coming home isn't easy
so, we made it home. obviously. it was quite an ordeal, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. first of all, the terminal in new jersey is open 24 hours, so we never had to pay for a hotel. this was both good and bad, as we stayed there for three nights total. three showerless nights. yeah. lots o fun. let's just say that i scoured myself when i got home using scalding hot water.
anyway, we didn't get out on thursday and i couldn't make the wireless in the terminal work that night or else i would have written a long, bitchy post. count yourselves lucky. on friday (which i keep wanting to refer to as yesterday) they had two flights to rammstein listed. they had three, but the last one was cut. the flights i'd seen over the previous two days all had over 70 seats on them, so i was hopeful about our chances for the second friday flight. unfortunately, all the overseas flights leave in the evening (that way you arrive in the morning or afternoon), so the roll call times are in the late afternoon. this means sitting around the terminal for hours twiddling thumbs and shivering. i did a lot of both of these things over the days we were there. the roll call times for the two flights were 2:30 and 6:55. the 2:30 roll call came and went without us getting on the flight. i didn't expect to get on this one, so wasn't crushed. i was excited to see them get almost all the way through the category threes, however, as that left fours, fives and sixes for later. we were category fives and so far they had not even gotten past threes. bad thing is that anyone could walk through the door last minute, be a category above us, and therefore bump us further down the list. so the two hour wait after one roll call ended and another began was hell. once the roll call officially begins, it doesn't matter who rolls into the terminal, as he/she has already missed his/her shot at that flight.
only two families came in during that wait, so it was looking good. as it turned out, the one lady and her kids were category fives and below us on the list. the other guy was a lieutenant colonel, so he and his wife and their two kids were category threes. he was also an asshole. he was like: let's go wait in the vip lounge after they checked in. officers can be that way, however. well, the roll call didn't start at 6:55, which was making everyone flip out. turns out the governor was landing at the base, so they were holding it until after he left the terminal. this pissed me off for many reasons. number one: the longer they waited for roll call, the more people they could check in, potentially destroying my chances of getting on the flight. number two: the governor flew out of that base on thursday morning and the airmen working in the terminal were going around starting at five in the morning waking everyone up. they didn't want anyone to be asleep when the governor went through, including children. i hadn't gotten to sleep until about four, so they woke me the first time an hour after i fell asleep. the kids were in the family lounge all huddled together to keep warm, and they woke them and made them clean the area, even though the governor never looked in there. later, the girls came out where i was sitting and we all fell asleep around 6:30. they came by right before seven to wake us again. the guy woke me and told me we couldn't sleep in there until the governor came and went. he then told me i had to wake the children. my response to that was: are you serious? turns out he was. they were so fucking tired, i had to make them stand up or they would have gone right back to sleep. it was miserable and i felt like i was abusing them. they were that tired. stella is all delirious and weird when she is super tired. her legs get all wobbly and she is speaking in tongues almost. so, she was doing that for about 15 minutes. neither of them could stand very well. i had to take them to the bathroom to splash water on their faces. they did that several times. finally at nine o'clock, i told them to just do what they wanted. stella, who was awake by that time, went off to play (she snapped out of being tired, but it came back to haunt her later). abby sat down and was asleep in about four seconds. i took a nap too. so, the governor of new jersey can go fuck himself. i want to become a new jersey resident just so i can vote the motherfucker out of office.
back to the late roll call. there was a group of us who were absolutely seething over the late call. there were two flights coming in--one from andrews air force base and one from baltimore--and the roll call was supposed to start before either one of them landed. well, since it was about an hour late, one flight was able to come in and all the people on it were able to sign in as present before the call started. we were pissed, as we could clearly see that there were some category threes there. in all, there were about 15 people who signed up, but that can make a huge difference (or a HUGH difference, if you work at fiserv). the roll call started and all the remaining category threes, the fours, and the fives made it on. some sixes made it on as well, those are all retirees. i was just happy to make it, because they had no flights to germany for saturday, sunday, or monday. so, we would have had to find a hotel for those nights, as i wasn't about to hang out in the airport when there were no prospects for flights. fuck that. plus, i desperately wanted a shower that didn't involve a sink. and i was tired of ordering food. they started calling us to the gate about 15 minutes after everyone checked their bags in, which was great, because i wanted out of that damned terminal. after going through security and getting to the gate, we waited for the buses to come that would drive us out to the plane. that took about 20 or 30 minutes.
once out near the plane, we had to wait for them to load all the cargo before we could get on. the plane was a c-5, which is ginormous. on the way over, we took a c-17, which has the jump seats that fold down on both sides of the plane. this plane had the cargo on the bottom and upstairs had regular seats that reclined and everything. this was a relief to my tired bones. it was also cold as hell inside, but we had blankets. after take off (this was around 10) they gave us our boxed lunches (er, dinners?). we ate those and went to sleep. the girls slept the whole time, but i could only sleep until about four o'clock eastern time. i just listened to the ipod's slow mix for the entire flight, which was nice, as the planes are pretty loud. the flight was supposed to be 8 hours long, but i think they pushed it because we arrived in germany at 12 when we really shouldn't have been there before one. we went through customs, got all our shit, and were leaving the terminal at around 1:45. then we hopped in the car, filled up, grabbed some bk lounge (i ordered the nastiest strawberry shake ever created--too much syrup, puke), and hit the road. we were home two hours later. william made ribs for dinner which were ridiculously delicious and then we all slept for many, many hours, in beds, no less. i had so much fun over the summer in florida, but coming home is always nice.
anyway, we didn't get out on thursday and i couldn't make the wireless in the terminal work that night or else i would have written a long, bitchy post. count yourselves lucky. on friday (which i keep wanting to refer to as yesterday) they had two flights to rammstein listed. they had three, but the last one was cut. the flights i'd seen over the previous two days all had over 70 seats on them, so i was hopeful about our chances for the second friday flight. unfortunately, all the overseas flights leave in the evening (that way you arrive in the morning or afternoon), so the roll call times are in the late afternoon. this means sitting around the terminal for hours twiddling thumbs and shivering. i did a lot of both of these things over the days we were there. the roll call times for the two flights were 2:30 and 6:55. the 2:30 roll call came and went without us getting on the flight. i didn't expect to get on this one, so wasn't crushed. i was excited to see them get almost all the way through the category threes, however, as that left fours, fives and sixes for later. we were category fives and so far they had not even gotten past threes. bad thing is that anyone could walk through the door last minute, be a category above us, and therefore bump us further down the list. so the two hour wait after one roll call ended and another began was hell. once the roll call officially begins, it doesn't matter who rolls into the terminal, as he/she has already missed his/her shot at that flight.
only two families came in during that wait, so it was looking good. as it turned out, the one lady and her kids were category fives and below us on the list. the other guy was a lieutenant colonel, so he and his wife and their two kids were category threes. he was also an asshole. he was like: let's go wait in the vip lounge after they checked in. officers can be that way, however. well, the roll call didn't start at 6:55, which was making everyone flip out. turns out the governor was landing at the base, so they were holding it until after he left the terminal. this pissed me off for many reasons. number one: the longer they waited for roll call, the more people they could check in, potentially destroying my chances of getting on the flight. number two: the governor flew out of that base on thursday morning and the airmen working in the terminal were going around starting at five in the morning waking everyone up. they didn't want anyone to be asleep when the governor went through, including children. i hadn't gotten to sleep until about four, so they woke me the first time an hour after i fell asleep. the kids were in the family lounge all huddled together to keep warm, and they woke them and made them clean the area, even though the governor never looked in there. later, the girls came out where i was sitting and we all fell asleep around 6:30. they came by right before seven to wake us again. the guy woke me and told me we couldn't sleep in there until the governor came and went. he then told me i had to wake the children. my response to that was: are you serious? turns out he was. they were so fucking tired, i had to make them stand up or they would have gone right back to sleep. it was miserable and i felt like i was abusing them. they were that tired. stella is all delirious and weird when she is super tired. her legs get all wobbly and she is speaking in tongues almost. so, she was doing that for about 15 minutes. neither of them could stand very well. i had to take them to the bathroom to splash water on their faces. they did that several times. finally at nine o'clock, i told them to just do what they wanted. stella, who was awake by that time, went off to play (she snapped out of being tired, but it came back to haunt her later). abby sat down and was asleep in about four seconds. i took a nap too. so, the governor of new jersey can go fuck himself. i want to become a new jersey resident just so i can vote the motherfucker out of office.
back to the late roll call. there was a group of us who were absolutely seething over the late call. there were two flights coming in--one from andrews air force base and one from baltimore--and the roll call was supposed to start before either one of them landed. well, since it was about an hour late, one flight was able to come in and all the people on it were able to sign in as present before the call started. we were pissed, as we could clearly see that there were some category threes there. in all, there were about 15 people who signed up, but that can make a huge difference (or a HUGH difference, if you work at fiserv). the roll call started and all the remaining category threes, the fours, and the fives made it on. some sixes made it on as well, those are all retirees. i was just happy to make it, because they had no flights to germany for saturday, sunday, or monday. so, we would have had to find a hotel for those nights, as i wasn't about to hang out in the airport when there were no prospects for flights. fuck that. plus, i desperately wanted a shower that didn't involve a sink. and i was tired of ordering food. they started calling us to the gate about 15 minutes after everyone checked their bags in, which was great, because i wanted out of that damned terminal. after going through security and getting to the gate, we waited for the buses to come that would drive us out to the plane. that took about 20 or 30 minutes.
once out near the plane, we had to wait for them to load all the cargo before we could get on. the plane was a c-5, which is ginormous. on the way over, we took a c-17, which has the jump seats that fold down on both sides of the plane. this plane had the cargo on the bottom and upstairs had regular seats that reclined and everything. this was a relief to my tired bones. it was also cold as hell inside, but we had blankets. after take off (this was around 10) they gave us our boxed lunches (er, dinners?). we ate those and went to sleep. the girls slept the whole time, but i could only sleep until about four o'clock eastern time. i just listened to the ipod's slow mix for the entire flight, which was nice, as the planes are pretty loud. the flight was supposed to be 8 hours long, but i think they pushed it because we arrived in germany at 12 when we really shouldn't have been there before one. we went through customs, got all our shit, and were leaving the terminal at around 1:45. then we hopped in the car, filled up, grabbed some bk lounge (i ordered the nastiest strawberry shake ever created--too much syrup, puke), and hit the road. we were home two hours later. william made ribs for dinner which were ridiculously delicious and then we all slept for many, many hours, in beds, no less. i had so much fun over the summer in florida, but coming home is always nice.