Phoenix… We have a Problem!

My parents were blessed to spend New Years in Maui with my sister and her family, relaxing on the beach and enduring the rooster calls on the island. Being the kind and thoughtful daughter, I volunteered for pick-up duty on their arrival home. When they booked the tickets, I remember hearing the return date as January 11th, a date that coincides with a special occasion for one of my nieces, who is from Maui. I thought it coincidental that the dates matched.

Calling my brother, who had taken them for their departure, I wanted to confirm the airline and flight time. All was good. Here’s my sticky note.

I feel the need to point out the extent of my niceness. That 6:49 is A.M. The airport is 30 miles from our house in the same direction all the Phoenix metro traffic heading downtown. Big fat bumper-to-bumper bummer.

Before I volunteered for o’dark-thirty parent retrieval, I checked with all driving family members to see if it was “more convenient” for someone else to go. Nope. Two had to go to work and one to band class. The glitch in this scenario is that our daughter had to be to her reading specialist at 8:00 a.m. From experience, I knew that I couldn’t make it back from the airport in time to take her and I didn’t want to wake her up at 5:15 a.m. either. The princess needs her sleep.

I called a faithful friend who also has a child in the reading class and asked if Nora could sleep over at her house. Sure! That’s what friends are for. I delivered her to her pajama party late on Tuesday night.

My alarm, which incidentally is only set a few times a year, blasted it’s jovial wake-up tune at 5:15 a.m. Please remember at this time that I am a homeschool mom. One of the top reasons we homeschool is so we can get the rest we need… i.e.: we sleep in…. almost every day.

I threw on sweats, brushed my teeth and hair, and went out the front door into the chilly AZ air. Brrrr… in the low 50s. Black skies laughed at me. I am always surprised when it is dark in the morning, for I rarely see this phenomenon.

Traffic wasn’t bad at all and I pulled into the parkade with 15 minutes to spare. After making mental notes of the level and parking area, I checked the screens for arrival times. 412 from Kahului just landed….6:28. Early! Good. This should go quickly. My comfy bed might even still be warm when it welcomes me back!

If you have ever landed at Sky Harbor in Phoenix, you may be aware of the dual runways and the occasional need to taxi for 15 minutes to get to your gate. It adds to the suspense of deplaning. Thankfully I remembered this little tidbit and was not alarmed by a 20 minute delay between the landing time and seeing weary travelers in Hawaiian shirts getting off the red-eye flight. Finally several vacationers trudged by wearing neck pillows and carrying pale green Hawaiian Cookie Company bags. I was a tad alarmed when I didn’t see my very own weary parents. There was no way I could have missed them walking by. There is only one gate for them to come out of. I was there the whole time. But they didn’t show up.

Baggage claim is right down stairs from where I had been sitting for 30 minutes. I decided to take a trip down there to see if Dad and Mom teleported from the plane to the baggage area. Nope. All the Hawaiian shirts were sitting on the floor awaiting their tardy suitcases.

Back upstairs I went… a bit concerned. Could something have happened to one of them on the plane? I called both their cell numbers several times. Both went straight to voicemail. I didn’t want to call my sister to see if she put them on the plane because it was 3:45 in the morning in Maui. I called my husband who was across the tarmac in his office. “I can’t find my parents,” I lamented. He comforted me by telling me they were probably just lost. Great! Where do I report missing persons?

My husband suggested checking my text messages again from Maui. I opened up my brother-in-law’s message and it read, “Mom and Dad arrive Thursday morning at 6:49.” Big fat early morning bummer. It was Wednesday.

Their flight WAS on the 11th of January… but arrived on the 12th of January. I was 24 hours early. I decided not to wait for them at the airport.

A Starbucks caramel apple cider soothed my weary soul before I left the terminal. After handing over my $5.00 for parking and I was on my way home to my snuggly bed.

(In a couple weeks I am scheduled to pick up my niece ON THIS SAME FLIGHT! Hopefully I will get it right next time.)

 

Going Into Town

Where are currently staying is a 20 minute drive into town…. Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Taco Bell and Home Depot. We don’t have internet access at the cabin, so I’ve brought my laptop to B&N for short and sweet hook-up times.

We dropped into Home Depot earlier for some needed toilet parts and unbeknownst to us, torrential rain started while we shopped. We were all sporting t-shirts, flip-flops, shorts/capris without umbrellas as it was 90 degrees outside. Larisa and I waited in the exit doorway while Rick and Keeve ran to the van. The rain intensified while we waited and the much to our amusement, Home Depot people were frantically covering outdoor displays that were obviously not waterproof. Rick couldn’t get close to the door so he pointed back at the loading dock area. Larisa and I made our way over there, somewhat dryly and were picked up in style. We proceeded to drive two blocks away to a grocery store…. covered by clear skies. Arizona storms amaze and amuse me.

My dad introduced to me his summer specialty beverage at Starbucks: green tea frappaccino with peppermint and mocha chips. It tastes like Grasshopper Ice Cream with all the benefits of green tea. Yum! Much to mine and my father’s dismay, the B&N in Flagstaff is not a fully stocked, peppermint participating Starbucks AND it doesn‘t accept Starbucks cards. Sheesh. As I ordered my relished drink, the non-masculine fellow proceeded to tell me that they don’t serve peppermint. At all. Then he asked if I wanted whipped cream on my plain ordinary green tea frap. I answered nicely, “No, I’m not having a green tea frap anymore, because you wrecked it by not having peppermint.” Keeve proceeded to order and the guy asked him to repeat his name so he could write it on the cup. I spelled it, out of habit, because it is such an unusual name. The guy barked in his soft, lispy voice, “I know how to spell it!” I didn’t comment, but the line on the tip of my tongue was, “Wow! The first person in the world that knows how to spell KEEVE!” He misspelled Larisa’s name and just as I was leaving the counter, he added with charm, “What a cute purse!” Wow! As soon as we were out of earshot, Larisa mocked, “What a cute purse!” It is a cute purse… with cherries all over it and tan straps and corners… my friend Connie gave it to me and I love it. But GAH! Man-up, brother.

We are going back into town again, but I spied a real, stand-alone Starbucks that we will be stopping at to acquire peppermint drinks before our trip into B&N for internet access. This time I’m taking my umbrella.

Fall is Here – Part 3

These are the signs of Fall in Phoenix, Arizona:  The dog is lounging on the sun-mutilated swing… and her tongue is not hanging out of her mouth.  Trixie’s enjoying the sunshine with her eyes closed and happy doggy dreams floating through her head.  It’s obviously below 110 degrees.  Fall has arrived.

Sign number two:  I had to put on LONG pants…. with my new hot pink bling-bling leather flip flops.  Obviously another sign that Fall has descended upon us and wrapped its chilly tendrils around our legs.  Brrrr.  In the 70s today. 

We resorted to turning on the furnace two days ago.  It was only 45 degrees outside and 61 in the house.  I called my husband and asked him to bring home a pumpkin latte for me from Starbucks.  I told him I was freezing and needed a warm drink… and I LOVE that Fall brings pumpkin lattes to the drive-thru window menu.  Rick told me to leave the heater off and put on a sweatshirt.  Whatever.  I already had 2 shirts and a sweatshirt on… jeans, socks and slippers.  My nose was cold.  I needed a pumpkin latte because it’s FALL!  We compromised.  He brought the pumpkin delicacy to me and I didn’t turn the heater on until bedtime.  Fall has officially arrived.

HOLLYWOOD

As Mr. Bang-His-Head and Coach Rick crashed in the hotel room in Anaheim after the 7 a.m. game, Larisa, Keeve and I ventured off to Hollywood.   We have never been there despite our many trips to L.A.  Can I just say that if you’re looking for weirdos….. they’re in Hollywood… particularly at Starbucks on Hollywood Blvd. just East of the Chinese Theater.  WEIR-DO!  Oh, my goodness.  I didn’t bother telling the kids to stop staring with their mouths gaping open because I was busy staring with my mouth gaping open.  Our favorite, hands down, was a little shriveled up man with long dyed-black hair looking rather spookily like Howard Stern in his 90s.  He had a little too much black eye liner on… and he accidentally used the black eyeliner on his lips too.  But I could tell he had realized his mistake because he tried to correct it with shiny silver eyeliner outlining his black lips.  Remarkably creepy.

Anyway, we were the typical tourists walking slowly down the street of the stars and reading all the names aloud, whether we knew them or not.  I just made it sound like I was excited to find each and every one.  Larisa finally figured out that I didn’t know who half the people were.  The only star we were in pursuit of was Elvis, for Rick of course.  Well, they have moved Elvis’ star three times and we finally asked enough people and were pointed in the same general direction about four times when we came upon the king of rock n roll’s star.  It’s by itself and the Beatles’ star in a large median, so as not to get too many people stopping up traffic in front of the junk souvenir shops.

We got sucked into a souvenir shop and bought the $7 map showing the homes of the stars.  So off we drove to see if we could find any famous people’s houses.  The one that I got most excited about was the Brady Bunch house.  So cool.  Just like the show!  Except it’s orange now, not olive green anymore.  The ordinary people who live in it must be sick of people like us in minivans holding the $7 map and taking pictures of their home because their house number was nowhere to be seen.  Larisa said, “I can’t tell which house it is because there’s no number on this one!”  I didn’t need a house number.  I grew up watching that house.

Keeve asked if we could see Ben Stiller’s house, so off Hollywood Blvd. we drove to Ben’s place.  Well after Larisa has successfully navigated me up these winding, narrow, falling-apart roads we find the house number and Larisa says, “Oh, …..this is Drew Barrymore’s house.”  So we enjoyed her amazing view for a few moments before finding the correct house for Keeve.  And keeping up with our tradition of saving one famous line for posterity from each of our family vacations, the rest of the trip we kept saying, “Oh, this is Drew Barrymore’s house,” when we pulled into Taco Bell, Huntington Beach, Free Chapel, Chevron, our hotel, etc.

Accountability Group Mtg. #4

(Cheer up, Dad.  You weigh less than Hulk Hogan!)

Yeah, yeah.  You thought I was avoiding the issue, didn’t you?  I forgot.  Here’s the skinny:

Total pounds lost this week:  0   Total pounds lost in 2009:  7.8

And Rickey (the Canadian) is holding at 11 total pounds lost in 2009.  (I WILL WIN! Not that I’m competitive at all.)

So the good news is…. I’m not gaining.  The really good optimistic news is that if I keep up the 7.8 pounds per month… I’ll be down 62.4 pounds by the first of Sept.  Quit rolling your eyes at me!  I’m trying a few new techniques this coming week…. no Starbucks  (I’m finally out of gift cards),  no apple pie (it was only in the house because I forgot to put it in the oven when guests were here), and a few walks in the park to improve circulation and oxygen intake.  Hey, start small.

I also find it helpful when I make a meal list so that I have all the ingredients needed AND I can see the list and pick something that I’m craving.  This pick and choose through the freezer when I’m starving is not working well.  I keep resorting to eating peanut butter out of the jar.  Protein, right???  Have you read how much sugar is in creamy Skippy?  No wonder it’s addicting.

Any suggestions?  I’m WIDE open.