David's Adventure

As I type this, it has been about 14 hours since David left the house this morning and several more hours will pass before he settles in for the evening.....in CHINA! Yes, you read that correctly.....China! He is headed there for business and although he wasn't pleased about leaving Madeline and me, I am thrilled that (even though he'll be very busy with work) he'll have an opportunity to see another part of the world that we would probably not travel to on our own. What will I be doing?? Madeline and I are going to head over to visit my sister, Margaret, and her family in the Dayton, Ohio area. I will try to keep up on my blogging to tell the tales of not only Mama-Dirtyfoot but I will also try to communicate what I can of David's adventures as well.

For me and Madeline, we have nothing new to report. I pretty much kept looking at the clock all day long and was restless thinking about the fact that David was *still* on the plane. I could only imagine how he was feeling.......especially after the way his trip began!

Here is what I know so far...
David is not travelling with anyone from his own office, yet he is traveling with 2 women - one representing a government office and another representing a local college. Prior to the trip, there was female drama because the college woman chose to upgrade to business class without saying anything. As David and I discussed this last night we figured that it would've been a nice courtesy to say, "Hey, I have air miles (or whatever) and I bumping to business class. Hope you don't mind". But after the start to his trip we laughed that the college woman probably didn't say anything on purpose so the government lady didn't try to bump to business class too. Why, you ask..... Below is how David's trip started...

** David and "government lady" (aka G.L.) just happened to get to the airport at the same time and she was in line with some guy. As G.L. got to the counter, the guy leaves and wishes her luck. Come to find out, G.L. just persuaded some guy off the street to help her with her luggage.

** G.L. forgot her laptop computer. She decided that she was going to call "one of her people". When David told me this, I thought she meant another employee of the government....no, she really did mean "her people". She supposedly has gardeners, housekeepers and nannies. (Oh, and by the way, she is doing this trip as a *volunteer* to the government. (and somehow it also came out that G.L. has a 2,000 sq. ft. garage. A garage as big as a house?!?!?!)

** G.L. next summonsed a handicap cart to take her to the gate because it was one of the further ones. David was pretty sure that she could have managed the walk just fine.

** G.L. told David she was frazzled because she was traveling to China. She said, "I haven't been to all the places like *you* have been.....like Russia, Germany, etc (and named them). David didn't remember ever discussing this kind of stuff with this woman so he wondered how she knew this. She went ahead and told David that she looked through his passport when he sent it in for his Visa application to go to China. I don't know.....it's one thing to snoop, but would you have the guts to tell the person you snooped?

** David had to watch G.L.'s bags as she tried to hook up with "her people" for her laptop. In the meantime, they started boarding the plane. G.L ended up eventually getting back to the gate but "her people" got stuck in traffic so no laptop.

** G.L. goes to get on the plane but her carry on bag was too big and had to be checked in at the gate.

** Although David was going on the same trip with G.L. and "College Lady" (I'll call her Greek) he wasn't necessarily "traveling with them".....or so he thought. He ended up sitting next to G.L. from Buffalo to Newark.

David called me when he reached Newark and told me all of the above. After this fiasco, David decided to inquire at the gate about upgrading to business class for the long haul to China but unfortunately the upgrade was just too expensive. I guess "Greek" was on to something when she upgraded without saying anything. I encouraged David and told him that at least he'll be able to enjoy some quiet time on the long flight to China. WRONG! Turns out, the high-maintenance G.L. was sitting next to him on the 14 hour flight to China too. He texted me the photo above to show me his view for the next 14 hours.....living the life of a sardine, next to G.L. (notice: middle seat in middle section of seats in coach!!)

I hope things were better than expected for him...... To be continued.....