Home at Last

This is the view I had yesterday for about 6 hours in the Charlotte Airport. Alaina and Eric flew out at 7:00 am, but unfortunately there was a mix up on my flight and I wasn't scheduled to fly out until 5:45 pm. So we left the hotel at 5:00 am (3:00 here in Utah) to get them to the airport on time. I tried to get an earlier flight, but the earliest was at 2:20 and it was pretty full. I was put on standby and had to wait. I found a place to hunker down for a bit and sleep in between the overhead announcements blaring, "Would the person who left their makeup at security checkpoint B come back to claim it" and "Would the person who left their laptop at security checkpoint A come back to claim it" and other such announcements for absentminded people not too unlike myself. The floor was rock-hard and the air was close to the temperature of a frigid arctic wind blowing through.

I made my way to the gate around 12:30. I noticed a huge group of elderly people starting to drift in who I learned later were all headed for a cruise in Alaska. On of the ladies working at the gate came to the area I was sitting in and started asking people if they minded changing seats. I thought it was because some of the older people wanted to sit together. She came over and asked me; I told her I was on standby, so didn't have a seat yet. She told me that was okay and I gave her my ticket. After a while she came back around, and I heard her telling the two couples across from me that she bumped them up to first class because there were extra seats there. Then she came and gave me my ticket. I was so relieved that I had a seat and could finally go home, that I didn't even bother to notice on my ticket "First Class." I didnt' figure it out until I was waiting to board. I was looking at what seat I was in - 4C. I remembered from my previous flights that the first row in coach was 5. I almost cried when I saw "First Class" printed on my ticket. It sounds so stupid, but after the long day in the airport, it was like a pick-me-up. I thanked the woman profusely when I got up to give her my ticket.

I wasn't as lucky when I got to Minneapolis/St. Paul, but at least I got on the plane! I didn't care that I was squished in a middle seat. When I got back to Salt Lake City, by bag was missing. Turns out they put it on my later flight I was scheduled on, so it wasn't coming in until 11:45 that night. They delivered it to my house around 3:00 this morning. I didn't even hear the pounding on the door - Jeff went and answered it. I was down for the count.

North Carolina was beautiful. I was so impressed with the people there. Everyone was so sweet and polite. I had a lot of the same people in my classes on Thursday - a few even put up with me for all four classes that day! That is one of my favorite things about teaching - getting to interact with people in different parts of the country. I had a mother/daughter couple in two of my classes. The daughter was 10 going on 20 and so funny. At one point she asked me a question and started off with, "Miss Brenda." I told her mom that I was impressed with how polite she was, and her mom said, "yes, that's the way we do it in the south." I think it's so neat to have kids who respect their elders - ewww, does that include me? I guess so - I'm officially old!

We had a great group of women who helped us tear everything down on Saturday night in record time - 1 hour, 30 minutes! Don't mind me in this photo - I was sweating buckets and for some reason I look like I have a unibrow!
A blurry picture, but I have to include it anyway - Alaina and Eric loading the palletainer.
That was my last trip of the year - woo hoo! I'm ready to be home with Jack and Makele! Especially with Makele starting Kindergarten in a few weeks.