Eat Across America

As I discussed earlier this year in my travel advice, we had some minor issues getting to Orlando for our vacation over Christmas. We didn't just have the expected issues related to not traveling as one would expect. Mister Man's Asperger's reared its head, and he had a really hard time with the change in plans.

He didn't understand why the airplane didn't get us there this time the way it had before. He couldn't comprehend or accept not getting to Orlando until Tuesday afternoon when we'd originally been scheduled to arrive Saturday (thank you, United!). Even when we made the decision on Sunday morning to rent a car and drive the remaining distance, we still wouldn't be there close to when Mister Man anticipated.

And he was having a hard time with it. His world was thrown into chaos, and as parents, my husband and I couldn't even tell him for certain when we'd arrive or what would happen along the way. He started to break down.

Somehow - somehow, and I suspect there was a minor miracle in the works - I stumbled upon something that distracted Mister Man from the disaster of our travel and instead turned it into an exciting adventure where he had something to look forward to.

I introduced Eat Across America.

He had eaten in the Milwaukee airport before we departed - just a small snack, but something nonetheless. He breakfast in Chicago before we departed for Reagan. He had a snack at Reagan while we waited to figure out what we were going to do next (gotta keep his energy level even to keep him regulated). And then we planned to stop to eat in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on our road trip. On our way back, we had a connection in Detroit where I also promised him that I'd let him have lunch before we headed to Milwaukee.

His eyes grew big. Mentally, he started counting the states he'd get to eat in (nine - because I'm letting him count DC as a "state") compared to the total states in existence. And a smile started to grow across his face. As he bounced and stimmed, he excitedly talked about how he'd be the only one he knew who'd eaten in so many places and how he'd tell his friends about it when he got back to school.

He was a happy boy. Thank goodness.

And we did succeed in eating in each of those states - aided, I might add, by the ice storm that had gone through North and South Carolina, forcing us to unexpectedly stop for the night. Since that moment, I haven't heard one more complaint about the travel booking failure from him. He wasn't miserable, and we were able to move forward and have fun in Florida.

He's also eaten in Missouri, and his goal in life now is to eat in all fifty states. How fun is that? My mom is already planning a day trip with him to Indiana so he can eat there. I'm not sure how many states I've eaten in, but there aren't too many I've missed (Alaska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Maine come to mind). How many states have you eaten in?

Giveaways:
Win one of two copies of Avatar in Blu-Ray here

How NOT To Travel Over The Holidays

We are home and safe, and in the end, we eventually had fun. That's what I need to focus on. But I'm not quite there yet. Plus, I wouldn't want anyone else to have the joy I experienced; I'd rather people learn from my (husband's) mistakes and avoid some of our disaster.

Top Things I Learned Over Break:

1) Do not let your husband make the travel arrangements. Or at least not my husband. While I have been known to be ummm frugal, there are limits to it. And why did we do this? It wouldn't have anything to do with my husband forgetting to make flight reservations, nope not that! We ended up flying out of Milwaukee instead of Chicago because it was cheaper. While Milwaukee isn't that much more of a drive, it leads to the next point.

2) Do not travel on connecting flights. The more connecting flights you have, the more potential for problems, especially in winter. And over the holidays. Ditto ten times over for connections where the second airline isn't the same as the first - which ours wasn't... to start.

3) Do not take the last flight of the evening. Aside from the obvious issues of tired and cranky children (and possibly parents), if there are any issues with your flight - like ohhhh say United being unable to find a gate for a flight for almost 50 minutes - and your connection takes off while you are still waiting for a gate, there are no options to get to your destination that day.

4) When rebooking your flight with the customer service agents, check the weather for destinations you weren't originally intending to go but are now being told you will go. Our direct flight from Chicago to Orlando turned into a connection in DC and a switch over from United to Delta. Had I not been so exhausted, I would have checked the weather in DC and discovered that Delta had already canceled all their flights for the current day because of weather that was supposed to get worse the day we were flying and refused to go there.

5) Don't simply show up at the airport the next day to see if there are any standby flights available, call the airline to check that night once you get to your airline paid for hotel room. We showed up at 5:15am for our 7:05 flight to DC. We went through security and asked Customer Service to check flights for us again. It turns out that there was a United Flight at 6am to Cleveland (where there was NOT weather) that would have gotten us to Orlando by 11:30am that had plenty of open seats. The customer service agent the night before had somehow overlooked that flight. Except it was now 5:45 and the doors were closing. There was no physical way for us to get to the gate in time to make the flight. To say I was unhappy was putting it mildly.

6) If upon arriving at your temporary destination, your new carrier has canceled all flights, don't wait in the super long line there. Instead, go talk to the folks at your original carrier. Delta's flight to Orlando was canceled by the time we arrived in DC. And that wasn't their only canceled flight. The line was hours long. I scooted over to United where there were two people ahead of me and had a nice chat with the agent there. The bad news? Although it was Sunday at 10am, there was no flight available on any carrier to get us to Orlando until Tuesday. Tuesday. It didn't matter if we were willing to go to San Francisco to fly to Orlando, there was nothing available. Zip. The galling part? Although we had asked for a direct flight (as we'd originally had) from Chicago to Orlando when being rebooked initially and United had sent us to DC instead - where flights had already been canceled and there was more weather scheduled - because this was now a weather related delay, we were on our own for finding and paying for a hotel for the next two nights. Ahhhh, no. That's not ok.

7) If your flight is being rebooked due to a missed connections, do your best to get your checked luggage back. We had our carry on luggage only, as our checked baggage was sent from Chicago to Orlando on the direct flight at 6:48 Sunday morning - a flight where there was room for our bags but sadly not us. And in DC, there was no hope to get our bags back. Although we'd be stuck in DC for an additional two days, United could not - or rather would not - get our bags to DC so that we could have a change of clothes or any of our belongings. And again... since it's a weather related delay now, there was no compensation for lost bags, meals, hotel, or anything. This was a big problem because of the next issue.

8) Make sure you always pack what you need in your carry on. I've followed this rule for years. I always have a change of clothes and other necessities in my carry on. Increasing restrictions over the years have made this more of a challenge, but I always focus on it. My husband learned this lesson the hard way. He didn't have necessities packed. And for some unknown reason, he took Little Miss's pull ups out of her carry on and put them into checked bags. Three days with no pull ups for her. Night one she somehow managed to stay dry. Night two, not so much. And United simply told us to head to the nearest store. In a strange city. Where we had no car. On our way to a hotel we were paying for on our own. Or not.

9) When desperate enough, rent a car to drive where you're going - but call to make a reservation first. I'd done that before when working in consulting in Detroit. Detroit more than once canceled the flights back to Chicago that we were on. Rather than be stuck in Detroit for another night, twice I rented a car and drove back to Chicago - once running into some co-workers in the rental car office who were trying to do the same thing only to discover that there were no cars available. I had called the rental car office as soon as I realized the situation and - as it turns out - had gotten the very last car once. I called again this time and was initially told all cars were gone before they finally found one for me. While it's more expensive to rent in one location and return in another, it isn't always - and this was one of those situations where it was worth it. We'll ignore the very nearly wiping out the car on a patch of ice in North Carolina while trying to slow down for a wreck ahead (thank you years of driving in Minnesota!) and the sixteen hours it took us to drive in favor of arriving in Orlando almost a full day before United was going to be able to get us there.

10) If you change your itinerary due to unforeseen circumstances, make sure you inform the airline. This is where being a consultant came in handy again. Because we chose not to fly the last leg of our flight down, I contacted United to let them know that we were not canceling the remainder of our itinerary and absolutely were planning to still fly home on Saturday. Had I not done so before the scheduled flight on Tuesday morning, our entire reservation would have been canceled, and we would have had to buy last minute tickets to fly home - not how I would want to end my vacation. Fortunately, this was not an issue.

And lastly...

11) Keep everyone informed of your status. We had a car rental reservation in Orlando that expected us to show up Saturday evening. Ditto with a hotel reservation. As I learned that we'd be delayed, I called both the car company and hotel to let them know that we were still planning to use the reservation but had been unavoidably delayed and to not release our reservation. While the rental car wouldn't be so big a deal - finding a car wouldn't be the biggest deal, although I'd lose out on the coupons I'd found and used - arriving at our hotel only to find that there was no room at the inn for us would have been the disaster that put me over the edge.

As I was, I felt rather like we were in National Lampoon's Vacation - less the grandmother tied to the roof or, thankfully, Wally World being closed once we arrived, but this is not a trip I'd wish on anyone. We lost days off our not quite seven day vacation and added some significant and unexpected expenses to it, not to mention we were all absolutely exhausted after multiple nights of very little sleep. All because United couldn't clear a gate at O'Hare for us and then did a poor job rebooking us; yeah, they'll be hearing from me.

On the plus side, we had a blast while we were there, albeit a much shorter blast with fewer days at Disney because we needed to rest. We didn't let our "adventure" getting to our vacation ruin it for us - although poor Mister Man (that whole Asperger's thing rearing its ugly head) very nearly did. I'll share my creative and surprisingly effective solution to that in another post.

But this? This was the last time we're traveling over the holidays. And here's hoping you can use some of what I learned to prevent misery when you travel.

The Personal Humiliation Just Keeps Coming

Not only did I sit in for the lovely Melisa at Suburban Wow this morning (replays on a loop right now if you missed it), but tonight I will be in a passion play.

Yep. Me, with my lovely and well-polished acting resume, will be in a play. The last time I was in a play, I was a freshman in high school. And I wrote the play in a summer school class. It was awful. The time before that? Lifestyles of the Lovely But Conceited, another original production that is known among family friends as "The Infamous Florida Video." Infamous isn't necessarily the adjective you want applied to your talents.

However, I will be in a passion play tonight. This isn't just any passion play, however. This is an original production written by our choir director and his wife. Jesus is not the star of it, ironically - as has been the case with every other passion play I've ever seen. Rather it's an interpretation of Christ's last seven phrases in a retelling of the agony of Christ via music and drama.

While it's not quite the Broadway musical that WeaselMomma alleged, it is definitely a unique performance. Part of what will make it even more unique is that we've practiced this a total of - wait for it - once. Yep, one single time, with a quarter of the cast missing, and we are performing it in public in a mere couple hours. It will be interesting to see how it goes over.

The good news is that I have my line memorized. And since I have only a single (albeit somewhat long) line, I have to know only that I start my line after one guy finishes his song. I have yet to hear this song, but he's "promised" (his words, not mine) that it's really long, so I won't miss it. Once he stops singing, I spout my dramatic line, and I'm done.

Oh - and I almost forgot to mention my character. My character is one of the few named characters in the play. I am the infamous Mary Magdalene. (For those of you not familiar with her history, she was a reformed prostitute and a follower of Jesus - including being the person who discovers his empty tomb on Easter.)

The roles were carefully cast. Mine, I was told, was simply typecast. I'll let that set in for a bit.

When doing our auditions - did I mention I didn't volunteer for this but was rather volunteered? - we simply were handed an early script after choir practice one day (ok, THAT part I did volunteer for) and we read the play through, each person reading one line and the next person taking the next line. After we finished the read through, the choir director scribbled his mad notes, and we were told at the next choir practice which part we would play.

Which is how I came to be Mary Magdalene, since I fit her character best. Why, you might ask? I'm told - and here's hoping this is the real reason - that I am the only person whose hair is somewhat red, and my hair is the longest in the choir. Apparently Mary Magdalene was a redhead. With her line referencing drying Jesus's feet with her hair, I suppose long hair is a mandate.

On the plus side, costuming is easy. We're simply all wearing our choir robes. Dressed all in a simple black, it will be easy to tell the characters apart. On the plus side, putting on this performance (which is being advertised as an EVENT in the local papers to get more attendance) doesn't dip into the nonexistent choir budget.

If there is video taken, I promise to share it if possible. I have a feeling this will be worth watching - Jesus being offstage with a microphone and crosses hanging from the ceiling to represent the crucifixions and all.

Wish me luck. I certainly don't want this acting endeavor to also become co-mingled with the word "infamous."

Oh, and don't forget that I have giveaways (umm single digit entries people? Really?) here and here.

Oh What A Night!

I only wish I were posting about the song -- and yes, I have it going through my head right now, so you can share in my misery.

Last night, we were invited to a friend's house for dinner. They live in our neighborhood, and ordinarily we'd walk, but it was raining, so we needed to drive. And about forty-five minutes before we were supposed to be there, I realized that I didn't have anything I was bringing. Oops.

So I made Nana's Apple Cake because a) it's dairy free -- her son also has a lactose issue, so it's appreciated b) it's yummy and c) it has three ingredients so I can get it cooking quickly. Yeah.... At 4:52 I finally called her and asked if I could borrow her oven to finish cooking it. We were supposed to be there at 4:30.

Her kids are both boys, and very (stereo)typical boys, at that. Little Miss was super excited to see them, and she ran into the house and started playing. Eventually, they migrated into the basement where the bouncy house was turned on. That required adult supervision, as four children in a two person bouncy gets a little dicey. Especially with some kids who like to turn it on and off. And some kids who like to try to make the walls fall down.

My friend and I left our husbands downstairs to monitor the situation while we chatted and got dinner finalized.

Fun Event A: Mister Man came upstairs holding his arm and crying. And no, I don't know why my husband didn't handle it while downstairs, so don't ask.... He'd fallen on his previously broken arm, at which point we all decided maybe the bouncy house wasn't the best thing to play with right now. Tears gone, we started dinner.

Fun Event B: My friend made great chicken fajitas. She crock potted the chicken in salsa. Neither child would eat the fajitas, although both tried them, to their credit. Neither child would eat the spanish rice my friend made either. She very kindly made them chicken nuggets. And I only twice had to shush Mister Man from going on about how yucky the food was.

Fun Event C: After dinner and before dessert, the kids were all playing upstairs. We had each gone upstairs to check on them a few times when her older son suddenly burst into loud howls. Yep, Mister Man stabbed him in the eye with a Lego toy. We're still not sure of the whole story as Mister Man didn't get much of a chance to explain himself beyond the typical "but it was an accident" story. And her son never game many details either. Mister Man was too wound up from the long weekend and was sent on his merry way home with my husband to go to bed.

Fun Event D: After dessert -- ok in the middle of dessert after my friend's younger son decided he was done eating watermelon and Little Miss quickly followed suit -- the two went upstairs into his room. I checked, and he had turned on a Baby Einstein video. Whatever. I went back downstairs until a couple minutes later when we felt and heard the thud. And then the screaming. I was closest and made it up the stairs first, and my friend's husband was close behind. I opened the door to the room and saw the dresser tipped over with her son underneath. I pushed the dresser back onto the wall, by which point the dad was scooping up the boy to check him out. The television that was atop the dresser had crash landed on the bed, missing Little Miss by about three inches. Her son appears to be fine, although many of the objects that were atop the dresser previously had broken in the fall. The dresser didn't land all the way on her son, as the foot of the bed stopped it. Apparently, he had tried to climb the dresser to reach the VCR to change the movie, and it had tipped. He fell back against the footboard of the bed and probably has a pretty bruised back. The drawers also fell out and landed on his legs, but thank GOD the dresser was stopped by the bed.

We left after that.

I asked her to let me know how both her boys are doing today, but I've gotten a few good reminders and lessons here.

1) Tonight when I get home from work, I am anchoring Little Miss's dresser to the wall. Mister Man only has a very low bureau that he could never topple. But I'm still considering anchoring that, as well.

2) Dinners need to be earlier. We'd been invited for 4:30 with dinner around 5:15 or 5:30. That's too late for an evening out for us. We need to be eating between 4:30 and 5 because social dinners take so long to eat. And the dinner never starts on time anyway -- my friend had forgotten to make rice, so we didn't start our meal until almost six.

3) These kids need to be supervised when playing. While the wee ones can play with some kids with only check ins every five minutes or so, with these friends, there needs to be an adult present at all times.

4) My husand needs to stop showing the wee ones Spiderman. Spiderman cartoons from the 1970s has turned into his little ritual with them, and I've been against this for a number of reasons: it pushes bedtime too late, they get into a very demanding mode where they expect Spiderman, I don't like them watching much tv anyway, and although this is a very sanitized version there still is cartoon violence. In talking to Mister Man after I got home (who was absolutely filled with shame and crushed and could hardly talk, poor kid) I determined that he wasn't trying to hurt anyone but that Spiderman shoots things out and throws things and the bad guys just get captured and don't get hurt. He can't draw the line between what's ok and not, and with his issues in knowing where to draw the line already in some of his social issues, Spiderman is just too much for him. Spiderman didn't necessarily cause the Lego stabbing, but it certainly didn't help the matter. My husband, fortunately, had already thought of the same thing, so we're on the same page.

My biggest concern is that Mister Man is in daycare all morning with the boy he "stabbed" (it was a Lego square ship like thing, so stabbing is a little severe of a description). The boy even when we left was playing the drama up to the hilt -- not saying that he isn't hurt but his mom said he was milking it. Mister Man has two boys in daycare who already get on his case about everything where we've been working with the teachers to ensure the behavior is appropriate. If my friend's son starts talking about what Mister Man did in daycare, we could have a problem. We'll see when I get home.

And meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out when the right time is to call my friend to apologize again for Mister Man and to see how both her kids are doing. But I'm not expecting a dinner invite anytime soon.