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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Moving is crazy enough without a stupid strike!

It's been a crazy week around here.

I think I have had more to drink this past week than I have all year. We had drinks with friends on Wednesday, drinks with Wes' colleagues on Friday, then we travelled to Cork where my mother in law had planned our 'American wake' for Sunday. What's an American wake you ask?? Well, back in the day when people would emigrate by boat they would plan a party with food, dancing, music, and of course drink. They'd basically party until it was time for the boat to leave, then they'd put the person on the boat drunk as a skunk. Fortunately, ours was much more tame. It was a bbq at a nice restaurant with views over the ocean. We were home by 8pm. We got back to Dublin and it was more drinks with more friends. Wes said it feels like our American wake has lasted a whole week! 

It's been pretty smooth sailing all along with drinking and laughing and drinking. Cue Aer Lingus to muck it all up.

Rumblings that the pilots were considering a strike started on Wednesday. If they did strike it would affect flights starting on Tuesday. We were scheduled to leave on Tuesday. We didn't think much of it, airlines say this all the time. Thursday passed with no resolution. Friday passed with no resolution and they started offering people with flights on Tuesday and Wednesday to change their flight for free. Saturday morning comes with no resolution. This is when I start freaking out. We have people picking us up at the airport (which is not right around the corner), we have movers coming on Friday, and everything in our apartment is getting cancelled on Tuesday. We had to take the cat to the vet and when we told her when we were going and even she used an expletive, so I'm glad she could confirm my freak out. Plus, this prompted my husband to take my freak out a little more seriously!

The cat has made everything a little more difficult. I couldn't just change our flights online. I had to call to make sure there was room for the cat on the new flight. After an hour and two phone calls I'm still not sure it's all sorted. There's room on the flight and we're supposed to just show up with her at the airport on Monday. I even called back a second time for peace of mind and ended up getting the exact same guy. What are the odds?? So, I just have to take his word for it.

Since we're going on Monday evening, this means we're staying in a hotel until my sister and BIL can pick us up on Tuesday at midday. We found a pet friendly place close to the airport, but now I have to worry about cat litter. I'm packing a litter box in our stuff. Can you even take cat litter in your luggage? Do I even want to waste space on cat litter? Not one bit. Hopefully we can get a taxi to take us to the closest Target/Wal-Mart/grocery store.

I'm doing the final load of laundry and I'll be spending tomorrow sitting in front of it with a hair dryer thinking about cat litter. It's a great way to spend your last day in Ireland!

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for nothing, Aer Lingus! I hope your clothes get dry in time for your trip. You will be missed.

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  2. Just wanted to send lots of good moving vibes. I know how crazy it can be. Really looking forward to seeing both of you when you get down to Bmore. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help on my end and let me know your phone number when you get here!

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  3. Don't worry about doing all your laundry in Ireland! You can use machines in the US (and your clothes will come out cleaner). I hope the flights go smoothly and you get to the US with no problems. And the kitty too! Best wishes.

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  4. Thanks everyone. The dehumidifier has done it's job and everything is almost dry! I found the closest Target to the airport so we'll be having the taxi driver take us there before we go to the hotel. How appropriate that our first stop in the US is Target! :)

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  5. keeping fingers crossed everything works out! GOOD LUCK!!!!

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  6. I am sure everything will work out, it usually does :) hope you have a good journey back and I hope you'll blog about what it's like moving back!

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  7. you can probably resort to newspaper for the litterbox for one day if you have to. just a thought, but Target will have it if you make it there. Good luck with the move!!!

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  8. Good Luck and remember to breathe ;-)
    I love you are going to Target first by taxi non the less!
    Good Luck

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  9. Hey Kim - you need to set up your reply-to email so I can reply to your comment on my blog. My blog is anonymous, so none of my family or real life friends read it. I've thought about telling some family members a few months ago, but now I'm glad I haven't. :)

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