What a Crazy Few Weeks

Let me start with my 4 am drive to the airport on Thanksgiving Day. I was a little nervous about how crazy the airlines would be, but BNA was it's usual quiet peaceful self (though it was 5 in the morning and only crazy people travel this early). So I take my time to the terminal gate and even stop and get a huge cup of hot chocolate since I learned last time that a cup a of coffee on an empty stomach can be painful. Once I arrived at the gate I took my seat next to another girl my age, two seats away from the only other young person in the room. Everything seemed fine until it was about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to board and BNA employee came over the PA system telling us that our flight attendant wasn't here and they were in the process of finding their back-up. Ok, fine not a big deal. Thirty minutes later we hear that there is no back-up flight attendant and they have to call another employee in, soon after that we were told that the flight was canceled and we had to chose another flight. It was now 7 am and all 25 passengers had to get back in line and individually plan another route to Washington. I couldn't believe it! There was a young woman with her two boys ages 18 months and 2 and a half years. The boys had been entertaining us all up to this point but were out of patients. She was allowed to reschedule first due to her young boys but while they were at the counter the boys lost it. The mother was told that she had to fly through Chicago and catch another plane on to Washington. That is just too hard with young boys. The mother was losing patients, the boys were wining, and then she gets a call from her husband in Iraq, but doesn't reach it in time and misses the call. She finally took a step back and sat down to regroup. I was so impressed with her composure, I would have lost it! After about 45 minutes of trying to reroute everyone, a flight attendant was found and we were back in business. I was arrived in Washington 3 hours later than expected and quickly took a shower and headed over to Mommak's house.
I was so excited to see my nieces since the last visit home was just an adult function. We played and had wonderful appetizer and causal family conversation. I started to feel how much the morning had effected me around 4 pm and just HAD to take a short nap. I woke up to dinner being ready and I could smell the fired turkey and stuffing. Mommka makes awesome stuffing. After dinner my mother, aunt, and grandmother left and "the kids" were left to play cards and finish off the wine. I have to say this was the most relaxing Thanksgiving in recent history, but it felt too safe. It felt like we were on our tip-toes and tried not to offend each other, it was a little odd. I slept downstairs with my oldest niece and in the morning AM and left to have lunch with my mother and grandmother.
Later that afternoon my best friend Jessi came all the way up from southern Maryland to see me and be my driver for the weekend. That evening we went to John's house (the medical school student from New York that I've known since 5th grade) to have drinks with he and his cousin and then went on to a bonfire. We really had a great time but if you walked away from the fire you were freezing!
The next day I was in a wedding and Jessi went with me since I had no car and knew no one at the wedding except the bride. Though I hated my dress, the day turned out ok. The reception was at a really nice place and I played with the kids most of the time. Jessi and I had planed to go to Baltimore that night but we were just too tired from our long day. So instead we stayed home with Mom and watched movies on the Hallmark channel. Jessi went home and Mom went to bed but I stayed up until about 2 in the morning watching back to back Law and Order. I really miss cable! The next day Mom and I decorated her apartment and lounged around until I had to go to the airport. The trip home was much less eventful than the trip to Virginia thank goodness.