Tag Archives: late

I Now Understand

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 I Now Understand

I used to be in an all women’s investment club. We called ourselves S.T.A.F.F. (Sisters Together Achieving Financial Freedom). Our group met monthly for over 10 years and we saw various members get married, move away and start a family.  I left the group at the beginning of the year in 2011.  And one thing I was known for with the group was always being on time.  If the meeting started at 7:00pm, you can believe I was there by 7:00pm.  Often times I would be the only person there for 10-15 minutes.  The running joke was that if I left my house at the start time for the meeting, I’d get there around the same time as everyone else.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I understood what was going on.  Yesterday Maximus, at the ripe age of five weeks old, was asked to film a newborn video that would be shown in hospitals to new mothers.  He was going to be paid a savings bond and filming started at noon.

To me that seemed like plenty of time to get things done, but little did I know that being on baby/youth time is different than single/independent woman time.  It first started with a baby that did not want to be put down.  Morning time is usually snuggle time and this day was no different.  Usually that’s fine, but not when you’re praying that at least one dress fits over my now wider hips and it’s more difficult to do when lil man is in your arms.  Then comes getting Maximus dressed. Usually that’s pretty simple, but now I must time it so that he doesn’t puke or poo on his clothes since he’ll be filmed.

Which leads to breast feeding. I tried to time it just right so that eating would be the last thing we did before leaving the house.  All seemed to go well and I thought I would still be on time – until I realized I couldn’t find the black dress I had picked out to wear.  It’s a simple black dress, it couldn’t be in too many places.  I looked high and low and couldn’t find it.  Maximus wasn’t much help.  I found a less pleasant dress to throw on. As I was getting ready to walk downstairs, I remembered I’d put the dress in the dryer to get out the wrinkles – and there it was.

We were finally on our way.  While I would love to say I was 10-15 minutes late, we were actually still on time.  BUT, I can now completely relate to my friends being late places and having a million things to do before one simple task can be complete.

It feels great to now be a part of this not so secret parent society where most people speak the same language. I’m not the president or the founder.  I’m just a rookie member starting to learn the ropes. Go team!

Just Trying to Get Home

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PuntaFootJust Trying to Get Home

After a wonderful week of our honeymoon, we were ready to return back home. Checking out of the hotel was simple, and so was checking into our flight.  It was suggested we arrive 3 hours early.  We were scheduled to leave Punta Cana at 4:45pm.    Well 4:25pm arrives and we hadn’t started boarding.  Nobody gave us any updates.  Five minutes later we see our plane pull up and after deboarding, cleaning it out and loading us up we finally left. We only had a two hour layover in Charlotte so we (and many other people) were nervous about making our connection.

As we back up from the gate, the pilot comes over the intercom and says that there is something on the runway (maybe birds) so they must come out and look into it.  Uggggh!

We finally land in Charlotte at 9:00pm (for a 10:20 flight).  This seems like plenty of time to catch a flight – however we have to go through customs.  But wait! Right when we land, everyone stands up to start getting their things.  The pilot now tells us that due to international rules, when another plane is boarding we must be on lockdown on our plane so we must sit back down until that plane finishes boarding. Are you serious?!!
Once we leave the plane we walk into the customs line which has seven rows of people waiting!  By now, I’m assuming we will be spending the night in NC.  After an HOUR, we get to the front of the line.  The guy checking our passport asks us all type of random questions and we became more frustrated.  Then we had to get all of our checked in luggage and check it back in.  The lady asked which flight we were on and said that we probably wouldn’t make it but could try.  And here’s where the challenge begins –

As we went through security, Milton took all of our carryon luggage.  I took off my shoes and let them go through.  As soon as they came out (without taking time to put them back on) I started sprinting through the airport.  And I mean sprinting full speed.  We had to go all the way to E11, which wasn’t close.  I ran the wrong way on the moving sideway and people at every gate watched me pass by.  I soon realized I wasn’t in high school anymore and I became out of breath.   I would walk and breathe for one gate and then sprint again.
As I arrived at our gate, the door had already been closed. I ran up to the flight attendant and asked if my fiance (yes I told her fiance) and I could still get on the plane.  She looked at me and all that I went through to get there and said that we could get on board if Milton came quick.  I get nervous as I wondered if he went the wrong direction but finally see him with all of our things.  He said other people pointed him the direction I was running.

We walked on the plane looking like two sweaty people that just finished a marathon – but we made it. As we pulled off, the pilot told us that a panel is lose and someone must come out and look at it.  Not again!  We finally landed after midnight.  Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t make it until the next morning so our dirty undies stayed the night in NC.  AND, I learned a very valuable lesson – don’t run without shoes on the moving sidewalk. I could not walk on my feet for a couple of hours because I had red marks looking just like the metal.  But all is now good and we are safely home!