That went surprisingly well.
Apr. 27th, 2008 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherI'm as surprised as you are!
Most of the weekend was spent hanging out with my cousins, who I hadn't even expected to be there (when last my Mom checked, Alison and I were the only grandchildren who could make it), but somehow, Rachel, Katie, and Ted V were there. (Yeah, I was incrementing him wrong - he's actually Ted V. Good lord.)
I was kinda stunned by the party for grandpa Rodgers 80th birthday - something like over 300 people from their community came out. It was really impressive. (And I was only mistaken for Ted V's dad twice, at which he cracked up and started calling me "dad" while we were serving cake and ice cream to people until the end of the night. *rolleyes*)
When I'm 80...hell, when I'm 40!, I'd like to be able to get 200 friends together to celebrate. :D Even if I don't see eye to eye with him about much of anything, having 200 friends come to wish you well and celebrate your life seems like a sign he did well with it.
Then it was some pizza and cards with the aunts, cousins, and uncles to celebrate everything -else- going on soon, including my cousin Rachel's 18th birthday and my cousin Katie graduating College next weekend.
Man, I'm getting old.
The adults went to bed after that, and we "kids" went out for a bit, as I think I mentioned. We hit a really neat Piano bar with insane desserts (pride of place going to the chocolate piano filled with espresso creme and berries - I just wish I'd know it was $20 when I ordered it), hit the beach at Ft. Myers (very peaceful and nice after dark, despite an atrocious Pink Floyd cover band completely fucking up most of The Wall), and drove around catching up more.
This morning, we got up WAAAAAAAAAY to early (especially since my mom decided to leave an hour later than planned without telling me!), hit a coffee shop for some delicious wakeup and pastry, and drove back.
I'm pleased to say no highways were closed this time around! Much nicer.
We stopped at the skyway south pier to take some pictures, then headed into the airport, checked in, and got lunch.
The next problem with Southwest came when I tried to "pre-board".
In Columbus, because of the whole ticket bullshit, one of the things they tried to "offer" to "make it better" was to pre-board me, mom, and Alison. Fine.
In Tampa, I went up to pre-board, they let Mom on...and stopped Alison.
"One family member with him only."
"In Columbus, they let our full family board."
"Columbus always does it wrong."
"..."
"Look, either she waits in line to board, or none of you are leaving on this plane."
Alison was willing to wait, and we kept a seat open with us, but needless to say all three of us were pretty upset.
When the flight attendant met me at the door, the first thing I asked was if she had a complaint form. (No, of course not, have to go to the -website-, how fucking lovely...)
We're leaning on it being a cold day in Hell before I fly Southwest again.
Finally, we got back to Columbus, I crashed briefly at my parents until Alex could swing by and get me, and I've spent the past hour or so unwinding a bit and generally recovering.
TL;DR - It's good to be home.
Oh, and lots of pictures in my Flickr.
Most of the weekend was spent hanging out with my cousins, who I hadn't even expected to be there (when last my Mom checked, Alison and I were the only grandchildren who could make it), but somehow, Rachel, Katie, and Ted V were there. (Yeah, I was incrementing him wrong - he's actually Ted V. Good lord.)
I was kinda stunned by the party for grandpa Rodgers 80th birthday - something like over 300 people from their community came out. It was really impressive. (And I was only mistaken for Ted V's dad twice, at which he cracked up and started calling me "dad" while we were serving cake and ice cream to people until the end of the night. *rolleyes*)
When I'm 80...hell, when I'm 40!, I'd like to be able to get 200 friends together to celebrate. :D Even if I don't see eye to eye with him about much of anything, having 200 friends come to wish you well and celebrate your life seems like a sign he did well with it.
Then it was some pizza and cards with the aunts, cousins, and uncles to celebrate everything -else- going on soon, including my cousin Rachel's 18th birthday and my cousin Katie graduating College next weekend.
Man, I'm getting old.
The adults went to bed after that, and we "kids" went out for a bit, as I think I mentioned. We hit a really neat Piano bar with insane desserts (pride of place going to the chocolate piano filled with espresso creme and berries - I just wish I'd know it was $20 when I ordered it), hit the beach at Ft. Myers (very peaceful and nice after dark, despite an atrocious Pink Floyd cover band completely fucking up most of The Wall), and drove around catching up more.
This morning, we got up WAAAAAAAAAY to early (especially since my mom decided to leave an hour later than planned without telling me!), hit a coffee shop for some delicious wakeup and pastry, and drove back.
I'm pleased to say no highways were closed this time around! Much nicer.
We stopped at the skyway south pier to take some pictures, then headed into the airport, checked in, and got lunch.
The next problem with Southwest came when I tried to "pre-board".
In Columbus, because of the whole ticket bullshit, one of the things they tried to "offer" to "make it better" was to pre-board me, mom, and Alison. Fine.
In Tampa, I went up to pre-board, they let Mom on...and stopped Alison.
"One family member with him only."
"In Columbus, they let our full family board."
"Columbus always does it wrong."
"..."
"Look, either she waits in line to board, or none of you are leaving on this plane."
Alison was willing to wait, and we kept a seat open with us, but needless to say all three of us were pretty upset.
When the flight attendant met me at the door, the first thing I asked was if she had a complaint form. (No, of course not, have to go to the -website-, how fucking lovely...)
We're leaning on it being a cold day in Hell before I fly Southwest again.
Finally, we got back to Columbus, I crashed briefly at my parents until Alex could swing by and get me, and I've spent the past hour or so unwinding a bit and generally recovering.
TL;DR - It's good to be home.
Oh, and lots of pictures in my Flickr.
