I Made It...

I finally made it to Virginia but there were a few hours there that I wasn't sure I would, at least not on Saturday. It started at the check-in line, even though I thought I had arrived in plenty of time. The line snaked back and forth and after about 15 minutes in it while talking to the lady in front of me, we both realized we would need a boarding pass to check our luggage. She was nice enough to offer to watch my stuff while I went over to the kiosk to get my boarding pass and then I did the same for her. From there I headed to another long line to get through security. By the time I got to the gate I was feeling pretty thankful that I had made it just in time. That's where the real trouble started. We were supposed to board around 10:00 but when there was no call to board I figured something was up. Turned out they were just late getting the luggage on board.

So now it was time to line up to board. Being the rule=follower that I am, I waited until my "zone" was called and of course, it was the last zone to be called. When I finally got up there to have my boarding pass scanned I was told that I had to be "reseated" and to go wait in a long line that I hadn't even noticed. By the time I got to the front of that line I was hearing rumblings that not all of us were gonna make it onto that plane. Apparently they downsized the plane. It was getting down to loading person by person. The gate agent would take one person down the walkway one at a time then come back to see if there was room for another one. They finally took the man before me, came back and closed the door! No more room. Next flight to Baltimore at 1:55, full. After much searching she was able to get me on a flight to DC at 5:20 that afternoon. That meant 7 hours of waiting at the airport. I decided to go have lunch and then came back to hang around the gate just in case the 1:55 flight wasn't completely full or in case people didn't show up. Apparently everything was a mess because of Delta and Northwest merging and the snowstorm in the southeast. The one good thing that came out of it all was that the plane I was supposed to get on at 10:30 ended up coming back from the taxiway because of a mechanical problem. First I heard it was the tires and then I heard it was the brakes. Those people had to sit on the plane until about 1:30 when the mechanical problems were finally fixed. I was so happy not to be on that plane! About that time they started loading the 1:55 flight. The agent from the other gate came up to me, asked for my boarding pass and said he would put me on a list for this flight. Apparently they had sent a bigger plane this time than planned so I, along with the 6 other people who missed the first flight, were on this flight and on our way to Baltimore! It ended up being good in many ways; I didn't have to wait until 5:30 and I was able to go to Baltimore, where my luggage went. If I had flown into DC I would have had to file a claim for my luggage and probably wait until the next day. I was able to make a quick call to Amber & Andy from the plane that the plans had changed, yet again. After an uneventful (thank goodness) flight, a quick search for my suitcase that was in a holding area, I was reunited with Quinn and Amber and Andy. Quite the eventful day. Then there was the drive home on the Beltway! Yikes! I think I'll try not to fly into Baltimore any more, unless I absolutely have to! Oh, another good thing that came out of being denied boarding (which is what they called it) was that I got a $400 voucher to fly on Delta at any time within the next year! That's at least 2 more trips to visit Quinn!

Look at these beautiful flowers that H surprised me with Friday night.



I'll be spending my Valentine's Day with a little sweetie named Quinn. Here she is in her little Valentine's Day outfit that my friend Natalie gave her. So cute!!


Here's Andy, taking his turn at putting Quinn to sleep. I've been calling him "the Bouncer" since his newest trick in getting Quinn to stop crying is bouncing her up and down on an exercise ball. She really seems to enjoy it and it quiets her down right away!


She doesn't really seem to like sleeping much during the day. I've never known a baby to not need a nap during the day like this. It's so hard because just when you think you've got her to sleep, all bundled up warmly, placed in her crib, it's just 10 minutes later and she's up again! I guess it's good that at least she's sleeping for 3 or 4 hours a night most of the time.


It will be my turn to hold her again soon so I'll write more later.