I . . . can't . . . wait . . . ! ! !

Live and learn . . .

Back in the late '90's, the family and I were in Montreal on a summer visit. The kids' dad had returned to Switzerland on his own a couple of weeks before the lil ones and I were scheduled to return, as he often did. Armed with kids, luggage, my permission letter to travel with my own children (don't even get me started!), I dropped in on my dad, who would ultimately drive us all to the airport. I whipped out the kids' passports, eager to show my dad how cute their pictures were. He agreed that they were indeed adorable (how could he not!) and my attention was diverted elsewhere. Later, we loaded the car with our bags and the kids and off we went. After parking, we headed into the airport where I took out our tickets and rooted around my purse for our passports. The passports I had handed to my dad! The passports he had never handed back to me!! The passports which were still sitting on his dresser top!!! ACK!!! My dad ran back to the car and drove like a bat out of hell all the way back to Otterburn Park. The ticket agent did her best to calm my nerves but eventually, she could hold the plane no longer and it took off, the kids and me still standing in the terminal. Shortly thereafter, my dad burst back into the terminal, the kids' passports in hand. And thus, the bargaining began. I was shuffled from one ticket agent to another, one airline to another. Solutions such as boarding the next day or boarding later that afternoon for the nominal extra fee of $800 were quickly discounted. Somehow, I managed to find an angel of a man, who clattered away for what seemed like forever on his keyboard, before informing me he could get us all back to l'Aéroport de Genève without any additional monetary penalty. He even apologized profusely for the fact that we would land a whole half hour later than if I would have made my scheduled flight. It took a great deal of restraint on my part not to catapult myself across the counter and smother him in kisses! (Instead, I wrote a lengthy letter to the airline, detailing his herculean efforts on my part and suggesting they make him president of the airline, complete with a gargantuan salary hike.) We made it back home later that day with an interesting story to boot.

I'd like to think that I'm older and wiser now. I'm taking no chances with my upcoming trip to California ... my passport is already in my purse! *grin*