Things that ha ha ha happen when you travel

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You're going away on a trip; maybe it's spontaneous or a planned family vacation. Chances are you will be in an airport, or a hotel or both long before you'll  reach your ultimate goal.. that beach chair with a rum drink slathered with sun tan lotion.

In those places teaming with people anything can happen, you can bump into a neighbor, your high school gym teacher, your bunk mate from that summer camp thirty years ago. But I have come to the believe the most amusing things actually happen on those chance encounters with virtual strangers.

Here's what I mean....


THE PLANE- STINKY MAN

You're sitting on a plane you get all comfortable, put your book in the seat back in front of you,  get your ear buds ready in case chatty Susie sits in next seat, you buckle up AND.....then the person next to you slips off their jacket and you GAG; holy crap doesn't this person know what deodorant is?  Of all the stinking luck!!

THE AIRPORT TERMINAL BAR -MY LIFE STORY GUY

You're waiting for your flight and go to the bar for a beer and a burger. You're reviewing  in your mind how you made it thru security without event.You did not get felt up by a big very serious unattractive person...it's your lucky day....THEN  the person next to you says hello, you nod politely. Before you even take two sips of your beverage they're already ten years, two divorces and 140 alimony payments into their life story!  Can anyone say INDIGESTION?

BAGGAGE HANDLER-MARIO ANDRETTI
You ran to the last gate because that's how it always is when you have a connecting flight.It is NEVER the first gate when you're in a hurry. They're just about to close the cabin doors but they let you in regardless. You're huffing and puffing as you plop in your seat then you glance out the window and apparently you're not the only one behind schedule. Mario Andretti baggage guy comes speeding across the tarmac luggage for the flight you've just gotten off in tow. As he's approaching you spot you're uniquely patterned luggage at the top of the heap. YIPPEE you think to yourself, a bit red faced you check to make sure you didn't actually yell that aloud. Right at that moment your attention is drawn back to Mario who begins to whip his truck more directly in the planes direction and as he turns your luggage hurls in the air and lands like a ton of bricks on the black surface.Say it all together now LOST LUGGAGE.

HOTEL-COUGAR,I DON'T THINK SO!
Your twenty something SON has two tickets to a concert and he asks you to go, A friend admittedly his first choice didn't care for this band but your happy to go anyway.You get a great place to stand by the railing overlooking the stage and not to far from the bar. The music is loud and the beer is cold and wet. When the concert is over and you both hit the fresh and air two words become a clear possibility.....DRUNK DRIVING. You glance to the left and VIOLA there is a very large and respectable hotel chain within walking distance from where you're standing. As you're checking in the front desk attendant asks you carefully avoiding full eye contact "Madame would you and your (throat clear) like one bed or two?"

Do you travel? Most people who do have a story.

Why not share it with us.

Part 2 Bahama trip- The drama

Don't you love that feeling of the morning of a trip? I know I do; anticipation!! Bill and I had packed the night before, I had all of our paperwork, passports, confirmations for plane tickets, car rental and resort in my purse. I had a separate confirmation from the resort whose web page I had visited a zillion times to view the pictures. We were raring to go.

We had pre-arranged for to drive to Matthew's house in Richmond to leave our car at his place. He arranged to take a few hours off to drop us off at the airport so we didn't have to take a cab or pay for garage fees.

Our flight was leaving at around eleven a.m. It was early enough that we'd have almost a full day when we arrived in Freeport. Our plan was to pick up the car, pick up a few groceries and then check in.With map in hand and me as co-pilot all we had to do was slather on some sunscreen and we were ready for beach, sand, pool food and adult beverages.

Or so we thought!!

Now for the drama!

Let me just say this... I'm going to omit the real names of the parties (I will insert substitute names for the purpose of telling you what happen)- for now. And the reason? I have filed a complaint and am looking to be compensated to our ordeal. Needless to say until I hear from them it wouldn't be in my best interest to bad mouth them in an overt manner. If I do not get a more positive response than what I have gotten so far. I will share with you all the names. Heck, I'll probably their names whatever the outcome because it's just my nature to truthful about a consumer experience.

When we arrived at the airport and asked where our airline was checking in we were informed that they didn't fly out of Richmond. Talk about being sick to my stomach!  I had just received a confirmation just days earlier from the company I booked with.

We booked our plane tickets and car many months ago with one of those big online travel companies, lets for the sake of this post call them "hotpileofshit" You know the type of company I'm talking about they advertize all the time about giving you the best prices on tickets, hotels and cars. There are a few that have commercials on TV and I don't really have a preference I just used the one that gave me a direct flight. For the sake of this post let's call the airline we were supposed to fly with "bogusair."

Now most of you just know me and I pride myself as being pretty cool under fire. I've learned since the kids died not to sweat the small stuff. But we waited over six months and were really looking forward to this trip. I WAS beyond PISSED.

First I called "bogusair" How is it that they had those tickets for sale if they didn't fly out of Richmond? I got a big sorry for your inconvenience we'll be happy to refund your ticket price. And about new tickets? Sorry we don't fly out of Richmond so we can't help you. Really?! You're f'ing kidding me right?  At this point the porters at the airport thought my head was going to explode since I was sitting on an outside bench screaming into my phone.

Got the visual?

Then I called the people who had just days before sent me confirmation for my flights on "bogusair" direct from Richmond to Freeport Grand Bahama " "hotpileofshit." The customers service rep.  said she was sorry then told me maybe this wouldn't have happened if I would have checked the flight myself! Seriously??

Then she put me on hold for forever to confirm that "bogusair" was refunding my money. I was pretty sure the airport structure was going to tumble when I shrieked at the woman when she finally got back on the line that . "she better get me on a f'ing plane to the Bahamas and  do it now or I swear someone's gonna pay." 

From my mouth to God's ears.

As it turned out someone did pay and those someone's were Bill and I . "Bogusair" and "hotpileofshit" refused to pay any additional costs to us for their total fail in booking. We sat at the airport all day. Had to fly that night to Phillie, spend the night in a hotel and then fly to the Bahama's the next day. Do you know how cold it feels in Phillie at 11pm in the wind when you're dressed for the Bahama's?

What did this little drama cost us?

One lost day's vacation. priceless
Additional plane ticket costs, baggage fee's,Phillie hotel, fee to change car rental arrangements.....$500.00
Loss in the belief that there is such a thing as good faith. priceless

What did "the anchor"do?

I wrote a polite but straightforward complaint email to customers service at "hotpileofshit". Their response was to offer us a $50.00 credit towards our next booking and a sincere apology. Needless to say I consider the money part an insult. I contacted a consumer advocate who deals with many issues primarily travel (his name is Christopher Elliott http://elliott.org/ ) who has intervened on my behalf by contacting them about our situation. I'm hoping we'll get a more positive response now that he's involved.

What's I think.

Just watching the news lately it's clear nobody wants to take responsibility for their behavior or their mistakes. I've come to believe that these two businesses conduct themselves like government or even some low life man who beats his wife and then blames it on her. What's wrong with just saying let me be honest I made a mistake let me make it up to you?  What the hell is wrong with our society people?  "Bogusair" washed their hands of me when they refunded my money and left me stranded and "hotpileofshit" blamed it on them and slapped a paying customer in the face.

Something is seriously wrong!

From Virginia to NY and back again..

I have to say, Thanksgiving holiday has to be the worst time to travel! But family is so important to me and I just couldn't miss Thanksgiving dinner at my brother and sister in laws or my cousins wedding. Going from point A to point B which in this case is Virginia to New York and back again is becoming a real pain in the ass and has become especially difficult for my Mom as she ages. Realistically what should be a seven to eight hour drive tops ends up being a ten to eleven hour drive due to holiday traffic. It is truly horrible.

But staying home and missing the festivities isn't really an option. Who could miss the opportunity to hang out with these ladies?

My niece Alex, my cousin Jeanmaire in blue,
my sister in law and my niece Sydney in the front left.

I like to cook and frequently host holidays and parties at my house. But my brother and sister in law do such an amazing job on Thanksgiving dinner and that gives me the freedom to have a bit of fun baking.

The picture below is a yummy new recipe of a pumpkin yeast dinner roll that I tried for the first time this year. They taste as good as they look! I got the recipe on the blog beyond kimchee. If you'd like to check out the recipe yourself just click on the blog name and it will take you to the link for the recipe. We just made one small change in the original recipe because my nephew is deathly allergic to any tree nuts and they were the ingredient she used for stems, we substituted dates.

pumpkin yeast rolls

And the wedding; I just love weddings don't you? My cousin Howie and his wife Lorraine's son Brian got married to Lauren. Young love....sigh. They are a stunning young couple aren't they? They're off to Hawaii for their romantic honeymoon and then back to New York City to their new life in their new apartment.

Lauren and Brian

And the reception was at an amazing and elegant country club on the north shore of Long Island. We drank, ate and danced the night away in celebration of this young couple starting their lives together.

Standing is my fathers sister Marie
on the left his other sister Genevieve and my Mom

I always have the best intentions when I go to one of these big family affairs to take tons of pictures, however I spent just about every minute on the dance floor dancing or catching up with family and old friends from the beach who were also guests. Oh and then there was the jerk on the dance floor but that story deserves a separate post. But I did get this picture of the Aunts! 

home or away?

With our mums set out in their usual location on the front porch and Bill busy at the task of burning leaves in the burn barrel I took a walk around the property.

Thoughts of my family on Long Island are heavy on my heart as I stroll amongst the woods. Leaves gently falling all around me and it dawned on me Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

 front yard

The weather here has been more like shorts and t-shirt weather for the past few days but nothing good lasts forever and rain is in the forecast. I can't help but notice all those little things that make fall such a beautiful season.

Pine cones strewn on a bed of pine needles on the ground, trees gone to seed. It really is a sight to see and it's all right out my back door.

This Thanksgiving Bill, Mom my cousin Jeanmarie and I will be heading up to New York to my brother's house. It was actually their turn to have Thanksgiving here with us but we have a family wedding the next day so they're having us two years in a row.

seed pods from an ash tree

How about you? Will you be spending Thanksgiving at home or will you be going away like us?

traveling the wrong way..

On our way home from NY last Tuesday on the plane there was this woman coughing. I swear she didn't stop for the entire hour we were in flight! Because I'm a bit of a wise ass dubbed her hacking woman. Hacking woman might have given her fellow plane mates the courtesy of putting on a mask but I guess some people just don't think. I tried not to think about which one of us was going to get sick breathing in all that dry recirculating air filled with her grems but it really is hard to think with all that coughing going on in your ear.

Don't you think that the airlines should give masks to people who fly sick? 

Like clockwork, on Friday morning Mom called me ( she lives next door) saying her sinus were bothering her. Saturday she started coughing, by Sunday night she was in distress and having trouble breathing. It is remarkable and rather surprising how quickly an elderly person can progress into illness. The three of us headed off to the hospital so Mom could some medical treatment. Mom was admitted with an infection and fluid in her lungs, complicated by the fragility usual health problems of an 84 year old person. Needless to say emergency rooms haven't changed and they take forever and a day which in Mom's case was six hours. They finally got her into her room at 2:30 a.m. deciding on breathing treatments and 02 to help he breathe, meds to help remove the fluid from her lung, anti-biotics for the infection. When we were satisfied she was in good hands and comfortable as anyone can be when sick and tired  (both literally and figuratively)  we headed home.

Have you ever seen someone driving so recklessly that you called the police?

We live a good half hour's drive on the interstate from the hospital. We were about half way home when Bill said to me,"do you see that car ahead of us?" It was 3:00 a.m so there was only a few of us on the long two lane road which is unlit. A small dark colored compact car was weaving from one lane to the shoulder to the other shoulder to the lane and back again. Truly it was hard to miss!  A large tanker truck attempted to pass it on the left and the car almost crashed into it, gosh it was a close one!! After watching this driver for a number of miles weave in the most dangerous manner it was clear he or she was either going to kill themselves or someone else. I have never! I dialed  the State Police and they said they'd get a car out to look for the car answering to the description I gave. But they instructed us not to get close enough to get the plate number since that would be endangering ourselves and we just weren't going to do that. At this point  the car's driver decided to pull off into a rest area and we followed. The driver who was a woman put her head down on the steering wheel to rest and we were able to get the tag numbers and call the State Police back with that info. Maybe she was drunk or maybe she was having a medical emergency whatever the case she was a danger to herself and other needed taken off the road.

Is there is lesson to be learned here? 

Drink on a plane not in a car, seriously!  And if you're sick get your ass in the car go get treatment, don't get in a plane.
Just sayin!

here's the O'scoop- about my St Patty's Day

This St Patty's Day I went to the parade with my cousin's Jeanmarie and Colleen  her friend Jim  and her son Landon my husband Bill and our friends Claire and her partner Dewene. 

Claire{ left} Jeanmarie{ center }Dewene{ right }me { back}
at the parade

The parade was great, lot and lots of different floats, bands. Irish groups, bagpipes and others. I have to say I attended this parade years ago and it has grown tremendously these past years, the crowds were huge.

This is a shot down to the end of the parade where the festival was to take place when the parade concluded. It was such a mad house and was so crowded with people we actually skipped it and went to a local restaurant and had lunch. My cousins were having a party so....

We arrived early and got a place on the curb  much like the people in these pictures. Actually I took these pictures which were to the left  and across the street of where we sat. Oh my aching rear end, we didn't bring pillows and the curbs are granite!

St Patty's Day is a big day for people of Irish decent. Actually my Aunt Frances would say everyone is Irish on St Patty's Day! On this day in the company of friends and family, we'll share food and beer, shots of Jameson Irish Wiskey and to listen to Irish music; and we did!

 my cousin colleen thinks if she smiles we're not going to notice she's drinking
Italian beer on St Patty's day, shame shame!

Katie with Jameson Irish Whiskey Jello shots- green jello of course!

Did I mention the funny hats? My husband's hat was so funny he actually got the Guinness truck drivers attention. The man stopped the truck in the middle of the parade to give him a thumbs up on his original head wear.

.    

Bill, my husband

Hans and Jeanmarie are wonderful hosts and have a beautiful home. Hans cooked up a storm and became Irish for a day, he cooked a ton of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots and I shouldn't forget to mention that my Mom peeled for him!

Hans O'Schuler taking a quiet moment from all the madness

 We told jokes, sang songs and some of us even wore green hair and red hair,  the more embarrassing the better.  We're very good at it, it's what we do!

Jim and his beautiful flowing green hair

Claire with her cap and red hair wig

Hans and Amy

My cousin Hans who is my favorite beer brewer and his lovely wife came ready to "party" to the party at his parents house. Their little son was visiting with his other grandparents since this was an adults only party!

We returned on Monday, very tired after a few great days hanging out with the cousins and our friends down in Charlotte. I promise once I catch up on things here at home { like sleep} I'll catch up on all my blog reading and commenting.

decorating, shopping and packing oh my!

I'm going to NY for Thanksgiving and after that a weeks vacation so there's a ton of stuff to be done before or there won't be time when I get back.


Needless to say.....

My house is currently littered with boxes of Christmas decorations, crazy right? I have never in my life put up Christmas decorations before the tenth of December. Doing it before Thanksgiving is something department stores do! There getting out of hand by the way have you noticed? Christmas was up before Halloween this year in some stores, really they need to get a grip.

We did last minute thing today like refilling our prescriptions; you know your getting old when that's on your to do list before a trip. Gift card for the cat sitter, cat food so our roommates get fed while we're gone, extension cords for decorating- they seem to disappear like socks in the dryer in this house, and buying sun tan lotion for our Barbados trip. I will not even go into how much I need this vacation after the long summer I had with my leg wound. 

But we do what we have to do and I'm running out of days before I leave to be with my New York family on Tuesday. Of course there are sacrifices, I can't spend Thanksgiving with my children, but work schedules don't allow that anyway.

And my Godson and nieces are expecting my for some good ole fashioned baking! Isn't it great when kids enjoy the simple pleasures?

There will be pies, pumpkin, and most likely apple and pumpkin roll and on Thanksgiving Day home made rolls. These rolls from scratch only take and hour and are yummy. Believe me when I tell you, roll making is  an art form here in the south.   I got the recipe below from my friend Susan whose family has been here in the south forever. They've simplified another family recipe so that it's easier for those days when you're in a rush or you just would rather be with your loved ones and not in the kitchen.

Why not try it out this Thanksgiving? They have never failed for me!

SIXTY MINUTE ROLLS

2 pkg of yeast

1 tbsp sugar to 4 tbsp (depending on the level of sweetness you like, I like the least amount)

1 1/2 c. milk (warm)

1/4 c. butter, melted

4 c. flour 

1tsp. salt 

In a large mixing bowl, add yeast and sugar to warm milk, to dissolve yeast. Let stand for 15 minutes. Mix the dry ingredients together to the milk mixture along with the melted butter. Mix well. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes in a warm place. Form 24 rolls, each the size of an egg ( you can make them bigger if you want).Place them on a greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

I'll be checking in after Tuesday and thru Friday and might squeeze in one more post by Thanksgiving  but I'll  be taking a break from blogging while I'm in Barbados, ya think!

So, just in case I don't get another chance to say it, I hope everyone of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving;  may it be filled with Gods blessings, bounties of food and wine and plenty of togetherness with those you love.

Gotta go pack!

Thanksgiving plans & a peek at the past

I received my yearly nosy cousin e-mail today from Kathleen, who is obviously my....cousin. duh! She sends it out every year to friends and family to find out where we'll all be for Thanksgiving. She loves to know what we'll be eating and who we'll be eating it with,  because she loves us and because ...she's nosy!

We ( my husband, my mom and me)  are taking a road trip to NY to my brother and sister-in-law's for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what we'll be eating there this Thanksgiving but I know it's gonna be great. My brother is some cook!

I have Thanksgiving at my house usually every other year- sometimes more!  Here's a few pictures that I dug up from a few years ago that I thought I'd share. I know I have tons more from other Thanksgiving's but to keep it simple I've decided to stick with showing you one year.

1.Matthew and his Aunt Denise  2.my nieces Sydney, Alex and my granddaughter Jillian in the leaves
3. Matthew and my godson's Gerard modeling their butts 4. Me (Jen) and my brother Gerard getting ready to carve the turkey.

1. Me (Jen) and my son Matthew on the phone. 2. Mom ( Mary ) and my niece Alex having a hug. 3 Matthew and little Gerard playing Frisbee in the driveway. 4 Bill and our niece Alex enjoying the day out on the deck.

So my friends, in honor of my dear cousin Kathleen I going to ask because I'm nosy too, it runs in the family! What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you staying home and cooking or are you going out? What special people will you be spending your holiday with this year?

my trip to D.C with the family

Our trip to DC was great, the drive is just under three hours so it really is a good trip to do for us. Just close enough but not to much of a hassle if you time the traffic right to get there without thinking your driving in a parking lot.

Me, my husband, our son and my mom borrowed our daughter's mini van and with Bill at the wheel we  headed up for a few days to meet my brother and niece and do some sight seeing. 

Matthew works five days on and five days off at his job, he's having a little snooze after working some very long 12 hour tours.

My mother is reading a text message! I believe it was my brother calling me old but saying it was my niece writing the texts. You know why? He's older of course!

I know I should have did my roots but instead of making excused of why I'm so grey; I'll tell you the back story of why my brother Paul and my Goddaughter Amanda who live in Hawaii were going to DC. Actually they started their trip in New York visiting with my brother Gerard and my sister in law Denise and kiddies, Syd, Gerard and Alex. Then they popped on an Amtrak to DC for the second half of their trip for a little sight seeing before heading to Virginia for a visit with Mom and us.

We arrived at the hotel within twenty minutes of them and went directly to the nearest Irish Pub, sorry no pictures of that my camera batteries were dead that minute and my replacements were around the corner in the hotel. God bless my brother who spotted the Pub on his two block walk from Union Station to the Washington Court Hotel where we stayed.

Yeh!  My niece Amanda  had this picture of the Pub door on her camera! I'm so happy to be able to add this to my post.

The hotel was very nice by the way, clean and reasonably priced. Our only problem was and how can I put this delicately, the walls were "thin" either that or the ladies in the next room lets just call them Mona were very uninhibited, morning, noon and night; bless their hearts!

So then to get off to sight seeing, Mom begged off since being pushed around DC in a wheel chair was just not her cup of tea we headed off in the direction of the Smithsonian's with our hearts set on the American History one. This is us in front of it, actually this picture shows the building across the street.

In the Presidents section of the museum they had these cool street signs the glowed against the dark back round when I took this picture I thought this might be a nice desk top background if you were a president freak or a road sign enthusiast.

Then we were off and walking after they kicked us out of the museum at 5:30. And the next day there was more walking and some driving in the van.... this is what we saw.

This is the Achieves, the building is so huge, much like everything in DC that from the sidewalk this was all that would fit in the picture frame of my digital camera, there are tons of stairs and a whole lot more building missing from the picture, the building is incredible.

Paul and Matthew dwarfed by the rotunda of the Capital Building...looks so huge doesn't it?

Here's Matthew and Amanda, I see the family resemblance don't you?

Me and my brother Paul hanging near the Washington Monument;  I didn't notice any cracks or tilting.

We wanted to get some pictures of the Washington Monument, just in case. With all the news of cracks and repairs...well you never know!

My brother was very impressed with the grass in DC, he dubbed it the "big grass". I guess living on a small island such as Oahu, most everything looks big here. My husband mows tons of grass weekly...not so impressed *giggle*

I grabbed this picture from one block over and you can just see parts of the White House peeking up threw the trees. 

My brother Paul and Amanda on the grass  with the Washington Monument in the background.

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial you can see the reflecting pool is getting a make over. It struck me how large it really is when the huge machines that were excavating it appeared to look more like Tonka toys from above!

And good ole President Lincoln, looking so majestic overseeing all that construction and all the throngs of tourists, he really is a beautiful monument.

And don't think Mom sat in the hotel the whole time, we did get her out and about...

Even at 83 a woman's gotta eat so we put Mom on the Metro, see Matthew was her driver and we all went down to Chinatown for dinner. We had a great meal there. Actually it should be mentioned DC is a very handicapped friendly city the corners have ramps and the metro stations have elevators so we didn't have to much of a problem navigating her around other than we were unfamiliar with the location of the elevators.

So anyway Mom's meal was spectacular, she ordered steamed oysters in black bean sauce WOW was it a sight! And this time I did have my camera.

There was a lot more to see but alas not enough time, back to the house for us there was a large TV and a baseball world series game that needed to be seen. The next day my daughter and family are coming so there's another post needing to be written. There's food, birthday cake, and a hike on my property and some awesome photography by my grandson Xavier that needs to be shared.

Until then.....