The saga continues

Our youngest called today. It was so wonderful to hear his voice (I didn't realize how much I missed him until I heard his voice).

Would you believe they still don't have their luggage?! Well, 3 of the 12 of the misfortunate group have gotten their luggage but that's all. And they only have 4 more days of sightseeing before it's time to board the plane for the long journey home. When I think about this, I consider all the money we wasted buying clothes for the trip. Gee, if only we'd known I'd have bought nothing and saved mollah big time! ;-)

The rumor is that the luggage is to show up tomorrow. Let's hope so!

Unfortunately, this fiasco is taking its toll. I could hear it in his voice. I did direct the conversation away from that to ask him what he's seen (a famous museum today) and what new things he's eaten (lasagna and cheese-covered eggplant) and if he's taken lots of pictures (yes) and if he missed me (yes! so good to hear). When he called they had finished up the day at Florence. They head to Rome tomorrow, stopping at Assisi on the way. They visit the Vatican and Roman ruins, before visiting Pompei and the Isle of Capri. All places I'd love to see so I'm looking forward to seeing his pictures. I'm sure when he shows us his photos, we'll learn more about his travels (he normally talks our ear off but he is, and always has been, uncharacteristically mute on the phone, don't ask me why).

I asked him to call again soon. Hard to believe that in 5 days he'll be home. I do hope that in time he remembers more good than bad about this trip. I know this is a good learning experience for him, but oh, I wish it didn't have to go on so long. Enough is enough already.

One person's misery is another person's bargain find?

http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/ is lost luggage (they call it unclaimed) heaven for bargain shoppers. I'm really, really hoping our son's luggage doesn't end up there. And it shouldn't, since we labeled it with our name and contact info inside and out.

My Luggage, my luggage, my kingdom for my luggage*

*With all due respect to Shakespeare.

Our youngest called home yesterday. Still no luggage so they had to shop for clothes for a few days. In his words, "clothes are expensive here." Great, that's an expense we didn't need.

A friend told me that there is an outlet somewhere in the SE US that processes 500,000 pieces of lost luggage a DAY! Hearing that does not bode well and certainly doesn't spark hope that we'll get the luggage and its contents back. But I'm trying to remain positive.

Other than the problems they've had, it does sound like they are having fun, although hubby said he had to drag out details from our youngest (but that's not unusual). They've toured Gaudi's (Gow-dy) work, an mosaic artist from whom we get the term gaudy. His work is over the top and ornate (bet you could have guessed that!). They were going to a Flamenco performance last night. Today they headed to Provence. Our youngest did say that the tour bus is really nice, "nicer than a school bus." ;-)

Hubby reminded son to call home every day or two, just to let us know how he's doing. I sure hope the luggage finds them and the rest of the trip goes so well, they forget the lousy beginning.

Oh, yes, can't forget to brag a bit. Our youngest made sure to tell hubby that he hasn't lost anything yet. He's so proud of himself for that. And to think that was my biggest worry before the trip. Oh, now naive of me.

Out of the fire...

They have arrived safely, exhausted but fine.

But...

(you knew that was coming didn't you)

Their luggage is lost (expletive deleted). And what's worse, no one knows where it is (another expletive). They've been 3 days in the same clothes. They have no toiletries (you can't carry liquids on the plane), no underwear, no clothes, nothing.

They leave for their next city stop tomorrow morning (by bus, no more planes, thank God!). Hopefully their luggage will catch up with them soon. In the meantime, they are going to shop for a change of clothes - that's an expense we didn't need!

Please, please, please keep fingers crossed that this is the LAST screw-up for this trip. In 5 years' time, this will make a good story but right now it's nothing but aggravation.

It frustrates the HELL out of me that there is not a damned thing I can do about this.

No rest for the weary

After a long, sleepless night for them and for me, they are on a flight for Germany. Hallelujah!!! It was iffy until the last minute. They had tickets but the flight was overbooked and they were in danger of getting bumped off it and having to spend another horrible night at the airport. But thank God, all worked out and they boarded.

The teacher/group leader told me to pray for stormy weather for other areas so that connecting flights would be late, making room for our group. She meant it jokingly, of course.

All the same, the idea was planted and wandered through my brain throughout the day. I've no idea what magic worked to get them on the flight and I don't care. As my dad is fond of saying, never sniff a gift fish.

By the time they arrive at their final destination, it will be almost 48 hours since we arrived at the airport yesterday morning. And they'll have missed all the sightseeing fun for their first destination city.

Sucks, of course, but whatcha going to do?

Complain to the tour company?

You betcha!

They may not be responsible for the weather but damn it, they could taken better care of these weary travelers. The least they could have done was arrange for hotel rooms for them instead of a dirty, sleepless night at the airport terminal.

My son's response?

"I'm FINE, mom!"

He isn't, I know, I could hear it in his voice, but true to his nature, he doesn't want us to worry.

Please, dear travel gods, please, let the rest of the journey go uneventfully.

Best laid plans...

Nervous mama is back and in full force.

Thunderstorms over Denver delayed their flight almost 4 hours so they missed their flight from DC to Frankfurt. They are spending the night in DC's airport and at this point, they don't know when they will get out. No one can help them until tomorrow morning.

On top of which, one kid lost his passport so he and his mom are stuck in Denver for the moment. And another kid lost his wallet - after our youngest lent him money so our son had to borrow money from another kid to buy dinner tonight. This kid's dad is along so why he had to borrow money from our son is beyond me. But that's our youngest for you - generous to a fault.

Our youngest is frustrated and tired and sounded so close to tears. It kills me that we aren't there to comfort him. We are hoping these are the only glitches for this trip and from here on out, things will go well.

But what a lousy start.

Leaving the nest

We dropped off our youngest at the airport this morning. He's on his way to Europe for 2 whole weeks. (lucky kid!)

He was so excited, he was vibrating. He could barely contain himself.

I'm wavering between nervous mama worries and hard-won calm that he'll be fine. I keep reminding myself that he's traveling with his 8th grade class, with almost as many adults as kids (many parents we've known for years) and it's organized by a tour company with an excellent reputation.

But.

He's never been more than a few hours away from home, for more than a few days, without a parent along.

"I'll be FINE, mom!" says he, with more than a little exasperation.

He was so ready to go on his own. In fact, when we initially contemplated finding a way to afford to go as a family, he was firmly insistent that he did not want any of us along. He did not want to be under parental wings.

I can understand, really, I can. But that doesn't mean it isn't hard to let go.

He better bring me a souvenir!

After all, I could have given him a smoochie in public, in front of his friends and everyone (I did threaten, jokingly, to do so). Instead I settled for a hug and mumbled-under-my- breath, "I love you."

Bedtime games

Our youngest, an 8th-grader, goes to bed at 9:30. No, wait, let me rephrase that. He's supposed to go to bed at 9:30 but invariably, he delays past that. He's very creative with his excuses, too.

It made his older brother (a 10th grader) mad. He thought we weren't enforcing bedtime "curfew" like we did with him. So he began a bedtime log. He wrote down how many minutes past bedtime that his younger sibling was up. He's been doing this for months and it's become a hilarious game. He reminds his brother just how many minutes - hours now - his sibling "owes" him (a tally of all the minutes of overtime). Older son thinks that younger son ought to go to bed hours earlier one day to make it all balance out. You can imagine that younger son isn't so keen on that idea.

Last night I went up to remind younger son to go to bed, about 5 minutes past time. Older son yelped, "Victory!" for reasons that escaped me, of course, but I couldn't help but laugh. As did hubby and younger son, who tried to protest but couldn't get the words out between gasps of laughter.

I'm going to miss this game next year when we institute new bedtime rules for younger son. As a high schooler, we will give him the responsibility of setting his own bedtime. We know it will get abused initially (older son sure overdid it at first) but our hope is that he will learn to judge just how late he can stay up and still function the next day. Or so I hope and so hubby tells me (it was his idea and I grudgingly went along but it seems to have worked - that's one for you, hubby ;-) ).