old news

Jan. 5. Off to Peru. My good husband dropped me off at the curb at the airport. Kiss. Hug. Onto check-in and security. No one batted an eye when they saw me pushing an empty baby stroller.  Eric and Rachael had forgotten their stroller for little Levi and my mission was to gate check it and then meet them at LAX with it. I got to security and to my surprise they wanted me to put it through the spy machine. I had no idea. When I got it folded up and lifted up on the conveyor belt I was amazed at how it fit exactly into the opening. They must build the to fit. I walked confidently through the arches. I rarely get stopped, as I have no artificial limbs and wasn’t wearing excessive jewellery. But alas…he yelled “Random check on line two!” I was quickly ushered forward into a small plexi glass room and left there to wait. “I am the monkey!” I thought. Everyone is outside of this box looking in and I am looking out. This must be what those little guys at the zoo feel like.

After about 20 minutes, which was actually about 90 seconds, my own personal female security guard came to my cage and ushered me out. She was a very nice gal who wanted to “dust my backpack”. I could use this fine professional on my cleaning days. She couldn’t allow me to touch my bags or the stroller so two people hauled it all over to the investigation table. Dust. Dust. “You are done”.

Meanwhile a very confident man was attempting to unfold the stroller. This is not your basic little umbrella setup. It is a large, nifty, euro, all terrain rig.

Having been through the USA/Canada border about a million times our whole family knows that you never-ever offer any information to the guards unless they ask you a direct question. At that point you answer with a simple “yes” or “no” or with a single word. I like to make a little game out of it. Offering too much information just leads to more questions. My good friend, Judy McPhee, after over packing a bag, told a customs officer “Watch out for that bag, it might explode”.  Yup - right up there in the top 10 things not to say.

As the guards (there were now two of them) struggled to open my large orange jigsaw puzzle, I stood quietly to the side watching them, not offering them any advise. Pay back time for having to stand in the fish bowl.  Don’t get me wrong. I was happy to help if they asked but I saw that look in their eye. You know when you get a new puzzle or a bit of string you just want to work it out. Plus, the guy had started to do it and a gal had joined in and I saw that there was a competitive friction happening. I didn’t want to spoil it.

After struggling for a while I did finally help them out because in my garage the night before it took me about 20 minutes, Google, YouTube and finally the online manual to get the darn thing opened! I said goodbye to these good people and proceeded through the airport sporting my best “I know where I am going, but I think I forgot my baby” look that I could come up with.

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How in the world do people just sit down on an airplane, cross their arms, drop their head forward and go to sleep? How does their neck stand it? I would be frozen there, never ever able to raise my head again.

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Jan. 6 Traveling with 7 people (one 20 month, 6 & 4 year old and grown ups) plus customs, plan transfers, security, baggage – 18 large pieces, porters, Spanish, trams, bathrooms, diapers, snacks, 3 flights, tips, time changes, overnight flight, etc, etc has its ups and downs (no pun intended). Overall, I can only applaud E & R’s family organization and attitude.  It was pretty fun to witness such a time as this in their lives. Years of planning. Nice job.  Eric was the champion checker, lifter, fetcher, scout. Rachael had everything in its place and knew exactly which zippered pocket is went in. She gets the blue ribbon for holding onto to Levi on the flight while he cried himself to sleep. Nana (Patti) is the grand game player, distractor, and entertainer of all times.