Mars and Venus Take A Trip

Whew - I can finally breathe. The past couple weeks have been somewhat hectic to put it mildly.

Where do I start?!

I'll start with our trip.

So, the weekend before this last was my cousin's wedding in NY. We flew there on a Thursday and came back last Monday.

Talk about needing a vacation from a vacation:

As I'm writing this, I realize how long this post is going to be. So, I am going to break it up into a few different posts as I'm sure you have better things to do than spend 2 hours reading about me let alone our trip.

Here it goes:

PART ONE: Lightening the Load

9 bags, my mom in a wheelchair, our 1 1/2 year old daughter, a stroller, my dad, my husband, yours truly, and two 5 hr. flights to and from NY with our daughter on our laps.

Need I say anymore....probably not. But the blabbermouth that I am, I will.

We had been looking forward to this trip for awhile. Indian weddings are a blast. This time being a guest rather than the bride and groom at a wedding with all my cousins, aunts and uncles and other relatives, my husband and I would be able to sit back and enjoy ourselves. Ha. Even the little voice inside my head warned me - every time I think I'm going to have fun, it's usually not, and visa-versa. Why I suppose for all the cynics out there, seeing the glass half-empty makes for a surprisingly good life.

We actually left on time (man's time...3 HOURS before the actual flight). Besides having to quickly shoot down comments from the peanut gallery regarding the size of my mom and I's suitcases, the drive to the airport was unusually calm - right - the calm before the storm. Which is a wonder since both my husband and father are complete maniacs scheduled, timely, and efficient when it comes to travel. Which BTW the sizes of the suitcases were the sizes they were cuz my dad cleverly attempted to scare my mom and I into carrying LESS stuff: He claimed that the airlines' new policy was that we could only check in ONE bag per person. (he really did think - wish - it was - but not true). Which leads me to my next point...and a sign of things to come.

Because, according to my dad, I "could only check in one bag" (not true), my suitcase (which in my defense was also carrying my daughters stuff), was 15 lbs. over (o.k. - I might have over packed a bit). There I am, on the sidewalk, suitcase open, with 20 pairs of passengers' eyes behind us burning a hole into the back of my t-shirt, looking for an efficient 15 lbs. to unload. Taking out my cosmetic bag (BTW, a free Similac diaper bag that not only acted as a perfectly sized cosmetic bag, but also normally doubles as a purse - thanks Similac) did the trick. As I'm ready to check it in as the 2ND PIECE OF ALLOWABLE LUGGAGE, my husband says "no" we don't have time, because at that point we only have TWO AND A HALF hours before the flight, we'll just CARRY IT ON - that's right - CARRY ON A DIAPER BAG FULL OF LIQUIDS. In the mad frenzy, at 6 in the morning, my rationale was to just follow his lead. That's always a great idea. (I hope the sarcasm translated successfully).

Stay tuned for what happens at the security checkpoint with our bag of liquids and upcoming scenes: The Circus Act on the Plane, Baby Fever (not the kind that makes you want to have more babies), Me: the Float at a Parade, and finally The Payoff.