Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Happy Anniversary Sweet Hubby
Ok, now before anybody gets their knickers in a twist let me clarify that this isn’t our wedding anniversary it is the anniversary of the first time that we met face to face a whole whopping 10 years ago.
The beginning of our relationship is not when we first saw each other face to face, but rather when we first met in an online chat room. Yes, we really did meet that way; on good ole AOL if you really need to know. We chatted for a little over 2 weeks online for hours at a time; then gradually moved on to phone calls, which in turn led to him wanting to meet me face to face. (First we had to exchange pictures via snail mail - his was a head shot from a try at modeling - mine was at first my senior picture from high school and then a polaroid that my friend snapped of me laughing)
So we set up a face to face meeting. Me, being a single mom of two, and him, single man with good job and very chivalrous - well, he fronted for the airfare since he couldn’t wait till I had a long enough weekend at work to drive from MI to Long Island.
Me, I hopped a plane (after everyone told me I was crazy and going to come up dead) and made the flight from Detroit to Boston and proceeded to wait for my connecting flight to Long Island.
In Boston they announced a flight that had about the same departure time as my flight, though it had a different flight number and I could swear that the lady with the Boston accent said it was going to Iceland. (Didn’t want to go to Iceland) So I sat and patiently waited for my flight. About 10 minutes after my flight was supposed to depart I went up and asked the gate agent when the flight to Long Island was going to be boarding and she looked at me like I was totally insane and said “Honey, it just left the gate.“ It seems that the airport on Long Island is sometimes referred to as Islandia Airport - hence the misunderstanding of a Bostonian pronouncing it like ‘Iceland Airport’. I (who had only flown once before) asked her if she could get it to come back as I had an important person to meet. She told me that I had to take a seat and that they would get me on the next flight that left in about 2 hours.
For those of you that know me real well, when I have somewhere to be and be on time, patience is not one of my strong suits.
I asked what other airline might have an airplane going to Long Island at that time and was told that US Air had a flight leaving in 40 minutes. Now, I had to get to US Air, buy a ticket, check in and board the plane. Ok, you’re thinking, not real hard; well, it wasn’t that easy.
US Air is on the opposite side of the airport from Northwest and also you have to cross a busy road with no pedestrian light to get you safely across the cross walk. Trying to cross that road is sort of like trying to cross a NASCAR track during time trials. Also add into the mix that I was wearing a dress, hose and heels and dragging one of those roller flight bags that have a tendency to tip over if you try to walk faster than old Aunt Margaret.
I got across that road by grabbing an employee’s hand and dragging her out behind me and next to my luggage and darting in between cab drivers that reminded me of the drivers in ‘Death Race 2000’ (or whatever the title was). She then was kind enough to direct me to the US Air ticket counter which, I swear to you, was 5 blocks from where we entered the building. I took off those heels and ran like crazy; purchased my ticket and ran for the gate.
When I got to the gate I still had 5 minutes till they were boarding, and since it was a commuter flight (ie: small plane) it was first in line, first to board. I ran for the payphones and called sweet hubby’s mom so that she could track him down using his pager. (Sorry folks, this was about the time that bag cell phones were popular) She contacted him just as he was leaving the airport and told him that I was on a later flight; because by this time he thought that I had stood him up.
Meanwhile I am sitting on this 20 or 30 seat plane and explaining to my seat mate why I am going to Long Island and that I figure the guy will not be waiting because I was an idiot and didn’t want to go to Iceland. I fell asleep (with my burning bare feet on the plane’s wall to cool them off) to that man laughing his head off.
He woke me up as we were approaching the airport, by grabbing my arm and saying ‘look, look, that’s the runway.‘ Now, if you have never been in a plane that you could actually look out the windshield as you are landing - trust me, if you are a nervous flyer - like me, it is not something that you want to do!!! You see all these colored lights flashing (and I swore that they were emergency vehicles because for sure we were going to crash), you get to watch the altimeter LOSE altitude (which also makes you think that you will crash) and you get to watch the runway reaching up for your plane. Not an experience that I ever want to repeat.
My seat mate stayed on the plane with me till we were the last ones besides the pilots and then left to see if sweet hubby (who was just the guy I was going to meet at that time) was really waiting for me. My seatmate (nope, never got his name) ducked his head back in the plane and said ‘honey, he is waiting’ and then left. I took another minute to collect myself, my luggage and put my shoes firmly on my feet before I headed out to meet my man.
So, February 13th will always be the first day that we truly laid eyes on each other!!
