1) Update on my mom: It's not great.
2) Do you remember Blanche the Puppy? Well, her human decided to take a new job in New Mexico and is abandoning us. I'm sort of peeved because I was starting to become real friends with her and now she's leaving and I'm sad (there are only so many women of my age without children who I know in my town). ANYWAY. In between the craziness of my travel and work schedule, I put together a drinks thing at a local bar tomorrow night as a going away party. Do I bring a present for her and/or Blanche? I don't want her to have to move something useless, but is there something meaningful? A bag of road trip snacks? A fancy pen? One of those notes cut out of magazine letters ransoming Blanche so she doesn't leave?
3) July was supposed to be fun. I had the trip to Seattle (which I'm going to try to write about this weekend) with Bestest Friend. Next week, we're supposed to go to California for a wedding. The California trip could be canceled at any second (see bullet #1) and can we talk about how I let my husband figure out the dogsitting logistics and then when I followed up with the dogsitter, they had already booked a different dog for that time? So I've been utilizing all of my personal network to attempt to find somewhere/someone for Hannah. I don't have time for this and I'm sort of upset with my husband and with the dogsitter.
I think we have Hannah figured out, but now I'm struggling to find someone to come in once a day to take care of Zelda. *sigh*
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| Bestest Friend and I have matching wallets. We did not plan this. |
4) I was recently at an airport (MSP, to be exact) and I had a choice of Dunkin, Starbucks, or Caribou. What's your choice? What's your order?
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| Seattle preview |
5) I don't want to actually write this up in my Seattle recap, but Delta had some sort of data breach thing and my trip home was not fun. My original flight was supposed to leave at 1:30 and I got to the airport early in order to spend time with Bestest Friend and at some point, I got notified that my flight was postponed until 2:30, which meant I'd miss my connection. I talked with someone at Delta and the best they could do was book me at a midnight flight and I'd get to my home airport at 8:15 the following morning. I wandered around the airport futilely in an attempt to get on a standby flight, but I was at SeaTac for an entire day.
It's not the worst airport to be stuck at, but it certainly isn't the best. Delta didn't even offer me a food voucher and their representatives basically told me to go fuck myself, so while all my flights were fine, I'm still a bit upset by the whole thing. At least I was just by myself and I didn't have kids with me or wasn't trying to find food for Dr. BB to eat. Still.
Overall, I'm glad I went on the trip, but it ended on a down note.
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Sound off in the comments. Which coffee/tea purveyor do you choose? What present should I give to Blanche's human?
I'm so sorry, Engie. Watching someone you love in declining health is exhausting and traumatic and just plain sad.
ReplyDeleteSaying goodbye to friends and really wonderful puppies (with the sweetest name!) is sad. (For the record, I vote: "One of those notes cut out of magazine letters ransoming Blanche so she doesn't leave?")
I really hope 2025 throws you some relief and joy in the near future. It's been a rough stretch :(
Air travel sucks at the best of times, and when things go wrong it can be hellish.
Happy things? THE MATCHING WALLETS. Proof you two are besties <3
Thinking of you, as always. I suck at gifts, so will defer to others re: Blanche and her human.
ReplyDeleteCaribou. Starbucks tastes burnt and unless you can get the Dunkin' Dark Roast (I don't think they all have it), it tastes like water. Also, Caribou has the best caffeinated tea (their cinnamon one, can't remember the exact name), so there are options if you don't want coffee.
I got stuck in Sea-Tac, too, courtesy of Delta cancelling my flight from Japan and me having to rebook myself and a colleague on another flight because, you guessed it, Delta washed their hands of it. In Japan, no less. So I feel your pain.
I'm sorry about your mom, Engie. My FIL had colon cancer and it was really hard.
ReplyDeleteSorry Blanche and your friend are leaving! I think a bag of road trip snacks would be a perfect gift!
OMG THE DOG LOGISTICS. This is the kind of thing that would break me. I love to travel but my number one stress about travel is leaving Rex, and we have a place ("the country club for pets!" is how they advertise) that we board him at and they love him and he likes it and so it should be stress-free, but it is not. I would be in such a tizzy if we left next week and we were scrambling.
I have had neither Caribou nor Dunkin (I have never even heard of Caribou!) so I guess by default Starbucks.
Connecting flights are the worst. The one thing I miss about Calgary is that I could almost always get a direct flight to wherever I'm going. But in Kelowna, I always have to connect - usually through Calgary - and I am SO stressed I'm going to miss my connection, every single time.
I'm sending all of the good vibes for bullet #1 and the timing of everything else.
ReplyDeleteMy dream would be to find another dog owner that we could trade off dog sitting duties with. We have a few doggy friends but things haven't moved to "watch my dog" level yet. The doggy day care place is fine, but I wouldn't want to leave her there for more than a few days.
My coffee preference is Starbucks > Dunkin > Carribou. I've never had Carribou so that's why it's in last place. If you had me do a blind taste test I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Starbucks or Dunkin, so it's pretty much a draw.
I hate, hate, hate, hate it when flying goes wrong. My past three flights were smooth as silk, so I'm hoping that the trend continues. I have a connection at Newark for my flight to NS, so if anything is going to go wrong, that's probably where it will happen.
What would I get Blanche? A dog toy of course! My standard answer for any young dog.
1. Sending you strength and love from NEO.
ReplyDelete2. I think your present to Blanche's mom is organizing her going-away party (very thoughtful, btw!). Your idea of the ransom note is fun; use it to wrap a cute dog toy or some dog snax.
3. It's incredibly maddening when Certain People sort of half-ass an important job, especially when you're already doing so much. I completely understand. And when you're under a lot of stress on multiple fronts, everything is so hard and awful.
4. I'd have gone with Caribou, a franchise that has disappeared here in NEO. I dislike Starbucks, which is so ubiquitous and culty and tastes burnt to me. I just get decaf with some vanilla.
5. I am so sorry about your flight. The airport--no matter which one--is not where you want to spend a whole lot of time, especially when you're irritated and feeling almost hopeless. At least you weren't at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where you are pretty much guaranteed to have your luggage lost. (Mine was lost there, twice.)
If I lived near you, I'd take care of Zelda, no problem.
I'm sorry about your mother, hoping things work out for the best. Caribou. Dunkin. Starbucks. I miss having a Caribou around here, but they all closed in SWO— and apparently from nance's comment up where she is too. I'd be happy to drink some of their coffee again. Airports are frustrating to say the least. Sorry about your flight.
ReplyDeleteI'm Canadian, so it's Tim Hortons, silly girl. 😁
ReplyDeleteOne of those notes cut out of magazine letters ransoming Blanche so she doesn't leave?-- LOL yes this one.
ReplyDeleteStarbies all the way-- half caf iced Americano with splash of nonfat milk
I am so sorry about your mom.
I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. You've posted less recently so I feared things were not going well. I'm sending you hugs from MN.
ReplyDeleteI would do the ransom note and if you feel you need to get her something, road trip snacks. Otherwise I think planning a going away party is a great parting gift! I'm sorry you are losing another friend, though. That is hard. :(
I drink SF vanilla lattes, so I prefer Starbucks because their SF vanilla syrup is the best. It's a toss-up between Caribou and Dunn Bros. Their SF vanilla tastes extremely sugarly in a terrible way so I will typically just get the full-sugar syrup.
I forgot to comment on the flight situation. That is TERRIBLE!! They should have definitely given you vouchers since it was a system-related issue and not related to weather. Stupid jerks!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all- Starbucks. But that's because I love their Earl Grey tea. If I try a different place I don't know what I'm going to get- I like to play it safe.
ReplyDeleteSecond- I can't believe Delta didn't even give you a meal voucher! That really sucks. I had a travel snafu last year where I missed a connecting flight and had to spend a night in Houston. United did pay for my hotel, since it was their fault, but it was not ideal. Like you, I as very grateful that I was traveling alone- I saw people in the same situation with small kids, and that would have been a nightmare.
Ugh. I'm so sorry about your mom situation. I've been there (I mean not your situation exactly, but similar) and it's one of the hardest things you'll ever deal with. Sending hugs, support, and all the positive vibes I can- I know it doesn't help much, but I am thinking about you.
I'm sorry about your mom, Engie.
ReplyDeleteI once had to spend a day at Orlando airport, and it wasn't fun at all.
I'm sorry about your mom.
ReplyDeleteFor your #2, I have much empathy. I told my husband that for child #4 that he needed to find someone to stay with the other kids while we went to the hospital. He's the one with friends in town, and we live next door to his colleague. We'll, 10:30 pm at night comes around, it's go time, and he has nothing. So I notice neighbors across the street are still up and make him call them to come watch the kids. Luckily, birth was fast so he was back home after a few hours. I have not trusted him with this type of responsibility since. So hopefully your pet sitting issues will work out. A pity that you have yet one more thing to deal with.
Make that #3. Sigh. One day I'll learn how to type and proofread.
DeleteOh man - we were stuck in the Seattle airport for nine hours last January. And we weren't even in the nice, new part. We were in the older part where the hallways were narrow and dark, and there weren't enough chairs so the kids and I were all sitting on the floor. And it was after 9pm so all the stores were closed.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are home safe at any rate.
I don't drink coffee, so of the choices, I would probably go to Dunkin' and get a cruller.
So sorry about your mom and about Puppy Blanche and her grown up moving away. Ugh.
Coffee only? Dunkin' if it's iced, Starbucks if it's hot. But if we're adding a food item to the mix, I'm going with Starbucks. I have yet to find anything on Dunkin's menu that truly excites me. Either way, Caribou doesn't make the cut.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm going to be stranded in an airport for an entire day, I hope it's PDX.
I've been thinking about you and the situation with your mom after everything we went through with Jon's mom recently. I am sorry to hear that things are not good. I am sending you strength and love, my friend. This is hard.
ReplyDeleteWait, wait, where in California are you going to be - if you end up going? Anywhere near me? (One - that's me! - can hope.)
OMG, I have the matching whale-wallet LOL :)
That was me :)
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