I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

So as I am sitting here killing time on my four hour layover in San Francisco, I have been Facebook stalking everyone's Spring Break pictures. People do crazy fun stuff for spring break.....and take LOTS of pictures. For my spring break I didn't go to a foreign country, or a big city, or to crazy spring break parties in Florida. I went home. To Burley, Idaho; where it often smells like cows, driving 15 mph on the highway isn't uncommon due to tractors moseying down the road, and the icy winter wind is enough to make a person never want to step outside again. It's also where my family lives and where I will always call home. I knew from the start that when I got home it wasn't going to be a crazy week full of excitement, but that wasn't what I needed. I can't think of a better way to spend a week than in my favorite town with my favorite people. I was mostly my mom's shadow all week. I loved being her tag-along while she ran her errands and did her thing all week. I actually enjoy grocery shopping when I get to go with her. Going home kind of makes me feel like I have stepped back into my childhood. I absolutely love getting to take a break from being a responsible adult for a little while and let someone else handle that. I really am just a kid pretending to be an adult most of the time. When I'm home I get to stop pretending for a minute. My week wasn't anything new and thrilling, but it was absolutely perfect. It mostly consisted of: sleeping in, running every morning, errands with Mom, dinner with Dad, a dentist appointment, getting one last immunization (complete with bugs bunny band aid), baking delicious 7-layer bars, making homemade pizza for dinner, registering to vote, being jealous of Lexi's fun extracurricular activities that I miss doing so much (BPA, Tennis, Clogging, etc), frozen yogurt with Mom and Mitch, visiting with my grandparents, taco salad burritos with Dad, trying to make my puppy my running buddy (he's not so good at it yet), enduring a lot of country music, movie watching, hot tub with Dad, un poco shopping, and a whole lot of just hanging out doing nothing. I'm a pretty happy kid. I'm not excited to get back to real life, but luckily I kind of love my SVU life right now. I'm excited for the lovely Virginia weather and to see my wonderful friends again. It's going to be a long day getting home, but it was so worth it to spend this week in the funny little town of Burley, Idaho. 

Practice What You Preach

Oh hey friends. So, remember that video and post about being happy because everything's amazing? Yeah. Apparently someone decided it was time for me to put my money where my mouth is. That not complaining about stuff....airlines especially....is much easier said than done. But I have been doing my best. I have time to kill so I am going to tell you my "horror story," but from my attempted optimistic point of view.

Yesterday, I was supposed to fly out of Roanoke at 5:30 to head home for Spring Break. Dallin offered to drive me the hour to the airport, and brought his new girlfriend so that they could go on a date in Roanoke after they dropped me off (that's a whole other story). They dropped me off at about 4:15 and when I got up to the counter to check in, I saw the dreaded big, red "CANCELLED" next to my flight. Only my flight. I didn't love that, but I actually stayed really calm and composed. I waited in line to talk to the man at the counter and decided I should probably be friendly to him since everyone else was yelling at him. (Wouldn't that just be the worst job?) He apologized and got me on the next possible flight to Boise which would be leaving at 11:15 the next morning. My itinerary changed from one layover in Chicago and getting to Boise at midnight, to a layover in Philadelphia, a layover in Phoenix, and getting to Boise at 11:00 the next day. Ugh. I managed to smile and tell him thank you. Then I had to figure out what to do until 11 the next morning. As awful as getting a flight cancelled was, I actually got really lucky when it came to dealing with it. Kenzy's parents just happened to be flying into Roanoke about the same time that I was supposed to be leaving. Rather than calling Dallin and crashing his date, I ended up just riding with Kenzy's parents back to BV. When we got there Kenzy's dad took us out for pizza and we ended up having a lot of fun. This morning Kenz drove me back to Roanoke which also worked well because her parents were staying in a hotel there and her softball game was cancelled, so she was going to spend the day in Roanoke with them anyway. She's the best. Once I got checked in to my flight, I started stressing because it was delayed half an hour. I only had an hour for my layover in Philadelphia to begin with, so being delayed 30 minutes was definitely no bueno. But it's nice how things work out sometimes. My flight out of Philly ended up getting delayed an hour and a half, which means I not only had time to get to my gate, but also to sit here and write this long blog post. I'm feeling pretty good now. My layover in Phoenix was originally 4 hours, so it's nice that it will be shorter now but not too short that I will have to stress about missing my next flight. In the meantime, I am sitting in the Philadelphia airport eating a free (yes, you read that right...free!!) pretzel from Auntie Anne's. Apparently it's free pretzel day there. That was the best news. Also, I had time to buy a Phillies shirt. I have decided that since my boy Papelbon is playing for the Phillies, I am now a Phillies fan.....after the Sox of course. Now I think it's time to break into the Mini Cadbury Eggs. Yum! If I can survive this next 5 hour flight (aghhhhhhh!!!) things will be looking up. Mostly this little 24 hour setback has made me grateful rather than bitter. Grateful to my mom and Robb (our travel agent) who are always helping me every step of the way when I fly (and getting me window seats). Grateful to all my family waiting at home for me and praying that I get there safely. Grateful to my awesome friends and their family who were ridiculously sympathetic and more than willing to do anything they could to get me home. And grateful to God for those convenient little coincidences that are really more like miracles.

It seems a little silly to tell a story when I'm still in the middle of it, but I'm optimistic that the end of the story will be just what we want it to be. See you soon Idaho!