My Trip to Blog World: The Trip Home

This is the final post about my trip to Blog World Expo in Las Vegas last week. It's a long one.  In case you haven’t been following along, you might want to read here, Part 1 and Part 2.

4:45pm

OK, so we finished with two very looooong days schmoozing our way around Blog World. We pack up in record time and my boss drives away in his rental car. He had to find a FedEx to ship parts of the booth home and I had until 6pm to check out of my hotel…which I could see off in the distance. Shouldn’t be a problem…I’m feeling pretty good and my brain starts shifting to thoughts of going home to my little ones. I suddenly miss them. I get into the taxi line at the convention center. We wait. And wait. And wait.

5:15pm

I’m finally the first in line with about 20 people behind me. We wait. And wait. And wait. No taxis. My room key only works until 6pm. I paid $30 extra to be able to go back for a quick shower before my red-eye flight. I team up with a couple of strangers also staying at my hotel. We calculate that it would take about 45 minutes to walk back to the hotel…too late now…and our feet really, really hurt from being on them all day for the last two days. We walk to the closest hotel, about 100 yards or so away and begged a limo to drive us. For $20 each. I would’ve paid $50 at that point.

6pm+

The front desk let me into my room even after my key expired. They were very nice about it. I threw my stuff together and took a quick shower.

6:45pm

Finally checked out of my room. Grabbed a quick dinner at a Mexican restaurant called “El Nopal”. I remember thinking it’s going to be a long night, hope this doesn’t make me sick…if it does it’ll make a good blog post…El Nopal was No Pal of mine…tee hee.

7:15pm

I decided not to mess around before my 10:40pm flight back to Boston. I quickly grabbed a taxi back to the airport. When I got up to the Jet Blue check-in booth she asked for my name.

We don’t have anyone flying to Boston tonight with your name. Are you sure your flight is today?

Does that really happen? I wonder what idiot would get the wrong date on their reservations. I hand her my receipt.

Mrs. Xx, you’re flight isn’t until tomorrow night.

I think the weight of my exhaustion and the stress built up over the last couple of days finally hit me. Like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my eyes. And, damn it, I hate to cry. Not gonna do it. I had all I could do to say but I promised my 5 year old I’d be there when she gets up in the morning!

Apparently, the flight was pretty full. My ticket wouldn’t allow me to fly standby?! WTF?!

She looks at me and says please, don’t cry. Give me a minute…I’ll be right back.

Well, I don’t know what secret stash of tickets she accessed, but after a 2 minute phone conversation, she comes back and says

This is your lucky day. You found a fellow mom (and she shows me a picture of her 3 kids she’s wearing on a badge around her neck). I have been in your shoes and I hate to be away from my kids. We can’t have a disappointed little girl wake up without Mommy, can we? I’m going to put you in seat 1C, on the aisle, so that you can get out quickly tomorrow morning. And I’m only going to charge you the $25 change fee.

I had to force myself to remember to breathe. In. and. Out. First fighting the tears because I wasn’t going to get home…then I had to push them back again because she was being way too kind. I’m an ass. It was totally my fault. I booked the damn flight. I was the one who grabbed the chance to fly away from my kids for 2 days…lured by the opportunity of an entire bed to myself and adult conversation…I was too busy doing a happy dance to properly check the date on the damn tickets. I didn’t deserve her kindness…but I so very appreciated it.

I thanked her again and again and once more…and then went through security and to the gate. I think trying so hard to hold back the tears made my brain swell. I could feel a migraine coming on. I don’t get them often…but when I do, ouch. The lights. The sounds. The pain. The nausea. If you’ve ever experienced them, you know just what I’m talking about.

8:15ish

I got to the gate and looked up at the board. The flight will be a couple of hours late. I had almost four hours to kill. I tried not to curse the airline…after all, I’m pretty damn lucky to be going home on this flight. I grabbed a seat and start reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

9:30ish

My migraine progresses. My neck and shoulders are all achy. I can barely see straight and want to throw up. I pay way too much for Tylenol and a Starbucks Hot Cocoa. I down 4 Tylenol with the cocoa.

Past Midnight

We finally board the plane. I’m exhausted, but feeling little better. I’ve read ¾ of the book. It’s an easy read, but very interesting to see into the mind of an autistic child. My migraine can officially be downgraded to a headache.

I sink into my seat and allow myself to sleep for a bit. I’m awoken to the sound of…someone throwing up. Yuck. There were a few people in the back of the plane that either had food poisoning or a virus. I vowed NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING. I didn’t get up and sat with my arms crossed for the remaining 3 hours of the flight.

8:20am

We land and after running immediately to a puke-free bathroom, I grab my luggage. I find my way outside to where the limos pick up. I have a driver that we’ve used in the past and he was available last minute. He drives a town car…and it’s usually cheaper than gas, tolls and parking at the airport. I wait. In the freezing cold. I still have sandals on. I think my feet might just get frost bitten. I wait some more…and then seek shelter in a little hut near the limo pick up area.

An aside, damn 9/11…when I used to travel all the time for work, the limo drivers could just live park and would be standing inside the warm airport with a sign. I always loved seeing my name. Now you actually have to haul your own stuff outside because they can’t leave their cars. No, I’m not spoiled. OK, well, maybe a little.

I gave up waiting and called my husband. Instead of being greeting with a cheery good morning, he got the honor of dealing with my psycho-hugely-pissed-off-alter-ego. He doesn’t have to deal with her often so he snapped to. He called the limo company. Apparently, they FORGOT to pick me up. No, this had nothing to do with the wrong flight being booked. I spoke with them directly. They apparently forgot to put me on the books. And he was in Dover, NH.  That’s over an hour away from Boston. I was livid…and exhausted…and cold…and very, very hungry.

10:00am

The limo driver finally arrives and apologizes repeatedly. I’m too tired to be angry anymore. I just wanted to go home…and that’s where we went.

--

All in all, I’m glad that I went to Vegas. Blog World was very interesting. It was fun to be back in the world of trade shows. The one good night sleep I got was fab-u-lous, even if it was in a smoking room.

This was the perfect lifestyle for me…when I was in my 20’s…and not married…and not a Mommy. The bottom line, the grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence at times, but I wouldn’t trade my life right now for anything. I’m glad I had the opportunity to prove that to myself by spending a couple of days on the other side.

Since becoming a parent, have you been given the opportunity to do something from your  pre-parent days? If so, please share. If not, where would you like to go if you could...and what would you do there? Leave a comment.

Comments

[badoozie]

Sorry to be off topic, but I needed to tell you how I interpret your personality based off your favorite alcoholic beverage comment you left on my blog, so here goes:

You are an ex teen pop star best known for your hit single "I'm hot and you're not". Your friends worry about your uninhibited nature as you can often be found laying in the middle of the road cheating death. Back in high school you were voted "most likely to eat ten cockroaches when not even drunk". Your family benefits from your groovy nature and often brag about you via letters to the editor of your local newspaper. You will probably be the first woman to be prosecuted for licking your neighbors mailboxes...

see ya later and good luck~

[BusyDad]

Sounds like all in all, this was good for you in so many ways! This summer, my wife and son took a 2 month vacation (yes, 2 months!) to her parents' place in the Philippines. I was by myself for 60 days! I actually took full advantage of this once in a lifetime experience to live like a frat boy. My friend (who is single - like most of my other friends), happened to have a vacancy at his house. Our other buddy also lives there. So, the 3 of us just lived like frat boys for 2 months. It was everything I imagined -- and that's all I'm gonna say!

[Dawn]

Oh ugh. Horrid trip home. Horrid.

My baby is still attached to my chesticles, so I haven't done anything in 7 months aside from the occasional couple of hours away. It'll happen, just not .... soon.