I flew up on Friday by myself. I was nervous about travel - but that's not new. I HATE to travel. I love to BE places, but I HATE HATE HATE getting there. So I left nearly an hour earlier than I truly needed to so that I could make sure that I had ample time to make it to the airport in plenty of time no matter what. I was glad that I did; it started to rain pretty hard and it was dark and I was sleepy...so it was pretty sucktastic driving to the airport. But I got there in PLENTY of time...I was already checked in, had printed out my boarding passes, and had no luggage to check so I went straight to security. Then I had plenty of time to get some appropriately nasty airport breakfast and to have a potty break. Or two. The first one was immediately upon entry to the "safe zone" inside of security, and the second was at my gate, where I was so happy to have the bathroom RIGHTTHERE. But here is the first oddity of my trip: Apparently, during these tough economic times, some of the cleaning staff at the Charlotte airport have taken to panhandling - right there in the bathroom. As I stopped to wash my hands, the woman said, "I hope you found your bathroom to be nice and clean today." And I said, "Yes. Thank you." AND THEN she launched into a speech about how she has to rely on tips in order to make minimum wage, so to please take any of her free items she had set up (mints, pieces of gum, other bathroom junk that I ignored) for free but to leave a tip. And I wanted to say, "No - they have to pay you minimum wage because you are not a restaurant server and that would be illegal, so you need to talk to someone about that if you're not making minimum wage," but I just assumed she was a big ol' money grubbing liar so I smiled, dried my hands and left. BUT GOD if I didn't feel guilty anyway. I hated that. Emotional blackmail!
So all was normal - finished my BK breakfast and loaded up on the plane...where a woman who clearly wanted to chat sat next to me. But I'm not a stranger-chatter-upper, so I just started watching my little movie on my iPod that I had to watch (my boss lent me "Dreamgirls" because he LOVES it, and I mentioned I had never seen it, so then I felt like I HAD to watch it...) but we did start to chat as we were landing. She complimented my sweater, which Ben had chosen for me.
I like it because I can wear it now (it just has one button at the top and the scarf bit) AND after Lilah is born, when my stomach doesn't flail it wide open.
ANYWAY - so off the plane I hop in Baltimore's STELLAR airport (and by stellar, I mean Shit-Tay.) and am relieved to find my gate right next to the gate I had just come out of! So I go off in search of some sort of luncheon sustenance and a potty to relieve my always full bladder. I settled for Auntie Annie's pretzel sticks with cheese dip for my lunch and made my way back to the gate to have a nibble before boarding the next flight.
WELL - I get to the gate and there are NO seats available. And I look JUST not pregnant enough for no one to really give a shit if I don't have a chair. I mean, no one offered to hoist my carryon into the overhead compartment on the last flight, so I figure I'm just on my own here. So I just cop a squat on the nasty ass airport food, position myself as comfortably as my belly allows and eat my pretzels. Luckily, the layover was short and soon it was time to board the plane. As people were boarding by their zones, I stood up to give myself plenty of time to gather my things and get down the gangway. As a man was boarding, he passed me and said, "I hope this isn't too random, but you have really great posture!"
o.O
So, I thank him, and laugh to myself, knowing my posture is only "so good" because my belly keeps me from slouching comfortably, and then my zone is called and I board the plane. Upon boarding, the flight attendant compliements my sweater and asks if the scarf is attached. I say it is and she says it's nice. I thank her and think, WOW - Ben really picked out a great sweater for me!
I get my row (seats A & C) to myself on this flight, so I just continue to watch my movie/doze. When exiting the plane, a male flight attendant I had not previously seen COMPLIMENTS MY SWEATER and then the same woman who complimented it on the way onto the plan asks me how far along I am, so I guess I didn't look completely unpregnant to her. OH! And the woman across the aisle from me, since she saw me feeling all the "I HATE FLYING" dances that were going on my belly. I mean, seriously - you could literally watch Lilah bounce from one side to the other as she told me in her own special way how she disliked whatever it was I was doing at that time. AND that lady across the aisle was the ONLY person the entire trip to offer to help me with my bags. Since I had been hoisting and pulling the damn bag all day without so much as a "do you need help" from a single flight attendant or passenger, I thanked her but assured her I was fine. And really - I wasn't expecting people to rush to help me, but I guess after Ben pointed out that I should accept help with my bags and then no one offered it I was just a little...I don't know. confused. :-)
Once off the plane, I proceeded immediately to the bathroom where I was *so* excited to find a squishy penny machine! If you don't know already, I stopped collecting t-shirts from places I traveled to because they were too bulky and I could never wear them all. I still get one occasionally if it's AWESOME, but my new souviner of choice is a squishy penny. I have one going back to like, fifth grade and it is the best ever. So now, whenever I travel, I have to make sure that I have at LEAST 51 cents so I can get a squishy penny. I even got squishy euro-pennies in Germany/Austria, so SERIOUSLY - I love them. Ben has offered to get them for me on his trips, but it's really one of those things that you have to get for yourself, so that way I can always have a story to tell about the squishy penny. Like the one I just told you! Except I did NOT get the squishy penny that day; no....I was in a hurry to make it to my first stop for the afternoon so I had to hurry to the rental car stand.
And we're going to end the story there for tonight folks, since I am EXHAUSTED ( I woke up EVERY hour from 10:30 - 3:30 to pee, and then at 3:30 I had some Braxton Hicks contractions -like two- and although they weren't "painful," they were enough to keep me awake. So I read until 6am where I finally fell back asleep until 8:00. :-p) and have to get up in time for my last childbirth class tomorrow (yay! I get my Saturdays back!) so I am headed to BED.So all was normal - finished my BK breakfast and loaded up on the plane...where a woman who clearly wanted to chat sat next to me. But I'm not a stranger-chatter-upper, so I just started watching my little movie on my iPod that I had to watch (my boss lent me "Dreamgirls" because he LOVES it, and I mentioned I had never seen it, so then I felt like I HAD to watch it...) but we did start to chat as we were landing. She complimented my sweater, which Ben had chosen for me.
I like it because I can wear it now (it just has one button at the top and the scarf bit) AND after Lilah is born, when my stomach doesn't flail it wide open.
ANYWAY - so off the plane I hop in Baltimore's STELLAR airport (and by stellar, I mean Shit-Tay.) and am relieved to find my gate right next to the gate I had just come out of! So I go off in search of some sort of luncheon sustenance and a potty to relieve my always full bladder. I settled for Auntie Annie's pretzel sticks with cheese dip for my lunch and made my way back to the gate to have a nibble before boarding the next flight.
WELL - I get to the gate and there are NO seats available. And I look JUST not pregnant enough for no one to really give a shit if I don't have a chair. I mean, no one offered to hoist my carryon into the overhead compartment on the last flight, so I figure I'm just on my own here. So I just cop a squat on the nasty ass airport food, position myself as comfortably as my belly allows and eat my pretzels. Luckily, the layover was short and soon it was time to board the plane. As people were boarding by their zones, I stood up to give myself plenty of time to gather my things and get down the gangway. As a man was boarding, he passed me and said, "I hope this isn't too random, but you have really great posture!"
o.O
So, I thank him, and laugh to myself, knowing my posture is only "so good" because my belly keeps me from slouching comfortably, and then my zone is called and I board the plane. Upon boarding, the flight attendant compliements my sweater and asks if the scarf is attached. I say it is and she says it's nice. I thank her and think, WOW - Ben really picked out a great sweater for me!
I get my row (seats A & C) to myself on this flight, so I just continue to watch my movie/doze. When exiting the plane, a male flight attendant I had not previously seen COMPLIMENTS MY SWEATER and then the same woman who complimented it on the way onto the plan asks me how far along I am, so I guess I didn't look completely unpregnant to her. OH! And the woman across the aisle from me, since she saw me feeling all the "I HATE FLYING" dances that were going on my belly. I mean, seriously - you could literally watch Lilah bounce from one side to the other as she told me in her own special way how she disliked whatever it was I was doing at that time. AND that lady across the aisle was the ONLY person the entire trip to offer to help me with my bags. Since I had been hoisting and pulling the damn bag all day without so much as a "do you need help" from a single flight attendant or passenger, I thanked her but assured her I was fine. And really - I wasn't expecting people to rush to help me, but I guess after Ben pointed out that I should accept help with my bags and then no one offered it I was just a little...I don't know. confused. :-)
Once off the plane, I proceeded immediately to the bathroom where I was *so* excited to find a squishy penny machine! If you don't know already, I stopped collecting t-shirts from places I traveled to because they were too bulky and I could never wear them all. I still get one occasionally if it's AWESOME, but my new souviner of choice is a squishy penny. I have one going back to like, fifth grade and it is the best ever. So now, whenever I travel, I have to make sure that I have at LEAST 51 cents so I can get a squishy penny. I even got squishy euro-pennies in Germany/Austria, so SERIOUSLY - I love them. Ben has offered to get them for me on his trips, but it's really one of those things that you have to get for yourself, so that way I can always have a story to tell about the squishy penny. Like the one I just told you! Except I did NOT get the squishy penny that day; no....I was in a hurry to make it to my first stop for the afternoon so I had to hurry to the rental car stand.
After loading up my car (2-door Chrysler convertible Sebring - the perfect car for a totally pregnant woman) I headed out for Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. On my previous trip, I had really enjoyed my time in the Lake Champlain chocolate store on Church Street, but was disappointed I missed out on seeing the actual factory just a mile or so away. So I planned my trip this time to get there just in time for the last factory tour of the day. But I got out of the airport earlier than expected, so I rolled up into the factory and outlet just a few short minutes before the start time of their next tour! At first, I was majorly bummed because the factory tour was really just "You sit here and look at our workers through the glass and we'll tell you what's up." BUT - then our "guide" handed us all kinds of chocolates and no one cared that we didn't get to don hairnets or any other such paraphanelia to go through the actual factory. We got champagne truffles and chunks of white, milk, 54% dark and 72% dark chocolate PLUS a peanut butter cup and a maple crunch piece of candy. YES. As we learned about the process of making chocolate and how LCC was founded, we could take pictures through the glass of the people working. So, I did!
This mural tells how the cocoa bean becomes delicious goodness.
This was our "tour guide," aka Pusher.
Just a couple of the omgyummy! confections that were there for us to enjoy!
Workers, working, making yummy chocolate things.
This lady was making hollow chocolate frogs!
They would spin around on this big crazy thing - both on it's on axis and around the drum - to make them hollow!
And I guess that was really it from that little show. After that, I spent $50.00 on chocolate for gifts and to bring back to the people I work with as their special trip sursie (plus, I bake for them every week, and a chocolate sampler would assure I didn't have to bake coming off a big trip!) and headed on down toward Middlebury to my next stop...
This mural tells how the cocoa bean becomes delicious goodness.
This was our "tour guide," aka Pusher.
Just a couple of the omgyummy! confections that were there for us to enjoy!
Workers, working, making yummy chocolate things.
This lady was making hollow chocolate frogs!
They would spin around on this big crazy thing - both on it's on axis and around the drum - to make them hollow!
And I guess that was really it from that little show. After that, I spent $50.00 on chocolate for gifts and to bring back to the people I work with as their special trip sursie (plus, I bake for them every week, and a chocolate sampler would assure I didn't have to bake coming off a big trip!) and headed on down toward Middlebury to my next stop...
I promise to finish this. It's mostly boring old text from here on out because I sometimes grow super camera shy, but I promise lots of good links to all the fun stuff I saw/did.
<3
1 comment:
Love the sweater! So cute. The trip sounds fun. Glad you got to go.
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