airport hell

I am way too old to stay up all night OR sleep on the floor.

I'm sitting in the Seattle airport at the moment, waiting for my last flight to Omaha... which is delayed 2 hours. I'm cursing at myself for not signing up for those text message updates from United. I could've had 2 more hours with the girls. Oh well. The good news happens to be that my connecting flight from Denver to Omaha is also delayed 2 hours, so I don't have to rebook or spend the night in Denver. I'm currently on hold with someone at Hotwire, who is verifying that my flight is, in fact, delayed. Apparently they don't just believe you when you call them. Whatever.

Today is Madison's 11th birthday. I flew home on Friday morning, because part of her birthday present was the "Wizard's Camp-In" at Seattle Science Center. We spent Friday night wandering around inside the Science Center, doing what they considered to be wizard-y activities. The new Harry Potter book released at midnight, and Mad stayed up until about 3:30 reading. They woke us up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to watch the Order of the Phoenix movie in the IMAX theatre, then promptly kicked us out. It was fun, I guess, but I had to resort to guerrilla parenting tactics by introducing Mad to a girl her own age to run around with, and foisting her on that poor girl for the staying up all night portion of the program. There was no way in hell I was going to make it much past midnight. I'm an old lady.

These weekend trips home have been good and bad. They're so short, so I feel like there's not enough time to deal with everyone who needs my attention. I can make Paul happy just by sleeping with him, so he's pretty easy. He says he has a hard time sleeping when I'm not there, but I can't see how that's true due to my snoring problem of the last few years. The girls are just starved for attention, and 48 hours doesn't seem to be enough to keep them from being moody and odd when I'm there. They feel like they have to compete for my attention. Kierstin was worse this time, because I spent so much time with Mad at the camp-in - she was practically hysterical when I got out at the airport.

I think we're all glad this is the last trip. In honor of it being the end, I upgraded myself to first class for today's flights, and I'll do the same for my flights home if given the option. I'm worth it.