Disney Day 8: And Home

Disney Day 8: And Home
I'm going to start off with the good here. We got up, and not needing to be at the airport until 11:30 or so, had a leisurely breakfast and then packed our bags. Then we headed to the pool for one last swim. Having showered already for the day (stupid me) I didn't want to get all wet and chlorine-y so I didn't swim. I did still enjoy the warm sun, putting my legs in and watching my boys enjoy the water. And I'm holding onto THAT memory as the memory that I will cherish for that day.
Because from that point on, the rest of the day went downhill.
We arrived at the airport rather early. We really could have spent another half hour at least at the pool, but oh well. We were so early that they weren't even checking people in yet! However, we weren't the first people in line. We were second. At one point, a helpful airport employee offered the Nan a wheelchair to sit on while we waited, and that was our undoing, I think. From then on, she became absolutely UNBEARABLE!! She started whining to me how she wanted me to tell the check-in guy that she wanted an aisle seat, even though she knew, and we reminded her, that we already had prebooked our seats. She said, "I don't care, I want an aisle seat!", just like a three year old.
Then we had time to kill. Over two hours actually. She demanded lunch. So despite the fact that none of the rest of us was ready for that and we could have waited and my boys were dying to go to the Universal Studios store as we had promised them, we went to the food court for some over-priced food. Then DH told her to stay seated, that if she gave him the money (I'm happy he made that a point!) he would go get what she wanted. So she basically yelled at him that she wanted a BLT from Quiznos and and shouted that it MUST be brown bread, with this attitude that DH was giving her some kind of hassle over it, which he wasn't. He was merely asking what she wanted. When he said "alright, calm down" she started ranting at him that she had to have brown bread, not white, because she'd been having white ALL week and she hates white!
WHAT? !
She had a couple of white bagels, and I bought those. No one told her to eat OUR food! She could easily have picked up her own brown bagels when she shopped for her stupid slippers. I normally have brown everything too, but R likes these everything bagels, which at home we get in white but with whole grains (does that make sense? The new style of "white" bread). We couldn't find those in Florida, just everything bagels that were white. But oh well, we were on vacation. We did buy WW pasta and WW bread too. We also bought cinnamon raisin bread which was also white, but again, no one shoved that down her throat! (Although that did make for a nice fantasy)
Anyhow, at that point DH's patience ran out. He started to yell back at her, telling her it's not his fault, regardless that it wasn't true! Then she yelled at him not to yell at her, and then....well, you get the picture. She stormed off to buy her own food (well look at that, her legs DO still work!) and the boys started crying. They'd never really seen DH yell at anyone other than me. I tried to calm the situation by explaining that everyone has fights, just like they do, but it doesn't mean anything bad. It was just too intense for them I guess.
After lunch, we headed for the shopping area, which has stores from all the theme parks like Sea World, Universal, The Space Centre, and of course, Disney. The boys each bought a wand from the Harry Potter section. L got Dumedore's and R got Voldemort's. We went over to the Disney store to look at the pins, and I found the tshirts I had wanted to get them in Disney but didn't have their size at the time.
After that, it was wait, wait, wait. One thing about having a person in a wheelchair: you don't have to wait in long line ups. We noticed this at Disney too. So we pretty much by-passed the whole huge line up at security and went through the side wheelchair access.
Thankfully on the plane, we were separated from HER and we had a pleasant flight. L passed out for about an hour almost as soon as we took off.
After we landed, and as we were passing her still sitting there on the plane, she said she'd meet us down there. Whatever. I guess she was waiting for assistance. Not that she really needed it, I mean for gods sake, she walked around all of Disney for three days straight! I'm sure she could manage to walk through the ramp to customs. So we went ahead and got through customs and waited at the luggage carousel. And waited.
And waited.
And all our luggage came and we still waited.
And every single other passenger from that plane got off and came through customs and got their luggage and we still waited.
And the carousel was emptied and filling up with a different airplane's luggage and we still waited.
DH couldn't go back through customs to find her, so we were stuck waiting. We had her suitcase too. DH went to get some sort of employee to find her, and I phoned my poor dad who was waiting to pick us up.
Finally, she was found. When I asked what happened, I was FUMING!! I expected that she had gotten lost, or for some reason they had pulled her aside for a pat-down or strip-search (ok I secretly hoped that was the reason, I'm bad). But the real reason we had been waiting for so long??
Get this, and please excuse the swearing but it's warranted.
SHE WOULDN'T GET OFF HER FUCKING ASS AND MOVE HERSELF TO FIND US!!
Apparently, they wheeled her off the plane, along with a few others, and parked them off to the side. All she had to do was get up and go through customs on her own two feet! It was right there!! But instead, she sat there, waiting for someone to come get her and keeping us waiting too!!
O
M
G
!!!
I was so angry. I still am a bit. Even the boys were angry. They just wanted to go home. By the time she was finally wheeled through, R said to me he didn't even feel like saying goodbye or thanking her, even though he knew he should.
I tell you, when we finally walked out, I have never been so glad to see my MIL in my whole life. I don't know how she stands living with her!
The Nan wanted hugs from the boys of course, and typical of R, who has never been much of a hugger on the best of terms, he didn't really give her one. It was sort of a sideways lean-in, barely touching sort of hug. Of course she got all offended and DH made it worse by telling her that he didn't want her cold. She of course denied having a cold, saying it was an allergy in to something in Florida. Whatever lady, you've only been coughing all over everything (ever heard of covering your mouth?) and sneezing and blowing your nose for the past week. She even said earlier in the week that she had a cold.
Anyway, that wasn't the true reason R wouldn't hug her, it was because he was annoyed with her. And it bothers her that I've never pushed my kids to give hugs and kisses to others when it's expected. I try to encourage them to, but I won't force it. I just don't believe in it. You should give affection if you feel it, not because it's expected.
So we parted on unhappy terms. She left not saying goodbye, and that's that. Childish.
The other person I was so happy to see shortly after was my dad! He felt like my savior! He showed up with our truck, complete with full gastank, two Timmies, and Timbits and drinks for the boys. What a fantastic welcome home!!

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