9:44 a.m. - June 09, 2006
It Was One Year Ago Today!
Cue the wayback machine.
It�s early March of 2005, and we�re settling into this here town. Liz is getting into the swing of things as a single mom, and I�m really into the short to non-existent commute.
Katie was adjusting well to being out of day care and spending time at home. We had just started her in dance class and after a rocky start she was getting into it. In fact, we were all getting comfortable with how things were all going.
We knew that we wanted to have a second child, and thought that after we got settled in Crawfordsville for a while we�d go back to the attorney to put our name back on the list to start the process to adopt a second child. Certainly, it wouldn�t be as quick of a process as it was with Katie, would it?
So it was also time to plan a vacation.
In 2004, it was my turn to plan a vacation. Now, I�m a driver. I want to SEE the countryside, see the people, places and things. That�s a big part of a vacation. Liz, though, wants to get somewhere and stay for a few days at least.
So how do we reconcile these two vacation theories? Well, in 2004, I did. We flew to Wichita, dropped Katie off at Snow White�s house, rented a convertible and drove to Durango, Colorado. We stayed a few days there and drove back. It worked!
This was Liz�s turn to choose, so 2005 would be our New York City experience. We were going to see a show, visit museums, and enjoy New York for a long weekend.
So I got cooking. I found acceptable dates in June that we all could go � and I went online. I snagged some good tickets for Spamalot (before it was ALL the rage), found an excellent package deal of air fare with a hotel not that far from the theatre. If I remember, I had this all locked down on a Wednesday through the internet.
I decided to take the next Friday off to do some spring cleaning and what not. But we were all excited that the two of us were going to New York City. Katie was excited too, because she was going to spend some time up with her cousins, and I think that means she could get into some new and different trouble. So all was good.
I had been to New York City a few times before. They are all business related trips, but they all were fun.
My first trip into the city, it was a product launch for a software company that my company did the documentation and printing for, and I was the inside rep for that company.
For a great introduction to the city, the cabbie actually did nudge someone in the bumper driving from LaGuardia to our hotel.
That time was spent attending the launch and the party, going clubbing and going to a Yankees game. Taking the subway at night after a Yankees game was interesting. Walking six blocks to this club after the cabbie dropped us in the wrong address was interesting as well. Well, not for the walking. Because I was wearing white pants, (they were painters pants, and yes they were big for a while in the 80s, at least in Indiana, where we are slow yet friendly folks) and we walked right by this club where the outside was laden with leather clad biker dudes. They didn�t look like the fighters, either. A couple did look like ringers for the Village Person.
Yeah, and me in my white pants. Hoo-boy.
That trip was also memorable because I locked myself out of my room, clad only in my boxers, while I was trying to get the newspaper, and I pleaded with a maid to let me in.
The other trips I took to the city were less memorable. I took a few trips into Manhattan and had fun walking the city blocks and seeing the changing neighborhoods, and marveling at the food in Chinatown.
The last trip was actually to Brooklyn, when I worked for a catalog company. This was probably my most interesting trip, because I had a chance to bum around and really check out the neighborhood I stayed in. So I had an authentic coke and a slice at a pizza joint. I had a few real beers at an Irish pub, and I cruised interesting boutiques and bookstores.
The funny thing was that it was a Comfort Inn, in Brooklyn! One of those things is not like the other (actually, the chain bought an existent hotel, so it didn�t have a normal Comfort Inn footprint).
So I was looking forward to getting back to New York.
About 10:30 that Friday, the phone rang and it was our adoption attorney. We had trouble in connecting with the birth mother to send her the updates for a while as the mail kept getting lost from the attorney to her place (we use the attorney as a pass through since it�s a closed adoption).
So we thought it was that again.
Uh, no.
The birth mother was pregnant again, and wanted us to adopt the new baby.
Hell, yeah!
The due date? The first week of June.
Hell, yeah! Oh�.
We had tickets bought. The airline tickets, of course, had a fee to change. The show tickets expressly said they couldn�t be exchanged. So, well, what to do?
We obviously couldn�t go to New York in mid June. No way, no how.
So, let�s move it to May, I said. Let�s make it a Mother�s Day present for you!
OK.
First, I got on the phone to the online travel agent, and explained my plight. They were very helpful (props to Expedia) and worked with me as best they could. They changed the airline tickets (for a fee to the airline), got the hotel changed (with a higher deposit, since the rate changed near Mother�s Day since that was a popular time) and worked everything else out. So we were going to pay more, sure, but we�d still be able to go.
Then I called the ticket agency and explained my plight. They were helpful, and said that I could return the tickets for a refund, and they found other tickets to the show. Instead of a Friday show, it was Thursday, and the tickets weren�t as good. But we were still there.
Instead of flying in and being leisurely on Thursday, we�d fly in, get ready and go to the show and be more leisurely on Friday. It�d work out.
Then about a month later, we got an email from the birth mother (by this time, we had exchanged emails, etc. since Liz was going to be IN the delivery room) and well, guess what.
The doctor said that she was going to move up the due date to mid-May from mid-June.
Ooops.
There was no way we could go now. Goodbye city lights.
Called Expedia, cancelled everything. We lost the hotel deposit, and the airline was not friendly. The Expedia rep was as helpful as she could be, and gave us another number to call the airline.
Hah, that worked. I gave them the whole freakin� story. Well, they gave me a $100 credit that of this writing has already expired. Nice, thanks. Like I decided to get up and fly on a daily basis. Yeesh.
There was no way I could get a refund for these theatre tickets, so they told me to hold onto them and perhaps the next time in the city the box office would exchange them if there were seats available. Well, that�s a nice thought, but it was going to be a while now.
So we had no vacation plans for 2005.
Did we care? No, not really. Yeah, New York would have been fun, but we were going to get another baby.
And so, the waiting game began.
As you know if you read, Kristin was a stubborn baby. Instead of May, she held out to the bitter end.
And today, June 9, she turns ONE year old.
Holy cow! It�s hard to believe.
Tomorrow, we are having the requisite party with the requisite cake and good fun and good times, but today, I just wanted to remember what it was like last year when we thought we were going to see Spamalot, but wound up seeing our second child!
++++
PS � Don�t get mad, my readers in New York. I wasn�t really writing much back when we were planning to go, but the next time I step foot in the city, I�m coming to see all of you to pay homage. So you are warned. (And if I missed anyone, I�m sorry!)
