March / April 2010

[Honeylioness]

08 March 2010

Well, Anne made it to Hawaii and so did her luggage .. *whew*. At Logan we got the slowest ticket agent in the WORLD!!! I could not believe how long it took him to check in her luggage, do the ID thing etc. And the line for the security check in was at least a 45 minute wait - so I sent her ahead to stand in line while I dealt with the agent. However she got to the front of the line BEFORE he was done with whatever he was doing. Fortunately the TSA guard was nice enough and let her stand in front of the podium waiting for me to come with her boarding pass and passport. I also got a "Gate Pass" as I had wanted, and they said I had to, go wait at the gate with her - being an unaccompanied minor and all.

It was a definite spend day as I had to park (sticker shock THERE ) and I treated her to a DD coffee and bought her a couple of bottles of water for the trip. She called from Newark and assured me she had made her connection - and then she called me from the airport in Honolulu when she arrived.

I don't expect to hear from her again until she is leaving Hawaii as I am sure she is having way too much fun to check in with me. The company sponsoring the trip set up a blog so the kids can journal what they are doing each day - and sure enough, on day one she was one of the authors of the group post and there is a picture of her in the back of a catamaran with a huge grin on her face.

I also think I now know the REAL reason she picked this trip and this week - one of the co-writers of yesterday's post is the boy she has a huge crush on. Hmmmmmm, it all makes sense now.


The blog link for the Hawaii Trip:

yfu2hawaii2010.blogspot.com/

[Honeylioness]

15 March 2010[/u]



I swear, Anne has the WORST luck with planes! I got a call from her Saturday afternoon because she was unable to find the copy of her flight itinerary I gave her at the airport. No problem, I gave her the ticket number and ticket locator number. Problem solved right ... Nope!

I get another call from her after she got to the Honolulu airport. She was scheduled to fly from Hawaii to Denver then change planes and get into Boston around 2:30 PM Sunday afternoon. So much for that. UA had canceled the flight from Denver. And the hotel had basically told them none of the kids could stay another night as they were fully booked with college kids coming in for Spring Break. Anne tried to get the ticket agent to talk to me but the agent just kept brushing her off. And unfortunately Anne is not as assertive in these sort of situations as I would like.

I finally get a chance to speak to a representative of the company who organized the trip and got her to intervene. About an hour later I get another call with her new travel itinerary: Honolulu to S.F. to Washington/BWI to Boston arriving on Sunday around 6:30 PM. Yeesh, not great but she has seats and I give the okay. She gets ticketed, her bags checked and off to the gate.

She called me from S.F. then from DWI. So far so good. Then things start to go to hell in a handbasket.

It started raining here Saturday afternoon, and not just March Showers, but at times it was more like a downpour of biblical proportions. And then the wind kicked up. In fact the howling wind and gusts were so strong and loud I actually had trouble sleeping Saturday night.

When I woke up Sunday morning it was still coming down in sheets. After checking online to see that Anne's flight has departed BWI I grabbed my purse, cell phone and keys and headed down to the airport. I will say that the drive south into Boston was THE worst drive I had ever done. Not only was the visibility down to almost nil and with all the blowing rain and spray off the freeway I could barely see four car lengths in front of me. Instead of the 55 mph posted speed limit I felt daring to be going 40. What should have been a 45 minute drive took almost 90.

Once inside the terminal I checked the board and see Anne's flight is running about 30 minutes late. Okay, not so bad - but of course that number became a real moving target. After an hour I went and got something to drink and a puzzle book then found a place to settle down to wait.

Then I get my first "hint" that things are deteriorating quickly - I hear announcement about another BWI flight that had circled Boston for over an hour trying to land and was now being turned back to Washington. Then they start announcing more flights being diverted. However most of the originating airports are filling up so instead of going back to BWI Anne's plane gets diverted to Bradley Field in Hartford, CT. They tell us that the plan is to re-fuel and then try again in a bit to find an open window in the weather. I asked about getting her put onto a plane to Manchester, NH or perhaps Providence, RI and I could pick her up there. That's when I learn that skipping the news broadcasts for several days might have not been the best idea. The storm is wreaking havoc all up and down New England. Manchester,NH and T.F. Green in Providence, RI have both closed.

The airline had anyone who was making connections in Boston deplane so they could see who had Boston as their final destination. After several hours we learn that UA is locating charter buses for the stranded passengers to drive them up to Boston.

I never got her name but a big "Thank You" to the Sr. Flight Attendant on Anne's plane. I had been chatting with a man who was waiting for his 13 year old daughter who was on the same plane and so when Anne passed her phone to this UA employee and I let her know that not only was Anne an unaccompanied minor along with another kid she took charge of them. She escorted them to baggage to collect their luggage then made sure they got on the first bus that showed up.

It seems that with lots of planes suddenly arriving unexpectedly and a limited number of buses available tempers among the passengers were rather frayed, and adults started acting like toddlers fighting over a favorite toy. But this attendant let it be known that she had two unaccompanied minors and they WOULD be getting on that bus!!

FINALLY we received word that the first bus was leaving the Hartford airport and on it's way. It finally arrived around midnight.

During that time I was able to grab a bite to eat, and take a moment to lament the lovely dinner I had left simmering on low in the crockpot at home. I also got a magazine and got to see over dozen plane loads of passengers that had been sitting out on the runways be turned back, unloaded and hundred of rather grumbly travelers line up to reclaim their luggage and try to figure out if or when they would be leaving Boston. Then the announcement that the entire airport was on ground closure and the weather was too violent to even unload baggage. They had to wait almost an hour before their bags turned up.

Once Anne's bus arrived she came off, ran over to me and gave me a huge hug and told me she had missed me. That actually made all the worry and working the system for her worthwhile. We then collected her bag and went to ransom my truck from Central Parking ... and ransom was the right word ... Oy. Unfortunately the weather had not improved in any way during the seven hours I had spent in the airport. The only difference being that instead of just the torrential rain we now had strong wind gusts that were buffeting the truck and trying to push me out of my lane - not that I could really SEE any lanes - but lanes as in "This is where I think I should be driving"

The drive home was almost as awful as the drive in with the added fun of it being the dead of night. AND due to some flooding they had closed the entrance to the interstate I needed - so in order to get onto any of the main highways I needed to get home we had to drive a ridiculous loop through several neighboring towns with limited streetlights before I could finally get onto an interstate. By the time we finally pulled into my parking space it was sometiime between 1:00 - 2:00 AM.

At this point all the muscles in my back, arms and neck were screaming with stress and tension and my fingers were incredibly stiff from gripping the wheel so tightly for over an hour. After sending Anne off to bed I made a cup of tea to try and unwind a little before trying to sleep. The last thing I did was to send an e-amil to her school letting them know she would not be in today, then another to my office telling them the same about me.


ETA: Anne brought me back a couple of items from Hawaii, she said it was to thank me for all I do for her - how sweet. Several pieces of my favorite chocolates from See's Candies and a package of Hawaiian batiks. She told me that when she had seen the store called Hawaiian Quilts while walking through downtown Honolulu she told her groups chaperon she HAD to dash inside. Everyone in her group was like "what? Why?" So she had to explain it was to get a gift for her Host Mom.

All together now ... AHHHHHHHH

[Honeylioness]

14 April 2010[/u]



It has been a rather hectic few weeks thus far as it seems Spring is just flying by us. So, a recap of what Anne has been up to since she returned from Hawaii.

The last week of March we had a small "issue" that came to a head the last Sunday of the month. It started with a slacking off on the rules I had set down before about letting me know where she was and who she was with - and not just getting my "okay" to do something and then wandering in whenever she felt like it - it came to a head over a sleep over at her friend Tyler's on Saturday night. That was not the problem. This was (the following is the excerpt from my blog journal page):

Yesterday afternoon Anne asked if she could go over to T's and sleep over. I know T and his parents, and the mother was okay with it so I said yes after she finished a chore I had asked/reminded her to do three times already. So she and T left about 4:00 pm.

Fast forward to this afternoon after church. She's not home yet but I figure they are playing with the Wii or something and I get involved in a project. But now it is 3 .. then 4 and no call or message so I start calling her. But I keep getting a message that her phone is not picking up.

Finally at about 5:00 pm I had had enough so I drove over to T's house. His mother comes to the door and tells me that Anne, T and two other friends left a couple of hours ago to head to the Mall. At this point I am so mad I am shaking. She calls T's phone, asks if Anne is there and then T hands the phone to Anne who is acting clueless. I asked where she was - and she said "Oh at the Mall with R and T and .... " At which point I interrupted with "And I would know that how?"

She got very quiet, I told her to get her back side home NOW and hung up. Thanked T's mom and went to leave. She was pretty ticked as well because she was not aware that Anne had not bothered to tell me what or where she was going. I drove home and called my agency rep to vent. She asked what my gut was telling her to do. I said "Ground her for a week or take away her computer" The rep replied "Good, I would do both".

So before she came home I unplugged her laptop and it is secretly stored away. I sent an e-mail to her mom letting her know that Anne would not have Internet access for a week.

I see her finally get out of a car driven by R and walk very slowly towards the front door. If I knew I was waiting for me in my mood I would be walking slowly too. When she came in I informed her that this garbage was going to stop and stop today. And to make sure she got the message she was grounded. And just so there was no misunderstanding about what that meant - she was to go to school and then straight home. No hanging out with friends, no grabbing a coffee, no having friends over. She will go to choral practice on Wednesday night because that is a commitment she made and would not welch on that. Oh and by the way her computer was gone for the week. And any breaking of this grounding and it would extend one day for each infraction.

Then the YFU rep called and let her know how disappointed they were also with her behavior. She was flushed and on the verge of tears. However this was interesting. Usually she will try and debate with me about limits because she believes this is right. This time - not a word. The rep said it was because she knew I was right and she messed up.

Should be an interesting week around here.


******************************************


Anne told me she had never been grounded before but I knew that not having her computer would be the hardest part of the next week for her.

However, I give her credit for not sulking or stomping around as many other kids would have done.

My birthday fell on Good Friday this year. I knew Anne had something planned but was not sure of exactly what. However the day before she called after school to get my permission to deviate a bit from the grounding guidelines to go over to the grocery store to pick up a few things before coming home - which I said was fine.

That night over dinner Anne told me that she is going to be making a cake for me for my birthday - but she needed a bit of help with where some of the ingredients are and the pans. She is made the base tonight and will finish it in the morning. Near as I can figure it is a variation of a Black Forest Cake. It has one vanilla layer, then cherries, then a chocolate layer and more cherries and finally it is frosted. I can feel my thighs expanding just typing these words!!! (I have since found out it is called a "Snow White Cake"

And except for some help finding ingredients or equipment she DID do the entire thing herself, even making the cake batter from scratch. While I had to work Friday morning I came downstairs for find a bouquet of flowers, a hand made card and some raspberry chocolate waiting for me from her. A tradition they practice in her family. She also told me that we could do anything I wanted that afternoon - her treat. So off we went to see the Amish Small Quilt exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum www.nequiltmuseum.org/.

She even took me to dinner - I chose the Chinese Buffet since I had been wanting some Honey Chicken for about a week.

It was all very sweet and showed me again that she really is a great kid. So in acknowledgement I gave her back her laptop that evening. Which is when we learned that the friend she had made during the Frankfurt snafu back in August was in Boston for the weekend with her host family. Charlie lives with a family in a small town in Michigan and they had come into town to visit the host mothers family. After several phone calls and looking of train schedules I dropped Anne off to catch the mid afternoon train into Boston to meet up with the family and her friend for dinner and the evening while I went off to treat myself to a massage - my birthday gift to myself.

That same weekend was Easter and we had invoted several people over to dinner - as the list was quite fluid and I was not sure just how many would actually be there I had supplemted the origianlly planned lamb leg with a small ham.

Who knew it would take eight months before I finally found something Anne would not eat - lamb!

She helped get the house cleaned up and added decorations to the colored eggs. Her cake was a hit with the men in attendance as an alternative dessert to angel food cake and fruit.

Last Saturday she had her last Show Choir competition for the year - I think there are real mixed feelings there as it has been something she has enjoyed overall.

This morning I put her back to bed. She has been saying for several days her throat is bothering her and is sore and her voice has gotten hoarser. This morning her glands are swollen, she has a mild fever and can barely talk to swallow. I am hoping sleeping it off, this current bug going around, will do the trick. Next week is Spring Break and she is going to Washington DC with her Show Choir.

[Honeylioness]

22 April 2010[/u]


Well, I guess it was bound to happen - in some ways I am a bit surprised it took eight months to occur. I completely lost my temper Monday night with Anne and more specifically, her friend Chris.

Anne had asked if Chris could come spend a couple of days with her during School Vacation. I said "fine" - I had met Chris before and liked her and Anne was at a bit of loose ends until today when she left for Washington, DC - so Chris arrived.

Anne had wanted to make dinner and I walked her and Chris through the process of making my super easy baked bean and hot dog casserole with corn meal muffins. Dinner was fine and the conversation varied.

And then something shifted. It may have been when one of the girls made the comment about how much Germans liked Obama, and my pointing out that while that was fine - it was what Americans thought of him that counted a bit more - after all we have to live with him and his administration for the moment. And then Chris made a couple of rude and derogatory remarks about both Presidents Bush. Which did raise my Republican hackles - so I gently suggested that perhaps we should change the subject.

But oh no - they were on a roll, especially Chris. Who began to go on and on and on and on about how terrible America was, how we decided to go to war for (her words) "...no good reason except greed for money ..." How we should have just left Saddam alone because eventually the Iraqis would have figured something out. How we (America) were baby killers because civillians died during some attacks and why couldn't we just go to war with the 30 or 40 people we were actually against?

I had left the table at this point because my blood was rising and I was cleaning up after dinner. Through slightly gritted teeth I told them we were going to the change the subject NOW ... but apparently they did not hear that.

Then Chris started in on how America had threatened Germany into joining the UN action and that of course nobody else knew this but we had some sort of financial blackmail we used to "force" the German government into committing troops and after all everyone "knew" that America just loves to stick our noses into other people's business

And on and on and on and on ......

FINALLY Anne had come over to help and I guess the forceful way I was removing left over containers and tossing things into the dishwasher actually got through her haze of adolescent arrogance and she asked me what was wrong. I muttered that it would be best if she left me alone since they were determined to not change the subject - and in true teenage clueless fashion she pushed the matter.

So I shoved back .... HARD.

I found myself whirling on these two girls with slitted eyes and a rising iciness in my voice that even I was aware of at the time. I was shaking I was so mad - and my rant went something like this:

"If you two think I am going to just quietly sit here and let you disrespect me, my beliefs and my country in my own home you both have another think coming. I am especially NOT going to be lectured to by two CHILDREN on world and US politics when neither of you have a f***ing clue as to what you are talking about.

Neither of you watch, or read, the news - all you know is what your moronic Facebook friends tell you. You think ignoring the sadism of Saddam against his own people was the way to go? Really? Tell me, just how well did that work in Germany in the 1930s hmmmm??? Should we have not "stuck our noses" into THAT situation or do you think your grandparents really had it "under control"??

My family has been here since the 1670's and my Native American ancestors even longer. Every generation of my family has served in the military and many have died for this country and our beliefs. My father served, Hawk served, Ken served and I have a cousin over there now - so don't you DARE call any of the "baby killers" in my hearing again!!!

You think we went to war for "no reason" Are you both really that ignorant .... or are you incapable of remembering anything past what you did yesterday. We were attacked first and frankly we should have carpet bombed Iraq and parts of Afghanistan within the first few days after 9/11. But of course what else did I expect from two girls who have no real knowledge of modern history and think their country is the only one to inflict genocide on it's citizens ... what about Armenia? Cambodia? Rwanda? Uganda? Iraq? ... want something a bit more current? Tell me what is going on in Somalia and the Sudan even as we speak ... No? ... I didn't think so.

One last thing .. if this country is so terrible why did you chose to come here? Don't like it? There's the door ...feel free to leave and not come back"

At which point I left and slammed the door behind me. It took me about an hour to stop shaking I was so upset .... then they gave me a wide berth for the following hour as well before they both sheepishly came into the living room and apologized for being disrespectful and not listening when I told them to change the subject. I accepted their apologies, told them that discussion was fine and debate was fine, but I would not tolerate such disrespect again.

Anne told me the next evening as they were making dinner that she had never actually seen me explode before and if she had though she had seen me angry in the past she now knew that had only been mild annoyance.