignorance

I'm very big on planning. Henry and I were to fly half way across the country by ourselves, with no direct flight from San Jose to Indianapolis, plus rental car, hotel, connecting with my friends and their kids, so I had every small step planned out way ahead of time. Our departure flight was Thursday morning at 10:55. Bill was to drop us off and go to work. We wouldn't land in Indy until 5:30pm California time. We might not have time for lunch at all since the layoff in Dallas was going to be only 40 minutes, and dinner will have to wait till Indy. We packed lots of snacks the night before, and I grabbed couple of bottles of nicely chilled water for the road. On the way to the airport, all the details were still racing through my head -- make sure Henry stays with me, he can be in charge of his own back pack (his snacks, toys, books), I need to drag the suitcase and his carseat (only needed for the rental car in Indy, not on the flights, thank goodness), all the papers are in the second zipper of my backpack, wallet in the left pocket, cell phone, reading glasses, sunglasses in the right. Drop off was uneventful, kiss my beloved good-bye, it's our longest separation in about a dozen years. The airport was very crowded but couple of volunteers helped us get everything upstairs and showed me the counters and security lines. The end of the lines were out to the parking garage, but they reassured me it wouldn't take long. The lines moved very fast. They confiscated my water bottles, but other than that it was amazingly smooth. I figured it must be some regulation I wasn't aware of, after all they confiscated countless knitting needles and knitters had to find new ways to entertain themselves for awhile. In fact, the security guard at the immigration office sent Bill to take my knitting to the car on February 4, 1999 when I went for my citizenship test (yes, that was 11 days before Henry was born and I did pass). Dallas was a horrible mess as I imagined. The first flight was late, leaving us about 30 minutes before the next flight. DFW is an incredibly big airport and we had to run from Terminal D to Terminal A. After 3.5 hours flight with no lunch, Henry was cranky, I promised him a cheeseburger with toy -- you'd think they have a fast food joint in a big airport in Texas! First find potty, then with 25 minutes left, we couldn't find how to get on the skylink. I held Henry hand and apologized over and over for not stopping at any of the restaurants we passed. I really don't want to be stranded in Dallas! It's a lovely 103 degrees and I have not desire of staying there. Skylink was fun once we got on it, very very fast, Henry wishes they are in every airport. We found our gate 15 minutes before departure time. Still couldn't find that cheeseburger, we ended up sharing a ham sandwich from Texan deli with rock solid French bread. Henry only ate the ham and cheese. After chowing down the sandwich, we took two minutes to get him a travel chess set from the newsstand. It wasn't until the next day when my friend Lori told me about the current events I finally realized what was going on. Should I have paid attention to the news on Wednesday night or Thursday morning I would be a basket case. I probably wouldn't cancel the trip given the cheapskate that I am, wouldn't waste the tickets I already paid for. Bill insisted that I needed to call him when I land in Indy and I only thought he was being insecure. Now I cannot stop telling my husband how nice it is to be home. My sweet lovie even bought me a watermelon, and yogurt smoothies for Henry. Home sweet home.