We're going to Atlanta!!!

Hurray! The counter is on 0 days, and it’s finally happening… we’re going to the US. At least… we hope so. A lot can still happen in 8 hours. We can’t be sure until the plane is actually starting to lift off.

Two years ago, on our way back from Florida, we almost didn’t make it. We were flying Standby then too. We had to wait till the very last minute and found exactly 3 seats were still available. The other people who were flying standby also hadn’t shown up, because we were (as usual) last in line. We were so happy, because it had been a long day. We even had seats next to each other… but when we just strapped into our seat belts… the stewardess came to tell us someone had shown up anyway, and he

wanted his seat. I was mortified.

Luckily for us, Daan could fly on the jump-seat, so we still got to go home. I ended up being up all night with Elora, who had a lot of night terrors back then, and all I was doing was calming her and trying to stop her from kicking the poor guy in her sleep (I bet he wasn’t too happy he made his flight either) It was a special kind of hell (where people who

send me pictures of spiders on Facebook will go when they die… just saying)

Anyway, needless to say, that little incident has made me even more tense about flying standby. At the same time… it’s usually no more than 24 hours of hell, for 2 weeks in heaven. I can live with that deal.

We’ve become more proficient at travelling as it is. The first year was hilarious, because we had no

idea what we were doing. Since then we’ve discovered some travel hacks. I think my favorite –and the one that took us longest to figure out—is travelling in a different bra.

Now, hold on… there’s a story behind that one. You see, for years I kept setting off the alarm at Orlando’s Inferno (hell has nine layers and two terminals, as Daan once said beautifully) and I would have to stand in a glass prison, for all to see, until they could find a female guard to frisk me. Apparently all female guards lived in China, because it took forever to get one. I would joke around saying it had to be the metal plate in my head, but apparently you’re not allowed to have a sense of humor as an airport security officer, because all I’ve ever gotten with being silly is the silent stare. Tough crowd.

The most exciting part of it all was that Elora couldn’t handle seeing me there when she was a toddler / pre-schooler. So she would cry for her mommy, just loud enough so that really ALL eyes would be on me while being frisked. Nothing like feeling like criminal for half an hour, while your kid brings

on the drama.

Turns out… it was the underwire in my bra. DOH! So now I wear a special (mildly uncomfortable) wireless bra. So, yay on the not getting frisked part! (watch me get frisked this year anyway)

The journey always makes me nervous. *bug eyes* This flying standby malarkey really doesn’t help, but everything is always a bit iffy. I used to love flying. It would mean long hours in a row doing nothing but reading books and watching movies that weren’t out yet.

Becoming a mother took away 90% of its charm, becoming older sucked away the remaining 10%. Now it’s just spending an insane amount of hours being cooped up with a hyper active kid, who can’t sit still for five seconds. It’s not even that Elora is not sweet or not fun during the trip (in fact most years we get compliments from strangers for her behavior) but it’s that she can’t stop fiddling, and it drives me nuts. Also, 9 ½ hours is a looooong time for a kid to entertain herself without moving around, so there usually comes a part where she gets bored. I have a book I can read to her, and we have computer games, guessing games, coloring books and airplane toys… but that’s where my mommy magic ends. It helps if we sit together, then we can take turns entertaining her… but that’s another disadvantage of flying Standby… you don’t know where you sit.

If we all sit separately, it’ll be interesting. I will pity the person next to Elora, because she’ll talk to them… she doesn’t care. My daughter just likes an audience. But anyway… I digress with my doom-thinking.

The suitcases are packed, and even the hand luggage is done. In the end I couldn’t find the charger

for the camera’s battery. This means all pictures will be made with my phone, and I’ll probably not be in a lot of them (as usual). Oh well.

All we need to do is pick up some candy for the flight. I’m considering if I’m going to put up an out of office reply. We have free wifi in the hotel (woot) so I could check it so that it doesn’t get out of hand. But at the same time, I’m taking a break. My plan is to stay away from any kind of drama for 2 weeks. I’ve even gone as far as deleting my facebook and messenger apps from my phone. I’m going on holiday from the world. This is a time I want to spend with my family, and I want to enjoy it to the fullest. It’s time for a bit of headspace.

I sent off the last things I needed to do for work. Even managed to get the reading of ‘Little Death’ (short story in Deeply Twisted) done for Horror Addicts. So I can go without feeling guilty for not making the deadline.

And now, hopefully, we’re going to go off to the US, where we’ll spend 2 weeks running around acting like big children. Whenever we go, we don’t exactly have a ‘relaxing’ holiday. We tend to hit the theme parks quite hard, until we start to run out of energy at the end of the holiday. Funny enough, that relaxes us more than beach vacations do. I can’t explain it either. All I know is that we’re going to zip-a-dee-doo-dah the hell out of this holiday!

For those of you reading my blog, thank you. *elegant bow*

I’ll see you on the flipside. If you want to leave me comments, I’ll be sure to read them. I will try to post on my blog every day, but I can’t make promises. *waves* See you all at the end of May!