Pth.

I am not a happy camper.

Last night was a truly horrifying experience, and it seems to be drawing on and on even though we're finally home safe and sound.

We were supposed to have an easy peasy travel day. Fly Hartford-Charlotte/ Charlotte-Asheville. Be at the airport at 4, leave at 5 and be home at 9pm. At the gate, they said the plane had been delayed because of weather and people with connections had to reschedule. I had the choice between flying into Charlotte and Kyle driving the 2.5 hours each way to pick us up, or rescheduling the flight for today-losing another day of work and having no one to pick us up at the airport because we'd land while Kyle was at work. Kyle said he didn't mind driving because we'd been gone for 10 days and he wanted to see us, so I chose the former.

Big. Mistake.

They told us we'd be leaving at 6:30, so Kyle jumped in the car to meet us in Charlotte at 8:30. Then they grounded all flights to/from Charlotte. Unfortunately, Kyle was already halfway there, so he was stuck on the side of the road waiting for an update to see if he should turn back or keep going. We finally boarded at 8 and took off shortly after. It was fine until we got over VA and the weather worsened in Charlotte so they put us in a holding pattern, flying aroun in circles with 7 other planes over a horrible thunderstorm for an hour and a half. I have never in my life been bounced around in a plane like that. They finally told us we were cleared to land only to change their minds 20 minutes later and put us back into holding. FINALLY there was a ding and the flight attendant told us basically "We're going to land, but hold onto your trash because there is no way in Hell I'm taking off my seat belt to go get it". Henry was still awake at this point, for some unknown reason and I read A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein and Psssst! by Adam Rex to keep my mind off of the crash scene from LOST seared into the back of my eyeballs. We landed at last and were all happy to finally be off the plane when they announced that lightning had sent the ground crew inside and we'd have to sit on the plane until the storm passed. We finally got off the plane at around 11:30pm. 5 minutes after Henry finally fell asleep. So I had to drag a sleeping 5 year old, my backpack and his carry on (one of those little kid bags with wheels with a handle too short for an adult to actually pull it) from one end of the Charlotte airport clear to the other. I made it to baggage claim and met Kyle, where we waited for an hour for my bags that never came. The lovely woman behind the counter informed me that they did NOT stop them in Charlotte as they had promised and they would be on the morning flight to Asheville, where I'd have to drag Henry BACK to the airport to pick them up. So at about 12:45am we got in the car and started the 2.5 hour drive back to Asheville (with the spare carseat I asked Kyle to bring just in case the bags didn't make it). We got in just before 3am.

Today has been the fresh torture of trying to find the missing bags. That lovely woman behind the counter in the Charlotte airport baggage claim service area was mistaken (confident though she sounded as she whipped sample sized toothpastes and bottled water to the unlucky folks who would have to camp out in the lobby for the night). After dutifully calling the Asheville airport at noon today, I was informed that my bags never actually made it onto any plane. They were still in Hartford. I was told to wait for another flight to land and call back at 2 while they contacted Hartford baggage claim who would promptly call me back if my bag was not en route to Asheville. Uh, no. I called back after 2, as instructed, to find that my bags were still in Hartford and there was no record of my earlier call. After much cajoling on my part, I discovered that in order for them to do anything about my bag being 750 miles away from my person, I would have to drive down to the Asheville airport and file a formal claim. Why she was so reluctant to tell me that...I do not know. She took my contact information (again) and told me (again) that Hartford would surely be calling em any minute now to tell me that the bag was on it's way. Uh, no. I have to wait for Kyle to get home from work so I don't have to drag Henry-who is working on 5 hours of sleep right along with me- to the Asheville airport baggage claim desk to file an official report.

Things in my bag I hope I don't lose:

3 pairs of custom longies I completed while in CT.
1 pair of in stock longies for the late July Neccessite stocking.
lots of yarn
virtually every piece of warm weather clothing Henry owns.
Half a dozen everything bagels from my favorite deli, brought back for Tommy, who misses bagels from the northwest so I got him some. Too bad he forgot to tell me he was going to be in California for 10 days when I got home so he'll have to use them as door stops when he returns next week. That's okay. I'm sure they are serving as a unique clothes freshener as they sit in the baggage holding room at Bradley International Airport. Eventually the smell will get so bad that they'll be motivated to actually return my bags to me...

In other news, I spoke to my Peru contact and the shipment is going to be a few days late. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but we are leaving AGAIN to make the drive up to northern Michigan to visit my in laws first thing Saturday morning. I am still crossing my fingers and hoping they get here in time for me to invoice and ship them before I leave, but after last night...I dunno.

I'll keep you posted.