This is a shirt that came all the way from Italy from my sister kat, for Holly. She got it when she was visiting Jackie there this summer. It is supposed to be sized 2T which is for a toddler, but it already seems to fit the girl, it is sorta crazy how that works.
While Sunday was officially our last day in Virginia I considered it a travel day, so it really doesn’t count. I didn’t have time to do much but eat some bagels for breakfast say goodbye to the family and pack our bags. We ended up packing a box and having Jackie ship stuff home to us, especially the books, as they were really heavy, I think I could have made it all fit in the bags, but the bag was easily 50 lbs and we had a lot of books.
We got to the airport at around 2:00 for a 2:50 flight, but it is Charlottesville, and only had 4 gates, so we were through baggage and security in about 5 minutes, and waiting at the gate, they didn’t have any shops on that side of security and they made me throw out my tea on the way in, so all they had was a vending machine for drinks, I only had dollars and the machine didn’t take them, so I had to run and find change before the plane boarded, on such a small flight they didn’t have drink service and I wanted to be sure to have something to help pop my ears. My ears have a lot of trouble flying. This time the 36 seat plane was completely full, but it was a quick and pleasant trip.
Once we arrived at Dulles we only had 45 minutes to change planes and our gate was a train ride away, there was no need to rush however because once we arrived it was a mad house and it took about an additional 45 minutes to load the plane, apparently the flight itself was over booked by 16 seats, people who had purchased tickets but had no seats assigned, and then on top of that there were 9 additional people from previous or delayed flights that were trying to get on the plane. It was utter and total chaos. I tried to board early because we were sitting in a 3 seat section and wanted to get there before the third person arrived, but they told us that they do not seat babies early. I was told I could be seated in group 2 at the beginning, so I was at least able to go in before most people, and before the man in our section. We squeezed into the seat and it was the middle of the day so Holly was wide awake. I also had no time to get life savers and had only ½ container from the last trip to help with my ears.
Holly did eventually fall asleep just before the movie started, which was great for me. I was excited about the movie, it was swing vote, something I had not yet seen and wanted to, it was entertaining and I enjoyed it.
So a few highlights from the plane ride, as we finally got seated and ready to take off, through a 30 minute boarding delay, and another 30 minutes or so on the ground I am assuming to get everyone else boarded we finally began down the runway, and we had been waiting and hoping for this the entire afternoon, Holly begins to make a “project” for her Daddy. Once we are in the air she is finishing off, but the seat belt lights are on, until we get to about 37,000 feet, so we had to wait another 30 or so minutes before we could get up and change her. Joel agreed to do it, so he had to dig out the diaper bag and get the man next to us to move and head to the teeny tiny airplane bathroom.
Once there he had to put the toilet seat down in order to have a place to put her she was bigger than this, so she balanced on it diagonally and he precariously changed her. Once she was cleaned off he couldn’t clean up the diaper and bag, so he had to leave the bathroom excuse himself passed the 3 people waiting in line, walk back to our seat and give me the baby and then head back and finish up. He had to bring the diaper in a scent proof bag back to the seat because there wasn’t a trash for it in the bathroom, and then give it to the stewardess.
If that wasn’t enough, after the movie, she decided to have another project for us. This time we decided to change her in the seat, as the bathroom had less room. So we put down the seat table and laid out the diaper bag pad and got the wipes out and prepared. Joel held Holly in place including her arms and legs out of the way and I cleaned her off and changed the diapers. This time it was a huge messy awful project, much worse than the first one, and so we ended up putting the entire thing, including the plastic insert into a bag and holding on to it until we got to SFO.
The flight wouldn’t have been so bad, on top of two poopie diapers (which almost never happens) but to top it off, when we arrived, we made a large circle to delay out approach about 30 more minutes, and then arrived but due to congestion spent another 30 minutes circling and waiting to land. All in all we arrived about 2 and ½ hours late and our 5 hours on the plane turned into 7. We were so ready to get off by the time we landed all sweaty and sticky, Holly didn’t seem to mind at all, she got a nap, had two nice projects, no problems with her ears, and had fun playing in Mommy and Daddy’s lap.
At SFO we were happy to stretch and get off the plane, when walking to the baggage area we saw there was an exhibit from the Exploratorium. There was a Tornado generator, and a large platform that used a fan to create dunes, and a lightning generator, and finally these blue and red swirly globes. Holly really had a great time looking at them and watching them, she especially liked the lightning.
We finally got our bags and went outside; it was amazing to be in the cool San Francisco night air. We ended up having to wait for three shuttles before we could go to the parking terminal, and it was just simply a mad house at the airport.
We finally got to the car at almost 10PM, our original flight was supposed to land at 7:00, so by now it felt like 1am, as that was what time it was in Virginia. We were starving so we drove around San Bruno and found a Wendy’s and got some dinner, and ate in the car during our drive back to Berkeley, on the highway home we were driving and suddenly I saw a large tire barreling down the highway bouncing and heading right towards my windshield, in what would have been a head on collision. I had a car behind and to the left of me, but I was able to break and swerve enough to not hit the other cars and get out of the line of fire, the tire clipped my passenger side bumper, I saw something flying off and was terrified that the wheel would be damaged but got my bearings and the car seemed to be going steady. So we drove on. When we crossed the bridge we stopped at the gas station by our house to check out the damage, it seems that the tire took off the entire bumper, and left a huge dent in the car. I doesn’t seem to have done damage to the frame, but there seem to be at least 3 panels that are somehow dented, not including the hood.
Holly all tucked out slept through the entire ordeal. Welcome Home I guess was what this was…. On Monday I called the insurance, and at first they said it was a collision, and my deductable was 1000$ since I just quit my job, this made me very unhappy. I fought them on this and talked them into putting it in as a claim for comprehensive, which has a deductable of only 250$ this was so much better and means I can actually get it fixed. Sadly, when I called around to get it fixed by the official state farm mechanics I found out that these panels and bumpers come unpainted, and so the work is scheduled to take 3 days, and that’s after I go in on a different occasion to get the estimate and have the parts ordered. Well that said, I don’t know when I will be able to get the car fixed because I can’t imagine when I will have three days to give up to repairs, I will at least wait until after Halloween, perhaps mid week sometime in November. We will see.
While Sunday was officially our last day in Virginia I considered it a travel day, so it really doesn’t count. I didn’t have time to do much but eat some bagels for breakfast say goodbye to the family and pack our bags. We ended up packing a box and having Jackie ship stuff home to us, especially the books, as they were really heavy, I think I could have made it all fit in the bags, but the bag was easily 50 lbs and we had a lot of books.We got to the airport at around 2:00 for a 2:50 flight, but it is Charlottesville, and only had 4 gates, so we were through baggage and security in about 5 minutes, and waiting at the gate, they didn’t have any shops on that side of security and they made me throw out my tea on the way in, so all they had was a vending machine for drinks, I only had dollars and the machine didn’t take them, so I had to run and find change before the plane boarded, on such a small flight they didn’t have drink service and I wanted to be sure to have something to help pop my ears. My ears have a lot of trouble flying. This time the 36 seat plane was completely full, but it was a quick and pleasant trip.Once we arrived at Dulles we only had 45 minutes to change planes and our gate was a train ride away, there was no need to rush however because once we arrived it was a mad house and it took about an additional 45 minutes to load the plane, apparently the flight itself was over booked by 16 seats, people who had purchased tickets but had no seats assigned, and then on top of that there were 9 additional people from previous or delayed flights that were trying to get on the plane. It was utter and total chaos. I tried to board early because we were sitting in a 3 seat section and wanted to get there before the third person arrived, but they told us that they do not seat babies early. I was told I could be seated in group 2 at the beginning, so I was at least able to go in before most people, and before the man in our section. We squeezed into the seat and it was the middle of the day so Holly was wide awake. I also had no time to get life savers and had only ½ container from the last trip to help with my ears.Holly did eventually fall asleep just before the movie started, which was great for me. I was excited about the movie, it was swing vote, something I had not yet seen and wanted to, it was entertaining and I enjoyed it.So a few highlights from the plane ride, as we finally got seated and ready to take off, through a 30 minute boarding delay, and another 30 minutes or so on the ground I am assuming to get everyone else boarded we finally began down the runway, and we had been waiting and hoping for this the entire afternoon, Holly begins to make a “project” for her Daddy. Once we are in the air she is finishing off, but the seat belt lights are on, until we get to about 37,000 feet, so we had to wait another 30 or so minutes before we could get up and change her. Joel agreed to do it, so he had to dig out the diaper bag and get the man next to us to move and head to the teeny tiny airplane bathroom.
Once there he had to put the toilet seat down in order to have a place to put her she was bigger than this, so she balanced on it diagonally and he precariously changed her. Once she was cleaned off he couldn’t clean up the diaper and bag, so he had to leave the bathroom excuse himself passed the 3 people waiting in line, walk back to our seat and give me the baby and then head back and finish up. He had to bring the diaper in a scent proof bag back to the seat because there wasn’t a trash for it in the bathroom, and then give it to the stewardess.If that wasn’t enough, after the movie, she decided to have another project for us. This time we decided to change her in the seat, as the bathroom had less room. So we put down the seat table and laid out the diaper bag pad and got the wipes out and prepared. Joel held Holly in place including her arms and legs out of the way and I cleaned her off and changed the diapers. This time it was a huge messy awful project, much worse than the first one, and so we ended up putting the entire thing, including the plastic insert into a bag and holding on to it until we got to SFO.The flight wouldn’t have been so bad, on top of two poopie diapers (which almost never happens) but to top it off, when we arrived, we made a large circle to delay out approach about 30 more minutes, and then arrived but due to congestion spent another 30 minutes circling and waiting to land. All in all we arrived about 2 and ½ hours late and our 5 hours on the plane turned into 7. We were so ready to get off by the time we landed all sweaty and sticky, Holly didn’t seem to mind at all, she got a nap, had two nice projects, no problems with her ears, and had fun playing in Mommy and Daddy’s lap.
At SFO we were happy to stretch and get off the plane, when walking to the baggage area we saw there was an exhibit from the Exploratorium. There was a Tornado generator, and a large platform that used a fan to create dunes, and a lightning generator, and finally these blue and red swirly globes. Holly really had a great time looking at them and watching them, she especially liked the lightning.We finally got our bags and went outside; it was amazing to be in the cool San Francisco night air. We ended up having to wait for three shuttles before we could go to the parking terminal, and it was just simply a mad house at the airport.
We finally got to the car at almost 10PM, our original flight was supposed to land at 7:00, so by now it felt like 1am, as that was what time it was in Virginia. We were starving so we drove around San Bruno and found a Wendy’s and got some dinner, and ate in the car during our drive back to Berkeley, on the highway home we were driving and suddenly I saw a large tire barreling down the highway bouncing and heading right towards my windshield, in what would have been a head on collision. I had a car behind and to the left of me, but I was able to break and swerve enough to not hit the other cars and get out of the line of fire, the tire clipped my passenger side bumper, I saw something flying off and was terrified that the wheel would be damaged but got my bearings and the car seemed to be going steady. So we drove on. When we crossed the bridge we stopped at the gas station by our house to check out the damage, it seems that the tire took off the entire bumper, and left a huge dent in the car. I doesn’t seem to have done damage to the frame, but there seem to be at least 3 panels that are somehow dented, not including the hood.Holly all tucked out slept through the entire ordeal. Welcome Home I guess was what this was…. On Monday I called the insurance, and at first they said it was a collision, and my deductable was 1000$ since I just quit my job, this made me very unhappy. I fought them on this and talked them into putting it in as a claim for comprehensive, which has a deductable of only 250$ this was so much better and means I can actually get it fixed. Sadly, when I called around to get it fixed by the official state farm mechanics I found out that these panels and bumpers come unpainted, and so the work is scheduled to take 3 days, and that’s after I go in on a different occasion to get the estimate and have the parts ordered. Well that said, I don’t know when I will be able to get the car fixed because I can’t imagine when I will have three days to give up to repairs, I will at least wait until after Halloween, perhaps mid week sometime in November. We will see.
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1 comment:
I'm sooo glad nothing worse happened to you except the car being damaged! Thank god, phew! Your flight sounds horrendous too, I would have lost my rag I think you're so patient.
Holly looks absolutely gorgeous in that last picture (and every other of course) what a cute outfit, she looks so smart.
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