After a LOOOOONG day filled with more of the shop-vac, more moving furniture, cutting carpet and boxing up basement crap, I headed to the airport to pick up Bailey. She was due in at Midnight. I checked flight status before I left the house - cuz I'm smart like that - and she was in-flight from O'Hare and scheduled to arrive just 5 minutes later than planned.

I found myself there about 15 minutes before she was due to land, so I busied myself with chit-chatting with all of the other parents. Midnight came.....and went.....12:15 a.m., 12:30 a.m......12:45 a.m. - but still the arrivals board said on-time. Of course there is NO ONE to be found working at our big "International" airport at that hour...so we waited....and waited....and waited. Finally around 1 a.m. the board announced that their flight had been diverted to Kansas City due to weather initially (yeah - super super mega jumbo giant doppler told me no more rain til Thurs. - LIES! ALL LIES!) So where was I...oh - yeah....the storms....well they cleared...but then the crew had reached their maximum number of hours or something and so off to Kansas City they flew.

Next announcement confirmed this and then said we were to talk to a United ticket agent for more information. And do you know what that sounded like? (crickets chirping). The ticket desks are DARK....and EMPTY at our "INTERNATIONAL" airport. So there we are....100+ sets of parents....wandering in circles with blank looks on our faces because we are old and not used to being awake past Midnight. (sad...so sad).

Parents are frantically trying to call their children (hey wait a minute - it said no cell phones allowed on the trip!). Someone gets ahold of a chaperone...confirmed that they'd landed in KC...no other info. More waiting.

FINALLY it is determined that they'd be spending the night in Kansas City (I better not be paying for that)....and that they'd be flying back to Des Moines in the morning (it already IS morning you creeps). I didn't catch the flight number....actually I did - from another parent. She said it was flight XYZ and would be arriving at Noon. Well when I got home I wanted to look it up - and you know what? flight "XYZ" isn't valid. So here I am...it is pushing 2 a.m.....and I have absolutely no idea what flight number she'll be on tomorrow. I guess I'll just show up around Noon.

Whatever. I'm tired - and frustrated. Totally ticked off at Mother Nature....HATING my basement situation.....and mad that I wasted $3 on parking and made a totally unnecessary trip to the airport tonight. Oh well - gas is ONLY $3.87/gallon for the cheap stuff. Grrrr.

UPDATE!!!! It is now 2:20 a.m.....and I just got a PHONE CALL from the guy in charge of this whole trip. He was calling to inform me that they were NOT flying back to Des Moines in the morning to arrive at Noon....apparently the airlines gave out wrong info. (nice). Instead they are getting ready to head out on buses so they could "get back earlier"...umm....is that REALLY doing anyone a favor? The kids have GOT to be exhausted....I JUST went to bed and now you are telling me I have to get up and be at the airport again by around 6 a.m.? YOU SUCK! This whole cock-a-mamey plan sucks! And then - get this.....he asks me if I have the phone tree....the phone tree that he handed out at drop-off....ummm...you mean something you gave Mark on Thursday? I have no friggin' idea where that is! And it is 2:30 in the morning! I"m supposed to call someone in the middle of the night? Awkward....and worse yet - I can't find it....so I guess the phone tree is broken here. Sorry kids that are going to be stuck at the airport! Not MY idea to drive you back in the middle of the night on buses (not likin' it I tell ya). And hey - if you are going to stick them on buses in the middle of the night - how's about dropping them off at the SCHOOL!!!!! You know - the one that is - oh - 1.7 miles from my house? The one that doesn't charge for short-term parking?

Ok - someone's cranky and needs to go to bed....or should I say take a nap? cuz I think 3 hours is a nap - not hardly a good night's sleep.