Oct 2006

I arrived in JFK and my bags appeared fairly quickly. I was than looking for a pay phone to call Mike to tell him where I was. I didn’t really believe that he had received the message that I wasn’t coming in with Conti but with Delta. His plane was delayed but he was quickly there from La Guardia to pick me up. We drove home and chatted during the way. Mandy was still awake to my surprise but she said it was only because Aden had decided to wake her up. We were at their place like around 2.30am and I was more than ready to hit the bed.
The stay with them was wonderful as always and time passed very quickly. Maille and Aden are no longer babies but kiddos and are up to a lot of mischief. They are adorable though ... Seeing them making a mess out of themselves especially during “feeding” time can be really funny. Fingers in the food and than the nose itches or lets scratch my ear and than before you know what is happening all the food is all over them. They are very quick and love running around and Maille loves jumping of pretty much anything and has no fear of heights. I think they both recognized me fairly quickly and after a while I was accepted again to bring them to bed and hold them. I was very happy that Mike went out of his way to go to Best Buy so that I could purchase a headset. Now I was able to communicate with Elmer per PC. I think I will be a new frequent user of Skype now and once Mum and Dad also understand how to use it we can have conversations as well. We did some shopping as well and found some really nice stuff for Elmer and Bryan and myself as well. The suitcase that I had bought was so full that I had to sit on it to close it but in the end I had no problem with my weight. I saw Mike a bit as well but he had to go on his next business trip. They were a bit miserable about the fact that daddy wasn't there to play with them and tuck them in. Speaking to him by phone didn’t really make a big difference on that score. The time was flying by as well and although I was almost a week there it seemed less.
I thought it would be clever to reconfirm the flight and ask if everything was okay or if I could expect more problems. They assured me that everything would be fine and that as long as I would go first to Delta and than to Conti I would be fine. Day of leaving came and Mandy and kiddos brought me to the train station. There the loudspeaker blared no train going today to Bridgeport - great! - but a bus service would be running. It was actually even quicker than the train and I had to wait for the Amtrak to get me out to Newark. In the train I was chatting with my neighbor so time passed quickly. In Newark I went straight away to the Delta counter and was in for a nice surprise. I got told that I didn't have a ticket and to be able to fly with Conti I would need 100.000 extra miles since I was flying on air miles. I was like what no one ever told me that and by the way so much for your Sky Alliance. Next I got told was that I could of course go to JFK and try to catch the last flight out with Delta - no guarantees and of course they wouldn’t pay for a cab and it was pouring. By now I was starting to get really ticked off. In the end they wanted to charge me for changing the ticket and airport tax I was like listen I change a flight and if you are to dumb to get it right and inform your passenger right that is not my fault. I only had to pay airport tax in the end since they put me on the Air France flight via Paris. I than stood in line to board and the guy started giving me a hard time about me flying business. By now I was hot and bothered standing there for 1.5 hours and started to get antsy and I wasn't quite as polite as normal. The Air France flight to Paris wasn’t what I had expected. I couldn't sleep on the bloody plane since my feet were somewhere on the floor and cut of the blood circulation, my headset wasn't working and the videos stopped playing during the "night". How I could forget we left of course with delay and landed in Paris in nowhere's land. Bloody nightmare! Everyone was inquiring if we could all still get the connecting flight and the ground crew told us make a dash for it. No luck I arrived at the counter and than got told that the flight had been cancelled. GREAT! My recommendation don’t fly with bloody Air France if you can avoid it the service sucks and that for business so I don’t even want to know what economy with them would be like. I met Maria and we stuck together and chatted for a while and that was good fun at least it wasn't that boring. I got a voucher for a sandwich and she had one for a proper lunch since she was supposed to be stuck there even longer than me. Being businesses class got me a flight out at 1pm she being economy got an offer for 6pm. Fab! Than in Paris the business class lounge refused to let me enter with her saying today not possible blabla … and later on they even closed the lounge down. In the end she changed the airport and got home earlier ... Oh yes, I forgot to mention while in JFK and wanting to inform Mum and Dad that I was going to come in a lot later than expected. No PC station in that lounge at all anymore, no person with laptop to ask a favor to kick an email out, fax out of service ... everything going against me. In the end I called Mandy up and asked her to kick mails out to the whole family so that they would know that I would be home later. By the time I got off that plane in Frankfurt I felt light headed and felt slightly nauseous. I just wanted fresh air, a shower and fresh clothes. Mum was there to pick me up since the rest of the family had to work by than of course. I couldn’t believe it that I had made it and my entire luggage as well.

The last few days went by in a flash and we did manage to arrange everything. We were two days in Guate either for shopping or running errands. We did some more shopping in Antigua as well. Finally found a notary that knows what he is doing. Rosa our landlady said that he is a friend but once we talked to him we were both like yes, we will use him. Since we were running against the deadline for hiring one to put the announcement in the paper. It was a bit of a rush job but okay. In the end we managed to get it all done and now all I need is my papers so that we can be officially married. The newspapers were the announcements have to be placed are some that I had never heard of but at the airport in Guate I found one and had a look. The notary will keep an example for us as well with our announcement.
I had quit work for the last week and the last few days as well and it was the best decision of that I am sure. What happened at Funky was crazy! Abbie was still in the States and Cesar had once again dropped off the face of the earth. So Marcela sits in Funky when suddenly all the lights go off and all the PCs. What had happened was that they hadn't paid their bills for so long that the electricity company cut off the electricity! Now Marcela got stuck with finding money, making phone calls etc. She sure had fun with that one. No surprise I still haven't been paid yet but who knows they might pay Elmer while I am still gone so that he can pay the rent. In the meantime they must have borrowed money since they are suddenly able to hire more staff and all.
In the end we went to Monterrico for the weekend Friday until Sunday. We got picked up and I did a double take on the driver. He was the same one that drove us (Chelsea and Camilla and me) to Coban with his family. He also recognized me and asked me how I was etc. He told me that I look to 80% like his daughter. The next surprise was when we arrived at the travel agency. They switch drivers there. One collects all the people while the other one drives the people to the destination. It was Marcela's Dad who did the driving. We stayed again in the same hotel as the last time and even got the same room. Marcela and Chad joined us a day later. Unfortunately the owner said that we weren’t staying in that hotel and they ended up in one at the other end of town. Not so great but it meant we had to walk a lot o,))) Friday at the beach Elmer and I were talking that we just managed all the paperwork in time and now we could actually more or less relax on that front. I was like we don’t even have a day as such that we could call our engagement day. He was like that can be changed right now. He proposed there on the beach and it was wonderful! Saturday we celebrated our 6 months and around midnight we toasted to my 30th birthday. I think we were back in the room pretty early since the 1am deadline doesn’t apply there o,))) That weekend was filled with lots of laughter. It also seemed that half of Antigua was in Monterrico that weekend!
Elmer was able to bring me to the airport. There I was in for a surprise. I mean I had changed my dates sometime in august and I had reconfirmed my flights etc. At the airport though it was that they could see that I had the reservation in the system with Conti but they couldn’t issue me a ticket since they said that Delta hadn’t given them access. Great! After waiting for what seemed like forever I got told that I could fly out with Delta instead and would arrive 15 minutes later in JFK. Better than nothing so of course I took that one and sent a text out to Mike and Mandy for the pick-up time and airline change. Elmer and I exchanged a few more words and than he had to get back to Antigua and I went through the security check. The waiting area was the literal freezer and I couldn't wait to get on board and hope that it would be slightly warmer.
I was looking out of the window and thinking, gee, that is what I will be missing for a while and I can tell you guys even knowing that it is only for 26 days made no difference since I sure missed Elmer and the people and the country already than.