Bad Day 32--It's my fault and I don't care!

So today, I know who had a worse day than me and it is because I made her and I don't feel bad about it one bit because she totally deserved it.

You know those kids in elementary school that drove you crazy because they followed all the rules? And not only did they follow them, they also wanted to make sure that everyone else followed them, too. You remember, they would raise their hand and say, "Miss Olsen, Tommy is looking at my paper!"  And then they would turn and give poor Tommy that triumphant look because they had tattled and probably Tommy wasn't looking at their paper at all but was  just daydreaming and now he's in trouble for nothing.

These are also the people who drive 55 in the left lane. And they count the items in your cart when you're in the express lane. And most of them work in the DMV. Anyway, you know who I'm talking about and they drive you crazy, especially when you are still following the rules but they need to say something anyway like, "Exactly 15 items. Good thing that pack of razors only counts as one." Or the speed limit is actually 65 but they are still going 55. Anyway, I am generally a rule follower although I try not to be nasty to anyone about it and today I had followed ALL the rules I was not going to let some prissy old biddy stop me just because she felt like exercising her tiny little bit of power.

So here is what happened. I went to pick up Child 1 and Child 2 who were coming back from visiting family and I left really early so I could make it to the airport in time to get a pass that would let me meet them at the gate. I won't say which airline they were flying on, but here is a picture of it.



So anyway, I had paid a $100 unaccompanied minor fee because Child 2 isn't yet old enough to fly by herself and her older sister doesn't count as an adult and even though they were on a direct, non-stop flight they still made me pay it. When dropping off aforementioned children for the flight out, we stood in line for an hour and then they took all my information and put it in the computer and gave me a pass and I took them to the gate and waved good-bye. Well, this time, I got to the airport early because of the long line I knew I would have to stand in and it was a good thing, too, because it is the same line full of people who have missed their flights and are really, really angry and there were a lot of them today and none of them were nice.

But, a nice employee came up and saw I didn't have any luggage and asked why I was in the line. I told her I was picking up unaccompanied minors and she nicely said, I can help you at this computer over here. So I followed her over to the computer and she put in the flight info and found my children's names and that is when the trouble started. You see, when the brilliant individual entered in all the data when they boarded the flight, they forgot to put in my name as being the person picking up the children. The nice employee said it wasn't a problem because my name was probably written on the packet with the boarding passes that they children had on the plane and she would issue the pass anyway. Well, Miss Nosy two computers away overheard and decided to mess things up because she stopped re-booking the flights of the very angry people and ran over and said "You can't do that!" Nice Employee said she could, she had done it before, that's what the instructions were, and it would all be OK. Just to make sure she asked me my phone number and I rattled it off and it matched and she said , "See, it's her." So Miss Nosy said she couldn't, it was against regulations and it wasn't allowed. I chimed in with "I'm their mother, they have the same last name as me and I'm the one who bought the ticket and dropped them off originally." She ma'med me in a huffy voice and said that didn't matter and didn't I understand that what happened before with another child was. . . . Well, I cut her off with the fact that I didn't care what had happened before, I wasn't interested in any previous problems, and that if Delta  the unnamed airline hadn't entered the information correctly, that was their problem and not mine and they needed to fix it.

The thing Miss Nosy didn't know is that I'm rather an expert on international custody battles and I fully understand that someone could try to lie and pre-empt a pick-up and run off with the children. However, I also knew that wasn't the case and that if I didn't pick up my children, no one would, because there is no one else. As I mentioned before, I am here. By myself. Alone. The. Only. Parent. Left. Well, after my speech, she got even huffier and puffed out her chest and said, "Ma'm, what if their father. . ." Oh, well that set me off! So I gave her my dirtiest look and said in an extremely loud and firm voice so that everyone around could hear, "Their father is in AFGHANISTAN!!" That shut her up pretty much immediately and she slunk back to her computer. Nice employee issued my pass, and I thanked her and went and picked up the children who had a great flight and the flight attendants were very kind and took good care of them and fed them.

I realize that I could have been nicer, but I was running out of time after having stood in a long line full of cranky people and I'm sorry, but it was none of Miss Nosy's business. So I realize that I am part of the cause of Miss Nosy having a bad day, but honestly, it's really mostly her fault for being in infuriating, bossy pain in the neck and she is exactly the type of person who should not work at an airline counter.

So now all my children are under the same roof and I am much happier. And they even said they missed me, so that was the best thing of all. You'll have to excuse me now because I now need to go hug and kiss them until they yell "MOM! STOP IT!" I love it when they do that. :-)