Today was a totally craptastic day, pretty much from the beginning to the end. To be honest, I did not handle it well. To be even more honest, I have not been handling much very well. We are over booked and over scheduled and I thought I could handle it all and I can't. Charlie's new job is fabulous and he loves it but it is taking a toll on all of us. Compound that with a bunch of crazy, out-of-the-ordinary things happening all at the same time and I am about to lose it. This evening in one of my not so finer moments I told the girls I wanted to run away, in a very loud voice. I wasn't lying, I do want to run away, but that's not something you say to little kids. That's scary to them. I scared my girls.
It all started very early this morning. Today is the day that Andy left for Chicago en route to his trip to Spain with my parents. I booked him two days early in case there were any issues and so he could hang out with his cousins for a couple days without his pesky little sisters around. We got up at 6a so that we could leave at 7a so that he would be on time for his 9a flight. Charlie was also leaving for Chicago today (unfortunately on a different airline) where he was connecting to a flight to London. So I left with Andy and Amanda and Charlie stayed back so he could drop Sarah off a tiny bit early for the car pool ride to Girl Scout Camp.
The plan was to get Andy all checked it, make sure his plane took off okay (that's the rule with Unaccompanied Minors (UM), which he was today) and then drop Amanda off late to her Spanish camp before I went to my final Pilates class for the summer. Except nothing lately goes as planned. We got to the airport and got parked and inside without any issues. Once we got up to the gate we were informed that there was a weather advisory on Andy's flight due to weather in Chicago and he would not be allowed to board. They do not want UMs to board a flight with a weather advisory because it has a higher likelihood of getting cancelled or delayed or rerouted and they don't want to have to look after him in any of those instances. I understand the rule but at that moment was not happy with it. The advisory was on until 2p, so they rebooked him on a 2p flight and we left. We contemplated trying to get him on Charlie's flight but it wasn't going to work and it turns out that Charlie's flight was delayed and he almost didn't get to Chicago in time to make his connecting flight to London so it was better that he didn't have to deal with Andy.
I was so not happy at this point because I had paid to take the toll road to the airport (and home), paid to park and was now going to miss the Pilates class that I had already paid for and Andy was still in my possession. I will not keep a running tally of how much this day cost me because you don't even want to know.
I decided we were going to make the absolute best of the situation so instead of being late for camp Amanda was on time and Andy and I went out for a nice breakfast together and then did some shopping at REI for some camping gear he needs for scout camp in a few weeks.
We were a few minutes late picking up Amanda (which was actually an early pick up but not as early as I had wanted) and then made okay time to the airport but had a small snaffu with parking. There wasn't any. All the lots were full except for one, so I got a ticket and started looking for a space. Except we went up and down the aisles over and over again and couldn't find a spot. At this point we were an hour and a half away from departure time and we still hadn't parked. For some airports that isn't a big deal but for Denver International it is. I detest that airport. It takes forever to do anything there. I started freaking out, may have screamed very loudly a few times to relieve the stress and finally decided we needed to go park in one of the offsite long term parking lots that would get us to the terminal faster than trying to find a spot in that lot.
When I went through the ticket booth I told the guy there weren't any spots and I wasn't paying my ticket and he informed me that I had been in there 12 minutes and owed him $3. Twelve minutes I looked for a parking spot and couldn't find one and they were going to charge me for it. I yelled at him, apologized because I knew it wasn't his fault but I was mad anyway and paid the stupid fare because he wasn't going to let me out of the lot otherwise. I could have mailed in a protest but I needed a receipt and for $3 I didn't want to wait any longer. Thankfully the driver at the offsite lot saw how frazzled I was and took us immediately to the gate and didn't make us drive around that lot forever. I think in the time he got us there we still would have been driving around the first lot.
We found our way inside, got Andy's bag checked and found the shortest security line we could. When we were 10 minutes away from boarding time we started asking people if they would let us go in front of them. Everybody was really cool about it until we ran into someone who was only three minutes away from her boarding time and that kind of put a stop to our line jumping. Luckily, and it's not often that I say luckily about a flight delay, Andy's flight got delayed another hour right after we passed the TSA agent so we could stop rushing. Then we just had to wait.
He finally boarded around 3p and was in the air by 3:15. Only 6 hours after he was initially supposed to leave. I then went to pick up Sarah at her friend's house where she had been since they got home from camp. Within five minutes of Amanda running off to play with Sarah and her friends both girls came back yelling that the other was lying and tattling on each other. I should have just left right then, but told them instead to work it out or we would leave. My wonderful friend, Theresa, invited us to stay for dinner which was awesome because I had nothing planned at all and it was getting late. One of the few positives in the day.
So we stayed to eat and in the meantime my sister called to say she had picked up Andy and he was safe with her. I think he landed about 15 minutes after I got to Theresa's house. Man. After dinner it started to thunder and lightening and it was getting late anyway so the girls and I went home. They were both scared so I told them they could sleep with me tonight until they started fighting again and I just lost it. I cannot tell you how tired I am of them fighting. It used to be rare but now it's all the time and Sarah just gets mean and doesn't know how to be the older, more mature person so it gets nasty.
I'm so done, and I told them so. Some of it they heard, some of it they ignored, some of it will probably scar them for life. Not my finest hour, but I just couldn't handle another thing today and there was no relief in site. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. For now I'm happy to know that Andy is safe and happy and is about to go on the trip of a lifetime.
And the girls are finally asleep.
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