Ramble Ramble

Let me tell you a story…a story about traveling the friendly (?) skies during the holidays…a story that’s so unbelievable, many will think I’m making it up.

We got to the airport entirely too early (due to a fluke with traffic, not having to deal with luggage or the security line due to the kinds of tickets we purchased), so we had some time to kill. As we’re sitting there, enjoying our Starbucks, we hear an announcement:

“This flight is overbooked. We’re looking for passengers who have flexible travel plans who would be willing to take the next flight out in exchange for $300 travel vouchers.”

Ok, so you guys saw that one of my goals for 2009 is to travel. Um, free travel vouchers? Sign me up! We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Dallas anyway, so I figured if they could get us into Dallas in time to make our connection, we were golden.

Sure enough, the next flight out is only 1 hour later, getting us into Dallas in plenty  of time for our original connection. Done, and done. 2 vouchers sitting in my purse while we enjoy a nice bloody mary and some lunch and wait for our flight.

But it gets better (seriously!). About 30 minutes before our new flight leaves, while we’re waiting to board, we hear them call our name, and ask to come to the gate. They ask us if we would want to be bumped again for another set of vouchers! But because we don’t want to screw things up for the people picking us up in San Antonio, we decline. So the nice gate agent says, “oh that’s ok, here are your new tickets then.” We look down…

We’ve been bumped up to first class so that they can use our seats in coach.

Seriously, I’d been expecting travel Armageddon, it being the holidays and all, and I get money from the airline and first class accommodations?  What alternate travel universe did we wander into?

Of course, on the trip back, I was convinced we had used all our travel karma up and that we would have nothing but problems. And things appeared that way…our flight out on Sunday night got delayed so long they cancelled it for us, and put us on a plane the next day. Monday we arrived so early we had to kill 2 hours in the San Antonio airport (they weren’t sure they “really” had us booked in seats on Sunday night, so we had to arrive early to make sure). But then, we arrive in Dallas for our connecting flight. And as we’re sitting there, hand to my heart, we hear:

“This flight is overbooked. We’re looking for passengers who have flexible travel plans who would be willing to take the next flight out in exchange for $300 travel vouchers.”

I kept asking N.C., “are we being punked? Did we hit some alternate universe?” I mean, I was dreading this trip knowing all the crap that has been going on in the airline industry, and they kept….giving us stuff!

Guys, we ended up that trip with 4 travel vouchers, a meal voucher, first class for one leg of the trip, no luggage costs, bypassing lines at security and at the gate, and all it cost us was waiting time.  I may never have another good flight experience again (having completely used up any and all travel karma), but man, it was worth it!

Well, after countless hours spent in airports and cars, too many nights not in my own bed (and the backaches to prove it), his & her’s family time, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Texas & Vegas….we’re back, and our “real lives” are about to kick back into real time.

I’ve missed this little blog, and all my blog friends…but I daresay I’m going to be a little rusty for a few days. I can already tell this post needs a re-write. But I’ve got to start somewhere, huh?

I had big plans to discuss Christmas and New Year’s in separate posts, but, well, I’m sure everyone is sick of those stories, so I’ll wrap them up in one Sunday night post and just move forward. Welcome to 2009 and all.

Christmas
For Christmas, we headed to the San Antonio area to spend 5 days with my mom and her husband. They own horses and cattle and dogs and cats and who knows what all other animals, so it’s always interesting to head out there–a little dirtier and more rustic than my day to day life, ya know? Oh, and were you aware that horses are really big, and can be kinda freaky up close? And that cattle aren’t particularly smart (and are apparently afraid of me and my camera)? And that border collies who were raised around horses and cattle can do some impressive stuff moving those animals around?

Anyway, Christmas turned out to be an interesting study in who I am.  See, I was a little bummed out by Christmas this year. Oh, not gifts…despite everyone taking it “easy” this year in the gift department, we got some cool stuff, all of it thoughtful and perfect for us and really, minus one gift (yay Wii Fit!), totally not over the top.

No I was disappointed by Christmas because…well I hate to admit this but…because I’m selfish and bratty and didn’t get to do Christmas my way. I know, I know, I’m ashamed of me too, but Christmas to me means getting up in the morning, opening gifts in my jammies, with everyone still drowsy (but nursing a coffee, tea or diet coke in my case), casual and relaxed. Not at 2:00 in the afternoon, fully dressed, in a somewhat “formal” setting. But, we don’t always get to have things our way (I know, right?).

Anyway, it was interesting seeing how that disappointment colored the entire day for me. I was able to let it go later in the day (and I did enjoy myself), but it did reinforce that I’m building my own “traditions” for holidays…and whenever at all it’s in my control, we’ll do things according to those traditions.

New Year’s Eve
As I mentioned in my last post, we headed up to Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve. My in-laws live there, so we don’t normally head toward the Strip when we’re there, instead sticking to their local casino. You lose some of the flair of Vegas but frankly you tend to win more…which is a good thing!

For this trip, we had tickets to see Blue Man Group at 4:00pm on New Year’s Eve. We show up, and seriously, these might have been some of the best seats I’ve ever been in…about 6th row, just off center. The audience wasn’t all that energetic, but it was still one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a really long time. There was a point where I was just laughing and laughing and I remember thinking–this is really an amazing feeling of freedom. It sort of….reset my thinking a little. Theater and musical theater has been known to do that to me on occasion.

After the show was over, the original plan was that my in-laws would head back to their local casino and we’d stay on the Strip and do the “real” Las Vegas New Year’s Eve. But after thinking about it, we decided we didn’t really care to spend a ton of money going to a crowded club, we would rather gamble at his parents casino (for cash flow reasons), and that the Strip didn’t really suit us. So we left.

Instead, we spent the evening playing craps at his parent’s local casino…and winning! It was a really really cool evening–at the stroke of midnight, the entire casino counted down, my husband and I kissed, and we were up a couple hundred dollars. Not bad for starting the night with about $40! I think we left the craps table around 2:00am, up a little more, exhausted but perfectly content with how our evening went down. (We ended up losing most of that money right back to the casino the next day, but we came home with what we left with plus a little more, so I call it a win.)

All in all, the holidays were good, time off was amazing, and I’m really excited about 2009. I’m not quite ready to go back to the real world, but if I must, at least it’s after a satisfying and enjoyable vacation!

I had hoped to have a full day between our trip to San Antonio and our trip to Las Vegas to catch up on things, write a few real blog posts, sift through my backlogged reader. Instead, our flight was delayed overnight and then we spent yesterday in the Dallas airport, arriving home just in time to do one load of laundry and pass out.

I so could have used a laptop yesterday!

So anyway, I’ve now got about 3 hours to pack for our jaunt to Las Vegas, mail out some packages, go to the bank, oh and maybe shower. We’re headed to Vegas to see my in-laws/for New Year’s Eve. It should be fun/crazy/frightening? Well, the in-laws part will be fun. I’m a little more nervous about the NYE part of things.

I’m not really one for big crowds–when we lived in New York, I’m not sure you could have paid me to go to Times Square for NYE–so I’m somewhat confused as to how we ended up with this particular set of plans. My one consolation is this: we’re seeing the Blue Man Group at 4 on NYE, and that leaves us time to escape if it’s too crazy after the show is over.

If I don’t make it back, you’ll know I was lost in a crowd of drunken belligerent partiers on the Strip.

When I return, I’ve got a lot of posts planned. Here’s some of what you can look forward to (if any of my readers come back after the past two weeks!):

• pictures of horses and cows
• a post about Christmas, and how I’m a selfish brat
• some navel gazing about my role in my family
• pictures of dogs
• a wrap-up of 2008
• a look forward into 2009
• pictures of Christmas
• our airline stories
• the dreaded trip to Las Vegas

So, um, yeah, I’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about…when I get back. In the meantime, everyone have a happy (and safe!) New Year. I can’t wait to catch back up with all of you in 2009!

Today, I am thankful.

I’m thankful for my mom, who is the epitome of a strong woman to look up to. I’m thankful for my family, who have been a constant in my life. I’m thankful for my friends, who put up with a slacker friend. I’m thankful for my kitty cat, who is a stinker but a cute one. I’m thankful for good food, and the resulting food coma. I’m thankful for paychecks, particularly right now. I’m thankful for perspective, for allowing me to recognize my happiness.  I’m thankful for blogging & blogging friends, for giving me a more interesting and creative life over the last 3 months.

And I am thankful for my husband, who makes it all fun.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and my in-laws are coming in town to celebrate with us, I’ve got the menu on my brain. I’m trying to plan how best to stagger dishes, what needs to be prepped tonight, and how best to not get full from “testing” all day tomorrow!

We did Thanksgiving at our place last year, and it was pretty successful (if I do say so myself). Sadly though, neither N.C. nor I can seem to remember how exactly we pulled it all off, so we’re sort of rehashing old ground. Luckily, we’re pretty traditional in our feasting, so should something go wrong I’m sure the interwebs can help correct it. Here’s the menu:

Turkey
Regular in-bird stuffing (for my husband)
Green chili cornbread stuffing (my favorite from growing up…that’s what living in New Mexico will get you)
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Green beans
Glazed carrots
Rolls
Pecan pie
Pumpkin cheesecake (fingers crossed that this one works out)
Plus, we’ll have nuts and fruit and a relish tray to snack on throughout the day.

There’s nothing groundbreaking in there, but I take great pride in pulling off a holiday meal that everyone enjoys, so I keep running it all over in my head trying to plan it all correctly. Plus, I have to try and plan it so my mother in law doesn’t try and do everything–not that I have a problem with sharing my kitchen (at all!), but we just want them to relax while they’re at our house.

I love that Thanksgiving isn’t about gifts or stuff, just food and family. Christmas is my favorite holiday, bar none, but the stress leading up to it can be incredibly intense. Thanksgiving is the opposite–there’s no stress in the lead up at all, some minor chaos the morning of, and then nothing but food coma!

Tomorrow, I will be doing a brief post (thanks NaBloPoMo!) on what I’m thankful for this year, but today…today it’s all about the food.