Oops

I didnt update with my free wifi... And then I didnt even talk about my second trip. Trip 2 was to Hawaii.

So, with apologies, here are my thoughts from that Washington D.C. trip:


Visiting DC.
The morning started out well enough, grandma woke me up at 4:25, when I told her I would wake her at 4:30, but this was hardly something to put me in a bad mood. No I had decided that I was going to do my very best to keep things from annoying me, it just wasn’t worth it not today. I felt that this journey was a very important journey for me to take with my grandma. First of all, it’s a quicky! Secondly, I think my grandma worries that I don’t love her or appreciate her or something like that, and this was my way to say “hey grandma, you don’t particularly like to travel alone, and you will be worried about your sister, so why don’t I come to be a travel buddy for you and hopefully make things a little easier.” So that’s why I am here. But, don’t let me make myself out to be super unselfish, no, in all reality I was itching for a quick getaway, I had been in a rut, yes mostly because of the male population, and I needed something different, something spontaneous in my life.

The trip:
We made it fine checking in. Security was a breeze, the person checking my ID and boarding pass made conversation:
“Transylvania University (I was wearing a Transy sweatshirt), is that a real school?”
“Yes, sir, its in Lexington, right near UK.”
“Oh, well being from Louisville, I should have known that.” He looks at my ID for a second time: “Bullitt County, huh? I am from Bullitt County, well Northern Bullitt County.”
I don’t know why he felt that he needed to really announce that he was from Northern Bullitt County, I mean really its just a suburb of Louisville. Everyone knows that Southern Bullitt County is where its at! And honestly I don’t see why living in Louisville means that you should know about that tiny vampire school in Lexington, it is after all 70 miles away, and I bet, being from Northern Bullitt County, you probably don’t venture over to Lexington that often, but that’s my opinion and it doesn’t matter so much.
And then we got to the gate, gate A3. Grandma notices that her bag has a rip in it, it was after all one of those free bags that the Sierra Club sends out if you donate $25 dollars or so. I do not mean that this bag is of lesser quality than other bags, but it doesn’t quite hold up to “security checkpoint” standards! However, being the well prepared girl scout that my grandma is, she whips out a needle and a piece of thread. The thread though is not evenly cut at an end, and is therefore a pain in the butt to try and thread the needle with, luckily my grandma is not only prepared but smart. Turns out the nice people at the gate desk check in area have access to scissors, granted they are kiddie scissors and are locked in a cabin, but hey they did the job. The needle was threaded, the rip sewn and away we go.
Our second adventure of the day happens as we land in Atlanta. First of all, we had a 40 minute layover in Atlanta- short layovers like that always make me nervous and secondly, we were delayed in Louisville and took off 15 minutes later than scheduled. But that’s not the kicker, nope. I get on my Blackberry- thank goodness for smart phones- and I check the status of our connecting flight. And what do I see but big red words highlighted that say “Canceled”. I mentally groan, “CANCELED? WHAT? Ugh, well it’s a good thing I came with grandma. Ok, so we get off the plane and we talk to the nice people at the gate desk check in area, maybe we can get on another close flight. Oh, good look there is one at 10:40. Shew!” But to grandma I say: “It looks like our flight has been canceled, but we will talk to the people at the gate desk and see what they can do, lets not worry about this now, on the plane, there is nothing we can do at this moment in time.” To which grandma says “Lets call Delta.” I sigh and explain that really I think it would be better if we talked to the people at the Atlanta airport rather than the company on the phone, don’t worry they wont leave us stranded. Long story short, we get off the plane, get put directly on the 11:20 flight and then go to the gate of the 10:20 flight and are listed as standby. We, or rather grandma, makes it up to #3 on standby, so alas, we take the 11:20 flight. We arrive in DC by 1:07, catch a taxi, with a drivers name of Jae Woo Kim. He takes us to Woodbine, the nursing home where my great aunt Stella is staying.
We meet with Stella from when we get there at 2 til 7 pm. Poor lady, shes 90 years old, mind you, is exhausted. Grandma chattered at her the whole visit, in the way that only my grandma can, and yes, I realize this sounds like I am scolding my grandma but really I am not. I envy her ability to talk about anything and everything under the sun like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Seeing her smile though, with her sister, that, that took my breath away; here I was, in the midst of 90 years of history. And sure my great aunt Stella isn’t doing so well- which was the whole point of our trip- but she, for most of our visit was lucid, checking on me, sharing stories with grandma. And oh, yea, both of those women stubborn and hardheaded, I totally see where I get it now. At this point though, I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than for my second cousin Alex to pick us up, take us home and drop us into bed.
But things never turn out the way we plan, right? Alex picked us up, in her pick-up truck- a little extended red Ford Ranger, that could very well be the twin to the blue Ford Ranger that mom and dad own, and loan out- my brother is currently driving it- and brings us home. Where we chat for an hour or two; here there was more magic. I identify so much with this second cousin, who in fact identifies so much with my grandma. Wow. Who knew that I had family traits, who knew that I wasn’t just an oddball of goody goody.
And with that my day ends: I am thankful to be on this trip, seeing these people, and realizing that yes, sometimes blood does run thicker than water.