a tale of two airports
my mom has a friend. a male friend. a boyfriend, of sorts. it’s hard for me to contemplate that, i admit. when dad died of cancer, mom, who was much younger, realized quite suddenly (some would counter with “before she even knew she realized…”) that she was not one for being alone. i of course held firm to my little-girl ideas that mommy should always love daddy because she had my whole life so why not continue that way and no one could ever take his place in my heart so how could someone possibly in mom’s?
but i digress….
mom has a boyfriend, and he lives in another state. the problem with this (besides the obvious) is that when he flies down to see her, he flies out of a hub that is served primarily by Southwest Airlines. our lovely city has two major airports; the smaller of which is primarily served by Southwest Airlines. you know where this is going already, don’t you?
so said boyfriend relied on his adult daughter to get him to the airport, and further, on the right plane (no doubt also relying on her to plan the trip and buy the ticket). mom, for her part, told me nothing of the plan other than to say the boyfriend was arriving “this weekend.” presumebly because after the enormous loss of dad in her life she attemps, in her own yes-i-can-do-this-on-my-own-but-dammit-you’d-better-recognize-every-accomplishment way to be independent. she only alluded to the fact that she would be going to the airport to pick him up by mentioning in passing that she hoped she could remember how to get there.
so imagine my attempts to not laugh myself off of my chair at work when i opened up my email and discovered this tale… this comedy of tragedy…
I was talking to God on the way to Bush Airport just saying, Gosh I wish I could surprise [boyfriend] and meet him at the front instead of Allright Parking. I got to the parking lot about 20 minutes early and decided to ask those folks how much it would cost to take me up to the terminal. They asked, what flight is he on and when I told them Southwest they said that Southwest lands at the Hobby Airport! Tada! Panic struck instantly. I asked if they were sure because my fiance’ would be here in 20 minutes and I get lost so easy. Nope, no mistake! They could see that I was in shock and said that it was only 20 to 30 minutes away. The man drew me a map and all the while I’m thinking they must be wrong. What if I get lost out there and [boyfriend] is waiting for me here. Well, I set out for the freeway a nervous wreak… One minute I’m so pleased with myself ’cause I found Allright Parking so easily and the next I’m headed right for HOUSTON and the traffic turned into a nightmare. I tried to call [boyfriend], but no answer. He finally calls right when I’m trying to find the turn off to Galveston not knowing which side of the freeway I’m supposed to be on. So I says to [boyfriend], Do you know where the hell you are! He says, “Well yes I think so, why do you ask? I’m just standing here looking stupid like everyone else waiting for my luggage.” I said, “Ask someone where you are.” So he did then he says, “Oh Honey, I’m at the Hobby Lobby Airport!!!!” Then someone corrected him and said, No, not the Hobby Lobby, the Hobby! Of course I’m a complete mess by then and trying to get in the right lane with a bunch of Houston S.O.B.’s determined to keep me from reaching my goal. I finally had to cut right in front of this asshole and he almost hit me! Then I says to [boyfriend], How in the hell did you end up at another airport without anyone knowing it? He said, “Well I don’t know, I just got on the plane that my daughter told me to.” Thank God [boyfriend] found a security guy that guided me thru [boyfriend] on how to get there and thank God again it was a much smaller airport and I could drive right up to passenger pickup… I finally got up there and the guy motioned for me to pull right over to the curb… [boyfriend] jumped in the car and we hugged and kissed and cried like babies. So you see, the moral of this story is… God has a warped sense of humor! But my prayer was answered, I got to pick him up in the front of the terminal.
TweetTags: boyfriend, family, girlfriend, planes, trains, travel
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 3:45 PM • relatively speaking • RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.