Ashamed Chortle

If you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows." (Old English idiom)

10:00 pm arrived in West Palm, yup, after leaving Newton at 9 am- THIRTEEN FRIGGIN HOURS for what is a nice easy 3 hour flight normally.  A comedy of errors from a torrential rain that sent us into a circling pattern for over an hour, the airport closed, out of fuel so headed for Orlando.  New gas there, we didn't leave the plane, taxied on the runway and started revving engines for take off but some burnt rubber smell filled the cabin so we came to a screeching halt and taxied back to the terminal where we sat in the plane for another hour.  Finally they decided we needed a new plane so we DeeeePlaaaaned and waited another hour and a half for that to happen.  Boarded to cheers from a bunch of old people, and sat.  And sat.  And sat.  The old folks set up a chant, then started clapping, the flight attendants lost control and finally came on and said we were waiting for three more passengers.  So we sat and grumbled and mumbled because we were told to stay right at the gate all that time so we could board and leave quickly.  Well finally the 'passengers' appeared to major BOOOOOOOOs from the old guys.  The passengers were flight attendants, they had to change the crew but didn't tell us that.  So we took off again at 9:15 or so, arrived in West Palm at 9:45 and SAT IN THE PLANE because they didn't have a gate for us since we were 'unscheduled'.  At that point all the old folks were screaming to just put out the slides so we could get off the friggin plane-  we had been on the plane since 11 AM except for the time in Orlando-  NOT the garden spot of entertainment in my opinion-  more like a third world country where everybody has malformed ears. And wears polka dots.

I had a Burger King cheeseburger, against ALL better thought processes, but I could have eaten mouse turds at that point, and was really low on the blood sugar thing.  Felt better immediately.  

On the better news part of the trip, I had a great time seeing the bambinos, though the day digressed in relationship to the amount of sugar consumed.  Jackie made witch cupcakes with Hazel and that was a major hit.

Elias carved pumpkins with Nate like a pro

and SPIT on the bunny hat I made for him.  Hated it and then stomped on it. Oh well.  Hazel liked hers.

Driving home was treacherous and it didn't help any when Nate announced HE was scared, even after being in Jackson Hole driving around in storms all the time.    There seems to be a huge black storm cloud over my head for when I go back north.  I get sick, there's a huge snow storm, it rains all week, there are travel problems-  and people wonder why I like it better here!  Also when I'm back, I spend all my minutes racing around trying to jam in the people I want to see most, the things I need to check up on, and trying to forage for food since we keep nothing in the house while were gone.  And then I come back exhausted to messes that grow like topsy in my absence (and I'm not even counting that first paragraph because normally the flight is the easiest part with JetBlue).  

So today I am going to Anthropologie to help them decorate their windows at the mall.  How fun is that???  They asked some of their customers to come help and as you can imagine my name was top of the list.  Right up my alley.  My very first job that I interviewed for and got in Boston was as an in-store designer at Grover Cronin.  Sort of A Rhoda job.  But since it was in an inaccessible suburb (subway, transfer to two different busses and over an hour to get there) I had to turn it down.  The transportation used up over a third of what I would be making, and wouldn't cover the rent, let alone the occasional meal.  Always a regret that I didn't take that job anyway.  And find a sugar daddy to pay the rent.  Sure woulda beat the seven years at the phone (auto spell wrote that as 'phobe') company where there was no sugar daddy in sight, just married salesmen hitting on us hourly.  Ugh

UPDATEUPDATE:  This just in:

Dear SANDRA DONABED,

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced today on JetBlue Flight #425. We understand how challenging it is when your travel plans are disrupted. According to our Customer Bill of Rights, we have issued each person on this flight a service credit in the amount of the roundtrip fare paid (or the amount of the one way fare doubled).

 Yahoooo.

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The grid is very peaceful. Nothing can go wrong. Everything is complete.(Louise Bourgeois)

And the other great accomplishment is that the quilt is finished, completely.  The labels are even on the back and it's ready to wrap.  Yeaaaaa!

And that dear friends, is the End of the Pumpkin Features.  Now it's time for Turkeys, stay tuned.