kind and generous - sunday, 6/26/06

the first problem was finding the place to turn in the rental car. it was blazing hot out, and no wind was blowing, quite a change. there was no one visible at the place to turn the car in, so i finally just parked it and we dragged the luggage, literally, into the rental return the building. there i was informed that i had to get this thing checked in, which is what i had been trying to do for 10 minutes, but to no avail.

i left pam with the luggage and went out to find someone to check the car in. first, i couldn't find my way out of the parking lot. second, i drove a circle, TWICE, around the complex and could find nothing for budget. i decided that maybe it was in a whole different area, so i drove through a gate into an area that i discovered to late was designated for the cleaning of returning cars. when i tried to get out, i found out too late that to LEAVE you had to punch in a code on the exit machine...now, that was going to be a problem.

i drove to an area where i saw a person, who told me she was off the clock and i needed to find someone else...who in turn told me to go out and someone else would let me out. fortunately for me, a guy was just coming in. i waited for him to park his car and then i asked him to let me out. he did. i went flying back to the car lot where i had begun. this time, as i pulled in, there was a woman standing on the curb. i noticed then the arrows which pointed the car in her direction. had someone been there when we first drove in, might have figured this out. i got out and she checked me in in about 4 seconds. the phone was ringing, and it was pam hoping i would get my ass into the terminal, as the shuttle bus for the airport was about to leave.

getting on the plane was a blur, and this time we had the 3 seater. in yet another coincidence, we were seated next to a gal who as returning from the route 66 convention that they had had that weekend in albuquerque. her name was shelly graham, and she had published 2 photography books on route 66! we got into this conversation as the plane was coming in to land in dallas. i took her picture with pam and she gave me her business card. i was familiar with all of the authors and books that we discussed, as i had done research on route 66 BEFORE we left on this trip!

we parted ways in dallas, and then the bad luck continued. our gate was originally relatively close to where we were getting off of the plane. however, once we had hauled all our crap down to it, they told us they had changed the gate...to gate 1. we were at gate 24. on the way we stopped in a store and pam bought her boys a dallas cowboy football and i bought austin a "hook 'em horns" texas t-shirt. i got another auntie anne's pretzel to tide me over.

we had made a point the whole trip of not getting onto the plane until it was ready to go. we were smart to have done this before. it certainly was a last good move in relation to this last flight, as once we got on we discovered that the AC wasn't functioning. immediately, a woman in front of us was bitching a blue streak and complaining loudly. she was seated on the aisle, and another mother was between her and a small girl, who had the window seat. i thought the bitching about the AC was obviously justified, but i didn't predict it could get worse. it did.

the kid by the window puked. and then again. and then again.

bitchy woman was about to go nuts, and you could see she was just barely under control. i handed her a handy wipe that i happen to have left over from some restaurant adventure, and you could just see she was about to meltdown! it was pretty funny, but not really. this is where my many years of using portajohns came into use. i have learned the fine art of breathing through my mouth. pam wasn't so lucky...

the AC was not coming on, and after the initial puking incident, the kid began a series of trips to the bathroom that apparently were only slightly successful, as she returned again and promptly puked right in her seat. behind her were 3 teenage girls who were attached to the bitchy mother. they were like little valley girls, and the one on the aisle next to me was particularity obnoxious. after one of the puking incidents, this one loudly says "ooooh...that one sounded bubbly!" at this point i started to grin, and i turned to look at pam and that was all she wrote..pam broke out in laughter that neither of us could stop, and then we were joined by several others behind us, including a guy who said he would probably be barfing soon. i hated laughing, but i just could not help it and it was pretty hard to get it under control.

finally, the pilot came on and said they had the auxiliary power fixed and were getting underway. they were actually moving the plane and he was saying we were ready to go...but no, we weren't. the kid puked again, and at this point the stewardess' had on rubber gloves and that stuff you use to sprinkle over puke when kids do it at school. the plane is lurching backward to pull out and everyone apparently but the pilot knew we still needed to stay on the ground!

i lost track of the number of times this kid puked, but it didn't make for a fun flight home. i had to go to the bathroom and by luck of the draw had to use the can after she had been in there...and had forgotten to flush the toilet. i am pukaphobic to begin with, and while in that confined space could only go mental thinking of all the possible vomiting germs i could get in contact with. i was like monk, using toilet paper to touch anything she might have touched, including the door handles. pam thought this was pretty funny. i guess it might have made for an amusing vision...

and then, as if it weren't already bad enough, we landed in a thunder storm...and as we were coming in, pam and i were talking about the earrings. i pulled them out. since she had gotten both ears pierced, it didn't seem to make much sense to me to split the earrings, so i told her to take them both. she said, no, that wasn't what she had wanted. i told her to pick one and she did. then i was left with mine in my hand and trying to figure out what i was going to do with it.

it dawned on me that in one of my piercings was an emerald earring that bebo had given me, one of the rare pieces of jewelry he ever gave me. it got real symbolic really fast. i took the earring out and replaced it with the white turquoise one, and turned to pam and said, that's it. NOW I AM REALLY DIVORCED! and for me, it finally really was true!

pam slept for a little while and i listened to my ipod, and in the last of the many coincidences of the week, the song 'KIND AND GENEROUS" came on. there couldn't have been a better song to end the adventure. i took the headphones off and gave them to pam to listen to because i wanted her to hear the words. it perfectly described how i felt about things that had happened, and especially at having such as good friend as her, as well as linda and chuck and taylor. everyone had made it possible for me to go. i am blessed.

the plane landed, the luggage disappeared for over an hour, and every human on the east coast descended upon the luggage area in the richmond international airport at 12:30 on a sunday night. where the hell did all of these people come from? the poor puking kid went to sleep in her mother's lap, and pam crashed with the luggage while i walked up and down looking for it. once we got all of it, we had to drag it outside, only to find another crowd fighting for space on the shuttle bus to the parking lot. the two of us plopped down on the curb and just sat there in sort of a daze...and we laughed, again. at that point we were so punchy we couldn't do much more that hope like hell we didn't become a hood ornament for a shuttle bus.

fortunately, when it returned, it stopped right in front of us, so i got in a lot of exercise throwing our stuff on the shelves as fast as i could. by the time we got to the car, loaded it up, paid the parking fee and got home, it was almost 3am. i was too weary to think clearly, and was pondering how to deal with the kee situation and his cat pan. pam was the only one with a working brain at this point, so rather than drag cat pans and cats all over, she just slept in my bed, where i think we talked more until we both turned over at 3:45. this is how austin found us at 7am when his father dropped him off...