In preparation for my big trip home to NE for Christmas and partly because of a snow threat I stayed home in Worcester last weekend and bored myself almost to death! I had watched so many movies on TBS that it took me an entire week to name them all to Katie over Christmas. She replies, "Is there anything else you do there but watch TV?" Well Katie, sometimes no, that is it! The excitement was building for my triumphant return to the Midwest, my presents were all bought and at my mom's wrapped, my plane ticket was bought a month in advance, my ride was lined up to get to the airport in Boston (return trip was still up in the air), I had started to starve myself in advance to gain the weight of eating all of mom's goodies, and mentally/emotionally I was ready to return home to my family.
So here it was Tuesday night, packing my bag and tidying up the apartment for a 5day leave. The weather in the New England states was great, no precipitation and mid 30s for temperature. Mom had called with the impending doom of a blizzard to hit the Midwest but then our minds were slightly eased by Wednesday when the weather was "not too bad" in NE. Wednesday I got up and to work early, bags waiting at my apartment door and my driver on call for departure to Boston. Around noon I decided to recheck my flights to make sure they were still on schedule, although I had checked them about 10times that day already. There it was in clear blue writing, flight cancelled! PANIC led to calling friends for advice, which led to waiting on hold with United for 25min just to talk to customer service for another 25min. My only option for flights were the following day, Christmas Eve day. I took the earliest flight available and planned for that. I spent the evening watching movies and re planning my route to NE online, and feeling a little sorry for myself I must admit :(
Out of all of the trips I have been on in the past 3months the only one that has been delayed or interrupted was the one trip home to see my family! Now what is going on with this picture? I woke up early again on Thursday morning to return my movies, finish repacking and catch a cup of coffee. I then decided, while waiting for my ride to union station, that I would re look at my itinerary. Everything flight wise was right on schedule but then the unthinkable happened, it appeared that I had missed my train to Boston!! I looked again and again, turning my head sideways, rechecking the printed transit schedule I had in my carry-on, each one saying something different. I hoped for the best as my friend picked my up from my apt and he dropped me off at the train station. Walked into an empty station right up to the schedule board to yet a different schedule, and yes I had missed my train by 10min! Well we all have choices in life, traveling ones are still new to me though so I called my trusty travel buddy Allison! This is how that conversation went, "Ally I'm stuck at the train station and I missed the train to Boston, what do I do?" She replied, "well what are your options at this point?" I say, "well wait for the 10:30 train and risk being late for my flight or check the bus schedule that I have no idea about or I guess I could drive to Boston." Ally says, "well I would just drive then." Becky, "well that is what I thought but I'm stranded at Union station and I don't know how to get to Boston and I don't know what the traffic will be like, and I don't know where to park at the airport!!!" Ally calmly says, "Becky take a cab to your truck, I don't know what the traffic is like because I'm not there, you have a GPS to get you there and when I'm done walking the dog I will text you an address to a park and fly." Oh great! Now where do I begin with all of that crap?
So I called a cab, paid $9 to get back to the apt I had just left, took my truck, programmed Betty and drove like mad to the park and fly that Ally had texted me along my route! Apparently the Logan airport is on an island in the Atlantic ocean, as Ally again so nicely pointed out my lack of geography knowledge! So Betty kept going crazy on me when I passed through these ginormous tunnels, about 4lanes across including interstate exits inside the tunnel! The most amazing thing for sure. I circled in and out of the airport a couple of times to get Betty back on track, went over the bridge and through the woods to park my truck. Shuttle to the airport and went to check in at the Delta airline. The lady was less than friendly for the holiday season and proceeded to tell me that not only did I not have a confirmed seat on this flight she was almost certain that I would not get on that flight. I calmly as possible asked her what my options were. She replied, well not many at this point, just try to get on the flight and then the people at the gate will tell you what to do if you do not get on it! As I tried very hard to remain calm and push back tears and not loose it in the middle of the security check point, I removed my boots, coat, scarf, gloves, liquids, and all but my underwear to stand in line...calmly so I wasn't looking suspicious. After donning all of my clothing and collecting my things again I made it to the ticket counter to the nicest lady that ever lived in my opinion!
Due to the fact that I was now over 3 hours early for my flight, she graciously handed me a ticket with an actual seat number on it and told me that early birds are rewarded! YES! There I calmly sat at the airport, finally waiting for a my "on time" flight with an actual seat. Made it into Omaha without a hitch but then got stranded on the runway for almost 40min due to the weather/blizzard. So my family that had patiently drove through the blizzard on Christmas eve now had to sit at the airport for me. Well obviously they let me off the plane and to my family who were waving welcome home signs and wearing Christmas cheer. The lady walking up with me says, "oh I wonder whose family that is?" I proudly said, "that would be mine!" Thank goodness we had many stories to share for our long and dangerous ride back to the farm because shortly after we got home they closed the interstate!! Katie had 2 friends out to the farm for the holidays to save them from being alone in Omaha and Steph and Rafe and both kids were there to celebrate this odd Christmas. There was no Christmas eve service, no rushing around on Christmas day and no where to be the following day either because we were literally snowed in! Both direction to either Crete or Milford were blocked by huge snow bluffs, some 10ft tall and some about 200ft long (in my calculations).
The great part of the whole deal was, there was no rushing, no getting out of your pajamas, no need to speed through gifts, no reason not to sleep in late and then take a long nap, no need to stop the jigsaw puzzle at bedtime, because really there was no time schedule! We enjoyed the holiday for all new reasons to us and finally got Katie's friends out of the snowy farm late Saturday. We even made first human contact with others, heading over to our grandparents mainly to retrieve some well water. We narrowly made it back to our snow fortress before the road snow tunnels blew back in and again we were stranded. So along came Sunday morning, the day the Vosta family was to all meet at the farm...we're meeting, we're not meeting, we're meeting, we are definitely not meeting. Then Uncle John decided it was to snow again this week so postponing until next weekend would not be too wise, so indeed we met (right after John and his tractor cleared the road for us again). 35 family members or so made the impossible trek out to the snowy farm to celebrate one of life's most precious gifts! Everything was different this year from the snow, to the gift exchange, as well as the food. I guess I am getting older to mark milestones by Christmas traditions and their changing patterns.
Sunday night Katie and I headed into Omaha so not to have to wait to be plowed out again on Monday morning in order to catch my flight. We stopped for some much needed sushi, grabbed a movie and stayed at Katie's house downtown. Monday morning had breakfast at the coffee shop then started the trek back to Massachusetts. Fly from Omaha to Chicago, then to Boston, then shuttle to the truck then drive to Worcester. Katie had said the only forms of transportation I had left out were bicycle and boat, neither of which I wanted to attempt in the winter anyway! Home safe and sound and back to reality so I found out this morning when bright and early my renters called with a furnace emergency!! Yikes.
So here it was Tuesday night, packing my bag and tidying up the apartment for a 5day leave. The weather in the New England states was great, no precipitation and mid 30s for temperature. Mom had called with the impending doom of a blizzard to hit the Midwest but then our minds were slightly eased by Wednesday when the weather was "not too bad" in NE. Wednesday I got up and to work early, bags waiting at my apartment door and my driver on call for departure to Boston. Around noon I decided to recheck my flights to make sure they were still on schedule, although I had checked them about 10times that day already. There it was in clear blue writing, flight cancelled! PANIC led to calling friends for advice, which led to waiting on hold with United for 25min just to talk to customer service for another 25min. My only option for flights were the following day, Christmas Eve day. I took the earliest flight available and planned for that. I spent the evening watching movies and re planning my route to NE online, and feeling a little sorry for myself I must admit :(
Out of all of the trips I have been on in the past 3months the only one that has been delayed or interrupted was the one trip home to see my family! Now what is going on with this picture? I woke up early again on Thursday morning to return my movies, finish repacking and catch a cup of coffee. I then decided, while waiting for my ride to union station, that I would re look at my itinerary. Everything flight wise was right on schedule but then the unthinkable happened, it appeared that I had missed my train to Boston!! I looked again and again, turning my head sideways, rechecking the printed transit schedule I had in my carry-on, each one saying something different. I hoped for the best as my friend picked my up from my apt and he dropped me off at the train station. Walked into an empty station right up to the schedule board to yet a different schedule, and yes I had missed my train by 10min! Well we all have choices in life, traveling ones are still new to me though so I called my trusty travel buddy Allison! This is how that conversation went, "Ally I'm stuck at the train station and I missed the train to Boston, what do I do?" She replied, "well what are your options at this point?" I say, "well wait for the 10:30 train and risk being late for my flight or check the bus schedule that I have no idea about or I guess I could drive to Boston." Ally says, "well I would just drive then." Becky, "well that is what I thought but I'm stranded at Union station and I don't know how to get to Boston and I don't know what the traffic will be like, and I don't know where to park at the airport!!!" Ally calmly says, "Becky take a cab to your truck, I don't know what the traffic is like because I'm not there, you have a GPS to get you there and when I'm done walking the dog I will text you an address to a park and fly." Oh great! Now where do I begin with all of that crap?
So I called a cab, paid $9 to get back to the apt I had just left, took my truck, programmed Betty and drove like mad to the park and fly that Ally had texted me along my route! Apparently the Logan airport is on an island in the Atlantic ocean, as Ally again so nicely pointed out my lack of geography knowledge! So Betty kept going crazy on me when I passed through these ginormous tunnels, about 4lanes across including interstate exits inside the tunnel! The most amazing thing for sure. I circled in and out of the airport a couple of times to get Betty back on track, went over the bridge and through the woods to park my truck. Shuttle to the airport and went to check in at the Delta airline. The lady was less than friendly for the holiday season and proceeded to tell me that not only did I not have a confirmed seat on this flight she was almost certain that I would not get on that flight. I calmly as possible asked her what my options were. She replied, well not many at this point, just try to get on the flight and then the people at the gate will tell you what to do if you do not get on it! As I tried very hard to remain calm and push back tears and not loose it in the middle of the security check point, I removed my boots, coat, scarf, gloves, liquids, and all but my underwear to stand in line...calmly so I wasn't looking suspicious. After donning all of my clothing and collecting my things again I made it to the ticket counter to the nicest lady that ever lived in my opinion!
Due to the fact that I was now over 3 hours early for my flight, she graciously handed me a ticket with an actual seat number on it and told me that early birds are rewarded! YES! There I calmly sat at the airport, finally waiting for a my "on time" flight with an actual seat. Made it into Omaha without a hitch but then got stranded on the runway for almost 40min due to the weather/blizzard. So my family that had patiently drove through the blizzard on Christmas eve now had to sit at the airport for me. Well obviously they let me off the plane and to my family who were waving welcome home signs and wearing Christmas cheer. The lady walking up with me says, "oh I wonder whose family that is?" I proudly said, "that would be mine!" Thank goodness we had many stories to share for our long and dangerous ride back to the farm because shortly after we got home they closed the interstate!! Katie had 2 friends out to the farm for the holidays to save them from being alone in Omaha and Steph and Rafe and both kids were there to celebrate this odd Christmas. There was no Christmas eve service, no rushing around on Christmas day and no where to be the following day either because we were literally snowed in! Both direction to either Crete or Milford were blocked by huge snow bluffs, some 10ft tall and some about 200ft long (in my calculations).
The great part of the whole deal was, there was no rushing, no getting out of your pajamas, no need to speed through gifts, no reason not to sleep in late and then take a long nap, no need to stop the jigsaw puzzle at bedtime, because really there was no time schedule! We enjoyed the holiday for all new reasons to us and finally got Katie's friends out of the snowy farm late Saturday. We even made first human contact with others, heading over to our grandparents mainly to retrieve some well water. We narrowly made it back to our snow fortress before the road snow tunnels blew back in and again we were stranded. So along came Sunday morning, the day the Vosta family was to all meet at the farm...we're meeting, we're not meeting, we're meeting, we are definitely not meeting. Then Uncle John decided it was to snow again this week so postponing until next weekend would not be too wise, so indeed we met (right after John and his tractor cleared the road for us again). 35 family members or so made the impossible trek out to the snowy farm to celebrate one of life's most precious gifts! Everything was different this year from the snow, to the gift exchange, as well as the food. I guess I am getting older to mark milestones by Christmas traditions and their changing patterns.
Sunday night Katie and I headed into Omaha so not to have to wait to be plowed out again on Monday morning in order to catch my flight. We stopped for some much needed sushi, grabbed a movie and stayed at Katie's house downtown. Monday morning had breakfast at the coffee shop then started the trek back to Massachusetts. Fly from Omaha to Chicago, then to Boston, then shuttle to the truck then drive to Worcester. Katie had said the only forms of transportation I had left out were bicycle and boat, neither of which I wanted to attempt in the winter anyway! Home safe and sound and back to reality so I found out this morning when bright and early my renters called with a furnace emergency!! Yikes.
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