Just a Two-Hour Flight

Last night, I was at an urgent care clinic about two miles from the Magic Kingdom. As the doctor put drops in my eye to numb the pain he said, "We're pretty much 'Vacation-Horror-Story Central' here.  So, what's yours?"

Here's the story I told:  I had convinced Les that we should fly to Orlando this time.  After all, we were so recently in Florida and I really wasn't excited about making that drive again.  And,  it's just a two-hour flight.  We booked a flight for a reasonable departure time.  The taxi arrived a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. and we loaded up.  Just as the driver was pulling out, Cassie had to run back inside to get her phone. The driver agreed to turn off the meter, which kept Les from getting too angry when I also had to go back inside to help look.

Everything went smoothly at the airport, if you want to consider Jet Blue's policy of, "Okay, everybody, let's board!" smooth.  We had seats together; but, we were behind two toddlers who screamed the entire time while their parents nodded and smiled.  Two hours began to feel like a long time.  When we finally landed, the entire back half of the plane erupted in clapping and cheering. 

We got our bags and went to Hertz for our rental car. They didn't have the car we had requested and upgraded us to a Cadillac SUV.   Les and the girls were thrilled.  I should probably mention that my left eye had been sore when I woke up and by this time was almost swollen shut. Although I could barely see, I managed to get us headed toward the Shades of Green military resort.  We couldn't check in our Marriott condo until 4:00 and had planned to go purchase discounted tickets to Universal on the way.        

About five miles from the airport there was a huge clunking noise followed by a scraping noise. Les pulled over and, with my hand shielding my left eye, I circled the car and kicked the tires. They looked fine.  As it began raining, I bent down and looked under the car. 

"Oh, my!" I declared. "There's a big piece of rubber caught in the tires and there's something dripping!"

Les got out and decided  that something called the "front air deflector" had fallen off.  As we looked for the Hertz emergency number, a friendly police officer pulled up.  He stuck his head in Les' window and asked, "What seems to be the trouble, folks?"

We explained and he smiled and said, "Good thing this is a rental.  I ran the plates and they're registered to a Ford Mustang.  On top of that, they're expired!". 

The kind officer waited with us until our taxi arrived.  He then offered to stay until the tow truck came.  He wanted to get to the bottom of those license plates. 

The kids were being great, even though it was 3:30 and they hadn't eaten lunch.  In fact, Lacey was thrilled that we got to have two taxi rides in one day.   It took Hertz about 45 minutes to process a refund for our taxi ride. Then, we were packed in an identical Cadillac and on our way to our condo. We had decided the tickets would still be there tomorrow.

I will skip the details about how it took Les 45 minutes to find a clinic that was 1.5 miles away. After a two hour wait, I was given a prescription for conjunctivitis, which must be the adult name for pink eye, and sent on my way. 

When we got back to the condo, the girls had just finished preparing dinner. We had barbecue chips for an appetizer, spaghetti for dinner, soda and even coffee.  While we complimented their efforts, Cassie explained that they had gone to the hotel marketplace and  figured out how to charge everything to the room.  They had to make more than one trip to the market and Cassie was worried that the cashier was starting to think we had abandoned them.   Cassie had never cooked pasta before and I asked how she knew what to do.  She said that first, she had broken the noodles in half because they were too big for the pot.  Lacey added that the noodles had flown everywhere but that we shouldn't worry because she had picked them all up from the floor.  Then, Cassie had googled the boiling point for water.  Finally, to see if the noodles were cooked, she had thrown one at the wall, the way she had seen it done on "Modern Family."

At the end of the day I was thankful for my two fabulous kids and thankful that it was me with the eye infection and not one of them.

School Supplies

I've blogged about school supplies for the past few years and can't let this annual event pass without comment.  As usual, I am annoyed by the requirement that Lacey bring 48 pencils.  I stated emphatically that she would bring her own supply in her own pencil box and would not supply the rest of the class.  Cassie then reminded me that I had uttered the same edict last year and that Les had happily delivered Lacey and 48 pencils to her teacher on the first day.  Ah, well. 

As we downloaded supply lists and sorted through unused supplies from last year, I recalled how much fun it was to have that new backpack and those new shoes for the first day of school.  I decided to relax a bit and just let the girls have fun making some purchases.  They are well trained, though.  Cassie reminded me of the Virginia tax holiday.   She then printed relevant coupons from Target.  Lacey ran to retrieve a Target gift card that had been a birthday gift.  She was sure that it had at least .99 left on it and wanted to contribute that to the cause.

Bright and early on Day 1 of the tax holiday, we set off for Target.  We joined the herd of parents and kids making their way to the back corner of the store where school supplies are traditionally located.  Then, my kids whizzed through that madhouse like true pros.  One read from a list while the other grabbed for the item.  They ignored all the extras - exotic book covers, scented  highlighters, mini kleenex packages, erasers shaped like flowers - and stuck to their task.  When they got to "four pocket folders" on Lacey's list, she selected the ones that were only .15 apiece.  We finished in record time and were quickly checking out.  Lacey was delighted that her gift card still contained 2.99 and was sure that would free up enough money for the monogrammed backpack that she wanted.  I congratulated the girls as we came in with a grand total of 82.09.  If that seems like a lot to you, you're not familiar with the requirements of Northern Virginia schools.  Just imagine what our total would have been if we didn't already have a calculator, composition books, spiral notebooks, pens and graph paper left from last year.

Shopping at Target

Day 2 of the Tax Holiday found us taking advantage of Nordstrom's semi-annual shoe sale.  I promised each girl one pair of shoes.  We began in the kid's department with Lacey.  We tried everything we could think of to attract her to the boots, flats, high tops, loafers and Mary Janes.  Nothing doing.  All she wanted was a pair of pink Converse sneakers.

Cassie's choice took more time.  While her feet seem to have stopped growing, her collection of shoes can now expand.  Lacey and I watched and waited patiently through the first few rounds of trying on.  Then, Cassie's eyes lit up as she spotted a distant pair of boots.  Look what happened. . .

I'm not sure - which ones do you like?

OMG!!  Do you think those come in brown?



Seriously Cassie?
 

Hmmm....

These are the ones!

I consented to the boots, but stipulated that there would be no horse to follow!