The Southwest Airplane Trip

Let's just start with, we made our flight.  Last night I printed the boarding passes and other documents, but was using 2 printers.  Needless to say, the boarding passes were left on one of the printers.  No problem, we can print new ones at the airport.  However, since this is Memorial Day Weekend, everybody including us have decided to travel.  The line at the airport to check in and get our boarding passes was very long.  Being the good travelers that we are, we arrived at the airport with no time to spare.  On a scale for anxiety of 1 - 10, Allison is at a full blown 11.  I gave up on instrusting her through deep breathing and just started doing to myself.  I find that this exercise works well while visualizing the rum and Coke I am going to order on the plane.

Once I am checked in, I begin to check in Allison and her bag.  Just then we hit the magical time of 45 minutes before boarding.  The machine we are checking in at pops up with this full screen warning sign that the airlines can no longer guarantee that her bag will arrive with the airplane.  It is now that I fully remember why I used to drive her across the country on summer vacation to visit family and wondering why I just didn't drive to New York.  Now my magical parenting skills are suppose to kick in because she wants to know what is going to happen.  When Allison wants to know what is going to happen she is including all possible outcomes for this and 3 parallel universes.

We finish checking in and proceed to security.  I am now 2 steps ahead of her trying to give her some time to settle in to the honest assessment of the situation.  If her bag doesn't make the plane, we will figure it out in Newark.  She tells me that she is now at an "8" on her anxiety scale.  As we arrive at the gate and I realize that the plane is full and we are boarding right before they lock the doors, I join her on the anxiety scale.  There is no way there will be 2 seats together and I am now preparing for when she figures this out. 

I love the way she thinks.  Just as I think I know where we are headed she ends up somewhere else.  Here I am now stressing that we are not going to be sitting together and all she wants is a window seat.  I find her a nice window seat next to an older couple and myself an aisle seat 2 rows behind.  Finally we have a win-win.  She has her window seat and her Ipod, so I am set for 3 hours and 34 minutes.