A Technomadic Thanksgiving Story

Current mood: adventurous
So on Tuesday, November 25th the Abates (that's my family in case you didn't know I had a last name... my dear myspace friends), The Babcocks (that's my sister's new last name and her husbands always last name), The Breeden (that's my boyfriend), The Snavely & the future Mrs. Snavely (that would be my boyfriends best friend and his new fiancee) & JoAnn... sorry I don't know your last name (that's my little brother's girlfriend), we all met at my sister's house for an early Turkey day celebration.

We all work and we are very busy people... so we ordered the turkey from Grady's BBQ... :) Let me tell you that if the Abate/Babcock sisters decided to make a turkey (as we have done before in the past) it would be awesome... and it was! So to save time this year, we bought a delicious one. Then I ordered a delicious pumpkin cheesecake pie. Oh gosh. Yum. I made sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin bread muffins, some pre-made rolls and some canned cranberry sauce... and yea... ta-DA! We had a FEAST! I wish our parents could have been there to see us... they would have been proud of us.... minus the christmas tree. They might be proud of it next year when it's my sisters turn to decorate it. :) Sorry Jer! :)

Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn (his girl) cleaned up the kitchen like nobodies business... and we sat by the fire (with the door open, cause it was hot) and watched a Christmas movie... not THE Christmas Story though... but there is still plenty of time for that. Anyways... we had an amazing pre-Thanksgiving.

Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn are heading to Dallas to spend it with her family, Bethany (my sister) & Jer are heading to Colorado to spend it with his Grandma, & Steve & Mere (the future mr & mrs) are heading to Arizona I think it was to spend it with her family... meanwhile the mister and I are both stuck working. Guess you can't beat everything.

So I flew out of San Antonio on Wednesday, November 26. I finally got my SA parking pass so I can drive myself to the airport now. I'm such a grown up... I know. :) Then I got a first class seat to Atlanta. My friends were all in Atlanta because we are all newer, so yuck. So we watched the news about the Mumbai hostage situation and hoped our flight attendants got out since it was the same hotel that we stay at when we layover there. Luckily they have all been contacted and accounted for. So yet another thing to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.

So I slept on the couch in Atlanta and woke up at 5am from the loud flight attendants... but whatever. My sign in was at 7:30am... first stop Philadelphia. Now it was surprising to me that we were so full on all of our flights... but I found out why later. So the first flight was pretty easy... everyone was surprisingly drinking a lot... which I found odd considering it was 8am. I had a couple of first time flyers on board who were sweating profusely from being so nervous. There were TONS of kids on board. I would have thought we were flying the plane directly on magic mountain.

On the way back to Atlanta we had more first time flyers and a lot more drinkers and WAY more kids... it's like they were multiplying. These people haven't been flying at all or in a long time because mid-flight they asked if their kids could go sit in the cockpit with the captain. I informed him politely that we haven't done that since 9/11 and that on their way out they can say goodbye to the pilots and maybe take a picture with them in the cockpit. whew.

I can normally finish a beverage service pretty fast... like 30 minutes for 130 people. That's with 2 flight attendants. But with all these kids and first time flyers and drinkers it took me 3 times as long!
Every kid wanted apple juice, which we didn't have... so the parents weren't sure if they would like cranapple... so I'd have to pour a taste sampler for each kid... wait a minute for them to swish it around in their little mouths and wait for them to decide if they wanted a full cup of the juice. It was like a wine tasting for kids and instead of me being at a fancy restaurant... I was on an airplane... and my clients weren't paying me or ordering fancy named wines... it was cranapple juice to 5 year olds. sigh.

On my way down the aisle with the 100 plus pound cart I get stopped by who I like to call the "two toothless wanders" who wanted to put their drink order in before everyone else... I told them I'd be right back and get to them in order. So by the time I get to the aisle in front of them and next to them and they are yelling out their drink order to me... I was being patient and helping out everyone in order then I got to them. The first guy asked for a Gin on the rocks. I told him it was $7. He looked at his friend and asked him why he had to pay for it if he was in first class (mind you that they were sitting behind the exit rows in the middle of the airplane). I got the giggles and so did everyone around him. His friend informed him that it wasn't first class. He said "oh, well then make it a double and then whatever my friend wants." So I make their drinks then he yells to his friend who is 5 rows in front of him if she wanted a drink to. I PROMISE you that he yelled 5 rows, "Hey! Betsie! Do you wanna drink too?" As he holds up his drink on the rocks proudly. She yells back that she does indeed want a drink and to make it a rum. I was almost in tears holding in the laughter. I've never quite seen anything like that in my plane. So I deliver her the drink.

Before we had taken off there was a girl near the back who had been sick in the bathroom... she was sitting next to her husband and new baby. Right before we land she was right back in the bathroom again... After we land she was in there again. They were the last people off the flight. I had given her sprite and checked on her through the flight. I finally asked her husband if she was ok... he just laughed and said yes that she was just hung over. I felt a little less sorry for her after that. The whole time I had been concentrating on not breathing when she walked by in case she had the flu. ugh.

All that and the endless amount of men flyers that I saw just wearing cut off tank tops and wife beaters... I knew there was something up.
Then I found out that our company had run a $79 special to fly on Thanksgiving. Oh Ok. Now I understand. :)

So I grab my food and head to the next gate... I'm DC bound. At the gate I encounter way more children under the age of five. At this point I've come to realize that America has been procreating excessively for the last 5 years... only starting 5 years ago. I hadn't seen any kids over the age of 5. I've also come to the conclusion that there must be a lot of disfunctional families in America so people are pre-drinking in order to deal with them. So that's my conclusions. :)
As I was sitting there I overhear a conversation between 2 young mothers about the recent politics. The one Caucasian momma is from where else but ALASKA! What are the odds... and the African American momma is from Boston. The Boston momma brings up Palin to the Alaskan momma. I flinch. I watch out of the corner of my eye.

Boston: "So your girl Palin is from Alaska"
Alaska: "yup! She's my girl!"
(I roll my eyes at the idiocracy of it all)
Then they end up in deep conversation of the candidates and neither one of them is well informed. I had to leave.

So here I am in DC. I've watched 2 movies and 2 episodes of Friends... this is pretty much what I'd be doing on Thanksgiving anywhere... I ordered room service and worked on my computer... the world is at peace. :)
I hope we have just as interesting of a day tomorrow as we did today. It was so funny and entertaining.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!