A Great Weekend Out of Town…

The quick two-day trip to visit Teresa and Elliott in their new home went great! Three women with similar genes traveling together could be interesting, but Susan, Krista, and I made it through. Susan was intent on not checking her bag, and Krista and I planned to check our bags. This was not a really big deal, but a low-lying theme that ran through our airport activities. I probably didn’t really have to check my bag since a lot of 3-ounce plus liquids that women carry, I don’t need along on a trip…shampoo, conditioner, mousse, hair spray. I just didn’t want to mess with taking my bag all the way to the plane, storing it above, etc. So, Krista and I checked; and Susan did not. We had a harrowing ride to the airport with Joe driving us. He reads highway signs along the way instead of looking ahead at stopped traffic at red lights so he had to stop on a dime at the Russell light. Susan had been giving him driving advice all along…usually my job, but I was happy to concede to her. At one point a whole carton of cigarettes on the dash went flying with each and very pack falling out. Krista said it was pretty amazing that I don’t even flinch during these episodes. What’s the point? The flight was good. Susan had drink tickets, so we started off our day at 9:00 a.m. with Bloody Marys…Hmmm. Teresa and Elliott picked us up at the San Jose airport. We had a very long day, visiting their home, office, town, and lunch at a possible wedding site. We checked into our hotel rooms and then headed for a BART ride to San Francisco to see Beach Blanket Babylon. It was probably 10:00 when we got back to the hotel so we were all pretty beat. Susan and Krista were roomies; I had my own room. The next morning when I opened my door, I saw newspapers up and down the hall but not one in front of my door or my daughters’ next door. To make a long story short, Susan stole my newspaper. She didn’t take one from across the hall or anywhere else; she took mine. She based this decision on an episode from the day before when reading a local CA paper, I handed it back and said I didn’t know anyone in the paper. However, earlier that day, we had commented on how we both had read the local paper before we went to the airport. Anyway, Susan interpreted my comment about the Pleasanton paper to mean that I wouldn’t be interested in the San Francisco Sunday Times. So, finally, guilt-ridden, I took a paper from across the hall, only to find out that my own daughter had taken mine. We had a good rest of the day, out for breakfast and then on to a huge mall in San Jose. Eventually, Teresa, Krista, Elliott, and I went to a movie at the mall, while Susan continued to shop. Soon, it was time to go back to the airport. An all-consuming man across the aisle from us, one row back, did not turn off his Blue Tooth after public address warnings so I turned him in to the flight attendant, and she made him turn it off. It takes all kinds, and he was a pain, completely engrossed in his own world of whatever seemingly importance he places himself in the realm of things. Everyone else could turn off their electronic equipment, but he was above the rest of us. Susan found a way to get out of a trip back down Russell with her father driving and arranged to have her husband and son pick her up. Of course, she didn’t check her bag so she could boogie right out of the airport. She had talked to her dad earlier and made the arrangement that we would call him on his cell phone when we had our bags and then he would leave for the airport, five minutes from where we live. So, Krista and I got our bags, and I dialed his number. I often refer to Joe as the unreachable man, and this held true once again. My calls, Krista’s calls to his cell phone or to the home phone went unanswered. We got a cab. Fortunately, I had an extra key to our door and one to get in a side gate, since I didn’t bring my remote for the car gate. Go figure, shouldn’t I have known? In the house, I told Krista to try calling her dad from the home number; maybe he’d recognize that we were home by then. I guess he finally heard that call and realized we were no longer at the airport. Where was the designated driver? He says he went to the airport, looked up what carousel our luggage would be on, and sat down to play slot machines. It was so loud when we were getting our baggage, I’m sure he wouldn’t have heard a siren going off. So, other than our ride to the airport, and our non-ride home from the airport, our trip was perfect. With all that’s happened to me in the last few months, it felt good to be a normal person on a short holiday trip.