Oma's Car Seat

Oma's Car Seat
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

So we made it to Florida and after a good night’s sleep we seem to be settled in. Yesterday was quite a day, we were both a bit tired and overwhelmed. Our day started at 11:00 PM Wednesday… Well wait, let me go back to 8:00…. So we drive over to SFO, I get out of the house by 8:15 so I am on track. We get to the check in counter and I check in and try to get my seats assigned. I had done this in October, but when I confirmed my ticket a few days earlier the seat assignment and infant travel information was lost, so I had a middle seat in the middle section of the plane. This was not acceptable. When I was on the phone with the agent they told me that the check in person could fix this for me and that on the day of the flight they release a block of seats and I would get one. So I tell this to the check in person and they tell me that they don’t have access and I have to tell the person at the gate. I ask if there is someone at the gate now and they say yes. So then I ask for a gate pass for Joel and they tell me they only give those out if someone with a wheel chair needs assistance. I tell them they are out of their mind, and the person on the phone already told me this was not a problem and my two friends who just flew in the last 2 weeks all had gate passes for their husbands. So one person talked to another who talked to a supervisor and they gave me a pass, then indicating that they don’t always do this and it is a special occasion. Well as much as I had to fight to get this one, I didn’t even want to ask about getting permission for my mom to meet me at the gate, I was just ready to go through security.

So I had packed my bag and it was 63 pounds and I figured I would just pay the overweight back fee so I called to check how much it was, and they said 90$... OMG insane, so then I asked how much it was for a second bag, and that was 50$ so I decided I would take the extra 13 lbs as a carryon bag. I had some gifts for my parents that was making up the extra weight. So we go through security and I have bottles of formula that I take out of the diaper bag and I have my laptop that I take out of my suitcase and then I am wearing the baby so they take me aside and pat me down and then they say, whose bag is this.. It was mine, and they said they needed to manually search it. So I say ok, maybe the coffee is suspicious or something and they look inside and find a jar of nutella. Well apparently I am going to use Nutella to make a bomb and this is a liquid and I can’t take it on the plane. I also have a jar of Scharffenberger chocolate ganache which they say is also a liquid. So Joel decides to get into a culinary debate with them and explain that in fact the ganache is solid unlike the nutella it is not “spreadable” and needs to be heated so it is a different substance.. So while it may be debatable as if the nutella is a liquid (apparently highjackers make bombs out of peanut butter too… which is not aloud) the ganache is not “spreadable” Two security guards and a supervisor later, we don’t get to go through with it. I was so mad, as I could have put this in my check bag if I had known that chocolate is a liquid. However this is expensive chocolate and I am not about to leave it behind so I ask if they will hold it for me since Joel is only going through to assist me and will be back, so they agree to do that.. and Joel did pick it up later.

So next I go to the gate and there is of course no one there… Although 30 minutes earlier I was told someone was there now. So I go to another gate and ask that gate agent if he can help me. Well he doesn’t have access either and the gate agents do not arrive at the gate until only 1 hour before the flight. I asked if the check in attendant knows this and he says yes, so then why did they tell me someone was at the gate when I checked my bag.. I don’t know he tells me, well could you please make sure that everyone is on the same page.. This is the third person who had given me a different story about how and when I can get my seat changed. So now that we are passed security since I was in a rush to get to the gate to get my seat assigned we are on the other side away from the yummy food court, so their is only a bar where we can eat and they close in 30 minutes. They of course have nothing I like on the menu, except a 14$ veggie burger so I think this should be eatable, and if I was a vegetarian it might have been, I was expecting a soyish pattie type thing but this was a crumbly mush of chucks of veggies.. YUK. I had like 2 bits and wasn’t excited about it. The fries were good though, and Joel liked his burger. So I am off to the gate. This time the agent tells me that there is no guarantee he can switch my ticket but takes my boarding pass says he has to seat some people and he will call me in 30 minutes and see what he can do. Snappishly I might add. So I go and change Holly and Joel feeds her and I go and check and he has assigned me to 10G. I am thrilled and he says I can board.

I say my goodbyes and get on the plane. It is like 10:30, 10:45 and Holly is super tired. The stewardess put my bag up front in the closet and I look for my seat. First class goes to Row 4, so I think its a few rows back, but it’s the first seat in the section, which is basically a bulk head seat. Now I am miserable. There is no food tray, no seat to put my diaper bag under, I have to put it over head, and my seat doesn’t go back, the arms don’t go up, and it is terribly uncomfortable. At least there was a nice woman sitting next to me, she offered to hold Holly while I got situated. So we are settled but the plane isn’t going anywhere and the lights are all on and it’s bright and people are talking and Holly is just not falling asleep, and she is fussy and grumpy and not happy. So the pilot announces there is weather in Atlanta and he has to wait for paperwork for a new flight plan, then like 10 minutes later he says the new flight plan takes more fuel and they have to wait for another 1000 lbs of fuel, then another 10 minutes go by and they are having trouble printing the paperwork he needs to change the flight plan. By then holly is screaming and we have been sitting uncomfortable in a bright plane for almost an hour.

However, the second the lights go down and we pull back from the runway I give her a bottle and she is out like a light. I however have a bruise on my right thigh from it digging into the seat arm from my legs being up against the wall allowing me to form a lap that she can sit and sleep on and didn’t sleep a wink because each time I adjusted she would wake up. So I decide to put the map up on the screen in front of me that shows where we are flying over and the altitude and speed and time left to go.. tick tock I count down the minutes seeing how long I can go without looking, only 2 minutes has passed.. now only 3 minutes.. Until we are in Alabama and we hit the “weather” so our cruising altitude was around 34,000 feet and we suddenly go up 36k 38k 39,008* what does that * mean? My ears are potting I feel we are going up, and then I notice that the “meter’s” are going up and the feet are not. Apparently the “feet” don’t register any higher and that’s what the “*” means. So by my estimation of doing math and calculating the meters to feet we were just over 40k. Watching the time, we have lost 15 minutes from our estimated arrival since take off, and loose another 15 minutes over the next 15. At some point the head wind was like 130 MPH and our speed dropped from 600 mph to only 430. And then I see that we are like 20-30 minutes out, but we haven’t descended yet and I start to worry. There is some turbulence which I thought was fun, it was like rocking us to sleep and I surmised this is what it must be like to be in a car seat, holly was soothed by it, and then suddenly my head feels like it is about to explode and we have dropped 20 thousand feet in like 8 minutes I am popping life savers like they are M&M’s and trying to blow out my ears with my nose plugged almost in tears from the pain as we continue to decent another 10 thousand feet in the next 5 minutes and then suddenly in slow little bubbles my left ears pops. And before I know it we land.

Changing plans in Atlanta went well, the flight was only 2 gates apart from each other and I had time to change her and buy a drink. When I was ready to board they were already at my zone and my seat was in row 43, like 3rd from last and the nice woman behind me in line who was sitting in row 20 rolled my bag all the way back for me and put it in the over head. I had room for the diaper bag under the seat and no one was in the middle seat next to me, so I had room to stretch my legs and both Holly and I had a nice doze for about an hour. Then they warn us there is more “weather” in Tampa and this time the turbulence makes me nauseous as my stomach drops and the plane lurches, we continue to bounce around for 15 minutes while we try to land and then suddenly we all are pushed back in our seats and the plane is accelerating, and the pilot tells us we had to circle around the airport and approach from the other side due to a change in the storm, 15 more minutes and we land. About 30 minutes late.

Since I am at the back of the plane I let Holly continue to sleep while everyone gets off the plane and ask the stewardess to get my bag and wheel it up for me. Then as I get off the plane I see my Daddy waiting for me at the gate and I am so excited. He got a gate pass and came to meet me, and after the hug and the kiss for Holly I hand him all the bags and breath and stretch. Then we go down to the tram and the other side and find the oma waiting for us.

I hate to cut this short and not tell everyone about our first day in Tampa but a precursor is that Holly has now only had 5 hours of sleep versus her normal 12… So you will have to stay tuned.