and i will see your face in my face

Brette and I got back from visiting family and friends in Ohio this past week. We both had a great time. We spent Christmas with my parents, aunt, and grandparents in Kent, and went to Columbus to see a Bruins-Blue Jackets game and visit B’s folks the following day. She would disagree, but it is a terrible disappointment that the Bruins lost the game in overtime. Still, it was probably the best game of hockey I’ve ever seen in person.

We had gone over to my grandparents before leaving for Columbus for a quick stop-and-chat. My mom had sent me over there with a leftover mincemeat pie, some alcohol, and the local newspaper. When we walked into the house, I bellowed out, “We’ve brought pie, liquor, and news!” With everyone sitting around we made some chitchat about how things were going before my Uncle Richard finally asked excitedly, “So, what’s the news?” It was a bit of a letdown when I told him that I had brought over the Beacon Journal.

I misremembered the time of our return flight. For some reason, I had thought that takeoff was at 4:30, but it was scheduled for 4 o’clock. Thinking it was at 4:30 the whole time, we waited patiently in line before we got to the ticket counter at 3:50 and found that we couldn’t check in for the flight. The ticket agent helpfully tried to schedule us on a flight to Atlanta connecting to Boston (very out of the way… look at a map), but we would miss the connection. The only alternative was to book us on a flight for the next day.

I was ready to be home. I had her book us on one of those flights, but I made a b-line for another airline’s counter. I was able to purchase 2 tickets with last-minute fares and got us a flight to Philadelphia, connecting to Boston. With the other tickets canceled (and credited to a future flight), the net loss to me was $3.10 — and several hours time. The flight to Philadelphia was scheduled for 5:30 but didn’t leave until 7:10. We missed our 8:30 connection to Boston, but the ticket agent had anticipated this and also booked us on a 10:30 connection. We finally made it home around midnight, some six or so hours after we should have gotten there. Brette has been very good about not giving me a hard time about it, and I appreciate that a lot.

I finished the last of the turkey and gravy for lunch, but we still have a lot of pie and cookies.