Saturday, July 12, 2014

San Jose to Austin, the traveling mom

Traveling early on a Saturday morning, I prepared to fly from San Jose back home to Austin with my husband, my daughter and her great grandmother (my husbands grandmother aka gg). Prior to boarding my husband mentioned we couldn't all sit together as the rows sat 6 across, 3 on each side. I proposed to the hubby as we were preboarding that he should sit with his grandmother and I would sit with our daughter. My thoughts were that this would allow for optimum capability to care of both and share the responsibility of making sure both were comfortable during the flight. As we boarded the plane I noticed that the front row still had two seats side by side available, to which I offered to my husband and his grandmother as I tried to redirect our daughter forward down the aisle to the adjacent row with the offer of her own window seat. For which daughter declined immediately professing the dire need to sit next to her great grandmother. This prompted gg to politely refuse the premium space and join us filling the row of three. Foreseeing the future of the flight and a potential stressful situation I shot my husband pleading eyes. While I cannot say whether he clearly read the message, he did offer assurance that he would be sitting right behind me. Alone. Capable of choosing whatever he might desire for his flight which most likely would include sleep since it was 6:40am and we had woken at 3:30am to reach the airport early enough for our flight.

While the first flight did arrive safely in Phoenix allowing us to switch planes, that was after enduring the ice cold water my daughter accidentally spilled all over me and the magazine gg gifted me with a dollar bill earlier in the flight. She (gg) had requested I complete the 30 steps to fold the dollar into a horse at which after multiple attempts to fold the tiny bits I was boiling with frustration. After the ice bath my patience boiled over and I thrust the magazine behind me to my husband with the dollar exclaiming "your grandmother is requesting a horse". As I had just interrupted his doze he tried protesting and I pushed back further, gg burst into laughter at the scene obviously aware at the requested tasks difficulty so early in the morning.

As we caught the second plane from Phoenix to Austin, the SW associate at the gate decided that instead of allowing the whole party to preboard like our previous flight she could only allow one of us and since she already scanned gg's ticket and my daughter's ticket she forced my husband and I to wait in line and board by number. None of my protesting changed her mind as she felt my 7 year old was an adequate escort for gg. Since any thought of negative behavior raises alarms in airports in this day and age I was forced to bite my tongue and move aside as she had already begun pulling other preboarders toward the gate. Once past the gate in the tunnel toward the aircraft I asked my husband if he finished his grandmother's horse. He exasperated a no which made it obvious he hadn't spent much time on attempts. I responded with a sarcastic laugh which prompted his inquiry for more information behind my apparent frustration.

This was my opportunity to explain my previous thought process behind splitting the seating and responsibility as we approached the planes entrance, for which he understood and agreed. But as we rounded the first corner it was clear that gg and daughter chose the same seats as the previous flight forcing us to sit 3 in one row and 1 alone. As my husband peered back at me regarding the situation, I responded with "your turn" and he slid across them to my former seating arrangement while I took my space in the row behind him.

Hearing gg chuckling she turned back to me and said" good move now you can take a nap", she then turned back to my husband stating "now you make the horse".

As I close my eyes I am grateful for gg's exuberance, it gives me something to look forward to when I think of the idea of aging. My eyes don't stay closed for long though,  as the flight is full and I find I'm sitting in front of a seat kicker and next to two gabbers, one who sounds like a step aunt I used to have that was a chain smoker with a very deep voice. I guess the only dream I get is the delirious daydream of a future nap.