2002-12-28 - 7:10 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "How Great Thou Art"

Hey, I'm back. Sorry for disappearing -- apparently I made Mark worry a little. Work was hectic the three days before I left on the 18th (just in time to miss Jason, dammit), and then once I got there I didn't have any privacy to post journal entries. So. We got back last night.

Before I forget: Poindexter is mildly irritated with me for talking about his cankers in the last entry, although when I asked if I should remove the entry he said no. But just in case, just to clarify:

CANKER SORES ARE NOT CONTAGIOUS.

POINDEXTER DOES NOT HAVE ANY DISEASES.

There.

His mother is thrilled beyond belief that he's found the stuff. She hated seeing him suffer when he was a little kid. We even brought it with us, just in case.

Wouldn't it be ironic if (wait, is that irony? yes) he never got another one, now that he has the stuff.

On the plane last night, there was a 45-minute delay in the plane taking off. We had to return to the gate. The reason was that there was a man crying and the flight attendants were trying to persuade him to get off the plane and take a later flight. Once they returned to the gate, however, he didn't want to get off.

That freaked me out right good ("What? Is he on drugs? I don't want some hysterical freak on this plane! Get him off!"), until I found out that the man had Down's Syndrome. Then all I wanted to do was run down and give the guy a hug and hold his hand. I mean, why wasn't someone traveling with him? Jeez. Apparently he was sitting next to an elderly couple whoe notified the flight attendants. I hope they were nice to him. I hope that they were able to help him overcome his fears. I hope that if he did fly, he didn't have the turbulence that we did. It was a bit bumpy for a while there.

On top of that, during the ENTIRE FORTY-FIVE MINUTES we were waiting, there was some infant in the last row screaming its head off. Completely inconsolable. It was painful to listen to, and I felt bad for the parents. I had to turn my hearing aids off for a while because I didn't know what was wrong, if the kid was in pain or what (it sure sounded like it), and it was upsetting me. FORTY FIVE MINUTES of this. CRY gasp CRY gasp CRY gasp. It doesn't bother me a bit noise-wise, just that I worry about the kid.

Then, FINALLY, we take off, and guess what? The kid passes right out. Nothing like a plane engine or vacuum cleaner to put an infant to sleep. If we hadn't had the delay, the kid would've been spared forty-five minutes of strenuous crying. Freaky.

And on top of THAT, I found out AFTER we landed -- I missed this little snippet due to noise -- that my seatmate was on his way to New York because his mother was dying. Jesus God. I felt terrible. If I'd known, I would've invited him to play cards with us to help the time pass a little. Hopefully he watched the end of "Analyze This" with us -- we started it on the way down and finished on the way back.

Ugh.

On the way back from picking up my nieces at the airport, the girls amused themselves and Poindexter by chanting rhythmically, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?". They could keep it up for quite a while. Poindexter pretended like they were rapping and bobbed his head around.

Then he started telling them that he wasn't sure if we were headed in the right direction. They didn't seem to believe him. Then I saw a sign for the town, and said, "Do you know what town your grandparents live in?"

And Christie says, "Bloomingdales?"

Not too far off the mark, really.

Then there's Kelly talking about the trip on the airplane: "I don't like flying because they make you eat food you don't want."

More Florida stories later. And I still have Second Christmas coming up with my folks next weekend. We're going to do the whole thing -- "Christmas Eve", stockings, and presents on "Christmas morning", just like we did last year. Should be fun.

In the meantime, here's the gratuitous photo for today, although my eyes are blocked out. MIL's neighborhood had a block party for the kids, and I went with my nieces. They had one of those air-filled castles the kids jump around in. All it took was a request from Christie to get me in there. I think you can tell I'm having fun:

previous index next