la vie en rose

What happens when you take 2 starry-eyed kids who are dreaming of all things Hawaiian and add in a broken down car on the side of the freeway? You get 2 frustrated and exhausted kids who miss their flight.

You could have written a sitcom episode around the series of events that happened on that disastrous evening. I had a bid to turn in on Wednesday afternoon, so J came with me, luggage in tow, so we could go straight from the bid to the airport. We left downtown with plenty of time to get to SeaTac, drop off our car, check in, and get something to eat. Just as we were merging onto the freeway, the check engine light came on. We tried so hard to still make everything work - I called my coworker who swung by to give J a ride to the parts store, but J couldn't find one nearby that carried what he needed. My coworker left, and then J found a parts store. He called a cab, but they wouldn't pick him up on the freeway. So he left me in the car and took off running down the on ramp. I was so scared he would get hit. He found a cab at a gas station, but the line at the parts store wasn't moving. After 15 minutes of waiting his turn, they then had trouble finding the part in stock, even though he had just called and they said they had 2. Finally he got the part, returned to me and the car, and went to work. I'm not even kidding - it took less than 2 minutes for him to get that part installed. At this point it was 5:15pm and our flight left at 5:30pm. We knew we wouldn't make it, but we were hoping that they could get us on another one that night. I went inside the airport, hoping to drum up some sympathy with my pregnant belly and maybe a few tears. Many tears and $300 later, we were set to go out on the 8:00am flight the next morning. We arrived at my mom's (and our) friend Maxine's house to spend the night so we could be closer to the airport the next morning.

I just want to interject here some things that I am thankful for: that me and the baby were healthy enough to go in the 1st place. That we found a good deal on the tickets (even though the cost was driven up significantly). That J didn't get hurt running down the freeway. That we live in an era when cell phones have the internet. That my mom would sit on the phone with me to keep me company while I waited. That J knows how to fix cars. That we have a true friend in Maxine (my mom's oldest friend). That J and I can still laugh when things get hairy.

The next morning we barely made it on our flight, thanks to complete incompetency behind the check-in counter (excerpt, after waiting 20 minutes for the ticket agent to return to his station, only to find the printer broken: "You're going to miss this flight, too. You should have been here on time." Me: "We were on time. We've been waiting up here for 20 minutes." Him: "That impossible." Lady next to me: "No, it's not. We've been waiting for 15 minutes and they've been here longer than us." Him: "Well, they're not going to hold the plane. I'm not calling them." Me: "Thank you.") and then at the security line (excerpt, after me getting through in only a couple minutes, and now can't find J anywhere: "Sir, could you please call our gate and tell them that we're on our way. I can't find my husband. He must be getting searched." Him: "No." Me: "I think I'm going to throw up." ...5 minutes later... Me: "Where were you? What happened?" J: "The lady in front of me needed to get searched, and she asked for a woman to do it. Instead of keeping the line moving, they made us all wait while they looked for a female security officer to do the search." Me: "This is some kind of joke. Now we have to run to catch the train to the S terminal and neither of us have had any breakfast.")

We made it on the plane with 10 minutes to spare. We did not eat until we reached Hawaii.

me in the Honolulu airport, relieved to finally be here

us on our balcony overlooking Waikiki, ready to hit the beach

but not before getting something to eat

paradise found