After a week of spreading disease in Florida, we were ready to go home. But wait! We still had to go to Connecticut for 4 days! My Dad, Step-Mom, a sister and a brother live in CT. I told you I have a big family! My Dad’s birthday is New Year’s Eve, so every year my family unit and I spend it with him. My husband drove 7 hours to meet us there. This year was special because one of my sisters, her husband, and new baby, would be there as well! They flew to CT (from FL) the day before us, no problems, and smooth flight.
Our flight to White Plains, NY, was scheduled for 11:00 am. We checked online and everything was a go; but when we arrived at the airport, this was not so. Our flight was delayed an hour, which bumped us off our connecting flight in Philadelphia. There was a later flight out of Philadelphia, so we would get to White Plains at 4:30 pm instead of 2:00 pm– no problem! I called my Mom to let her know what was going on, and she informed me that one of my sisters in Florida was now vomiting. Good thing she didn’t get a new outfit for that party she wouldn’t be going to on New Year’s Eve.
At 4:00 pm, instead of boarding us, they canceled our flight. In fact, they canceled all flights going to White Plains for the rest of the night due to trafficking problems! I was stuck in Philadelphia on New Years Eve with my children. As I waited in line to speak with the attendant, I ran through my options. My best bet was to rent a car and get to my Dad’s by 11:00 pm. Just as I was starting to panic, the attendant announced that a flight was leaving immediately for New Haven, CT! “Can they take all 3 of us?” I yelled from the back of the line. And off we ran to catch the plane to New Haven! It was a small plane, only 18 seats. As we ran across the tarmac, I called my husband to tell him what was going on. “Someone needs to pick us up in New Haven – and they need to leave now!!!”, “Where?”, “NEW HAVEN, CT!”, “What?” We went back and forth like this until I was on the plane because the propellers were so loud, plus my Dad has bad cell reception in his house. “NEW HAVEN, CT!!!”, “There’s no airport in New Haven, CT!” I looked around the plane at the other passengers. They were all glaring at me for holding up their flight, and also probably because I was yelling into my cell phone. I had become that obnoxious person. “Is this flight flying into New Haven, CT?”. Everyone nodded. The flight attendant approached me and told me to turn off my phone. “I’m so sorry, I need a few more seconds – what is the flight number?”. “I don’t know.”. “What’s the airport code for New Haven?”. “I don’t know.”. Really? REALLY??? I returned to my call, “I’ve confirmed that there is an airport in New Haven, and this plane is flying there, but I don’t know what the airport code is, or for that matter, where exactly the airport is. Gotta go!” I figured, worse comes to worse, we could take a cab. We landed in New Haven an hour and a half later, and I finally understood why my husband said there is no airport in New Haven. It was a private airport no bigger than my living room. Miraculously, my husband pulled up just as we stepped outside.
We arrived at my Dad’s house by 7:30 pm, a half an hour before the party started! The party was a lot of fun and we stayed up until 1:30 AM. The next day, we hung around the house in our pajamas all day. Everyone was relaxed, doing his or her own thing. My Step-Mom is a great cook, and she made us calzone’s from scratch. At around 5:30 pm, I started to feel really bloated and the acid indigestion was all the way up my esophagus. By 7:30 pm, I was pucking my guts out. Maybe from the 2 drinks I had the night before? I continued to puke, every half hour, until 5:00 AM. Definitely not the drinks. I had brought the sickness from Florida! I quarantined myself in my brother Jake’s room, requesting only water, ginger ale, Lysol, and an air purifier – I already figured out it was an airborne virus. My sister (with the new baby) called me on my cell phone (from downstairs) to yell at me, “You didn’t infect us in Florida, so you had to bring it to CT?!?!”. I felt so bad, and not just physically. I took over my brother’s room, my sister’s bathroom, and my husband & son had to sleep on the couch in the family room. I spent the next 24 hours violently dry-heaving, fading in and out of consciousness. I missed our gift exchange, a trip to the train museum, sledding & building a snowman.
When I woke up Sunday morning, my husband informed me that there was a huge snowstorm coming and we had to leave NOW. We woke the kids, packed furiously, and we were out the door in an hour. We got about 15 min away before my husband realized he forgot his cell phone. We went back, retrieved it (along with various other things we had unintentionally left behind) and we were back on the road. The temp outside was in the 20’s, so the roads were icy, and it was windy. My poor husband had to drive the whole way home because I was too weak from lack of nutrients (all I’d eaten was a piece of toast). His shoulders were up to his ears with stress. To make matters worse, the last hour of the drive turned into 3 hours because the blizzard was so blinding, we were forced to drive 30 mph. I called my Dad’s house to let them know we were still alive, only to find out that my Step-Mom had caught the vomiting virus (and my brother got it the day after).
FINALLY, we were home, glorious home! But wait, our bad luck streak was not over yet. It was 38 degrees in our house. Apparently, something was stuck in the furnace tubing, and the furnace shut itself off so the house wouldn’t catch fire. And the flue of our fireplace was broken, so all the heat in the house went out the chimney, literally. I’m still confused why our pipes didn’t burst – everything else in our lives did. 24 hours, and $400 later, we had heat and a fixed flue. I almost forgot to mention – half of our fridge was covered in ice due to a busted coil. Another 24 hours, and $570 later, we had a working fridge.
Moral of the story – don’t travel over the holidays.
By Tara Bazilian-Chang, Community Manager for Raising Boys World
