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August 31, 2004
Where to go, where to go?
Oh, I know, how about Prague? I bet you say that all the time. The base has a quasi-travel agency that puts together really cool trips and the next one is a trip to Prague over Thanksgiving weekend. While Prague wasn't initially on my list of sites to see before I die, it has come to my attention that it is just gorgeous. We will be there for four days. There is an organized walking tour on the first day and after that, we are on our own. I plan to hit some historical sites and buy some of their wonderful crystal that the Czech Republic is famous for. There are also day trips through local tour guides that are generally the best way to quickly see a place. I have to do a bit of research though because I have to admit that geography and history were not my favorite subjects. I wonder if you could get to Budapest within a day trip?
Here are some links if you want to help me figure it out:
Hotel that where we will stay: Bishops House
Prague Guide
Posted by DebC at 08:41 AM | Comments (2)
August 26, 2004
The pictures, as promised
All EIGHT pages of them, hahahahahahha. I was relieved to find that almost half my pictures were either duplicates or bad shots because I started out with nearly 80! There are gaps in my pictures - I have no pictures of any of the actual traveling part, no pictures of the 2.5 days we spent in Danville with Steve's brother and very few pictures of Kim's family.
When you open these links, you will see a page that has nine photos on it. There are several pages of these (three in Kim's album and five in mine). If you click on the very first picture, you will be able to see them in sequence from start to finish without worrying if you missed a page. Also, at the bottom of each picture (when you click on it) is a place to make a comment if you want to.
Feel free to save the pictures to your computer or to print them. There is also an option at the top of the album to order a professional print through an internet service called "Shutterfly".
For those of you that were wondering how it was traveling back, we had very little problem. We got to Norfolk without any difficulty at all. Until we tried to get our luggage. We supposedly had about nine hours in Norfolk before we caught the military flight back to Sicily. We got Jake and Eli's suitcase but mine was nowhere to be found. When I asked the baggage clerk where it was, he said, oh so casually, "oh, it didn't make this flight, it will be on a flight later today". Ex-squeeze me?!!
I have to confess that I yelled at the guy "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I AM LEAVING THE COUNTRY TODAY!!!!". At which point he informs me that the military flight has been rescheduled for tomorrow. AGGGGHHHHHHH! Isn't it lovely that this civilian guy knows this much about military goings on? He knew it because they LOST SOMEONE ELSE'S BAGGAGE TOO!!! Oh, sorry, yelling again. We checked with the Military Air Terminal and verify that, yep, we are sleeping in Norfolk again courtesy of Hurricane Charley. This time however, I took a taxi straight to the hotel. No more floor sleeping for us. The airline delivered the bag to the hotel at 11:30pm that night. Even despite this problem, American Airlines gets a gold star from me for excellence in customer service. They bent over backwards to get my flights changed four times altogether and only charged me once. Of course it helped that I had seen that stupid reality show called "Airline" and knew the level of rudeness they deal with on a daily basis. Rude people suck.
We checked into the terminal five minutes prior to showtime, all confident like. "Oh we have filled that flight already". I really feel for these people, they must have valium sprayed into their cubicle to deal with the sleep deprived, anxious and loudly ranting people on the other side of the desk. She told me "there was only eight seats anyway". Well there are only FOUR of us, gee whiz. They do things completely opposite from the MAC terminal in Sicily. In Sicily, it matters not whether you arrived one minute prior to show time or one day. However, in Norfolk, flights are filled up throughout the day. You snooze, you lose.
We found out that there were 100 seats available on the next flight, 10 hours later. The ultimate bonus was that it was the military's version of a commercial airline. Complete with meals, hot towels (oh, those are divine) and REAL flight attendants. It is amazing how fast you bond with people in a crisis setting. There were many people there waiting that had come over with us, including a bunch of kids. They played hard all day and thus were very tired for the flight. Seth slept the ENTIRE way on both flights. Which is good because I told our seatmates prior to take off that he would go to sleep. It is a beautiful thing when you are proven right. I got a ton of knitting done. When we got back I found that my van had not been towed and was not dead and neither were our dog and plants that I left in the care of my ten year old neighbor (his mom supervised of course). And I must say, as great as it was to see everyone, it is always grand to get back to your own bed and your own shower.
Posted by DebC at 02:27 PM | Comments (4)
August 25, 2004
A question for you readers
I feel the exact same way about Giant City, Kim. Two days in a row, we decided to "just stay one more day". It is gorgeous and could not be more convenient (oh yes, and CHEAP). It will definitely be our place to stay when we visit down there.
I was thinking this morning (look out, that is scary) that I would like to reinstitute the family trip to Daytona/Deltona each year. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of these trips. I have been geographically separated from family for so long that my children barely even know my family. That is a real shame. Seeing family this past vacation was great fun for the boys. They love their cousins to pieces.
It wouldn't have to be Daytona - it could alternate or it could be some place altogether different. Someone could coordinate or pick a spot each year and anyone that is able, could join in.
What do you guys think about this? It wouldn't have to be strictly family (which is why I am posting this on my blog for my friends to see as well). We would try to have a six month or more lead time in order to save up money and also to hold a big block of rooms (see, that is positive thinking for ya).
One more thing. I swear on a stack of carefully folded laundry that I will put up the pictures tonight!
Posted by DebC at 07:46 AM | Comments (2)
August 22, 2004
Wahh, I don't feel like blogging
Taking a couple of weeks off of the internet has positively WRECKED my urge to update this blog. Don't worry (or maybe you should), I will recover. I promised to recap the rest of the trip (also post the 80-some pictures) and I will, but first I have some good news to tell.
I AM GETTING PROMOTED!!! I have been so ambivalent about this, but dagnabit, it feels good to get recognition. I learned about it on Friday, while I was still on leave, so Monday is going to be quite an interesting day between the public announcement by our Commanding Officer and my returning from a very long three week vacation. I will also be excited to see who else made it as it is everyone who became a nurse at the same time I did. One hard thing will be finding out who did not make it, there were a bunch of people who were up for it but the selection rate is not usually more than 75%. Necessary, but still painful.
I have no idea when I have to give them my answer but I do know that I won't be putting on the rank of Lieutenant Commander (O-4 for you other service branch types) for up to nine months or so. They (Congress) only allows a few of the group to put it on each month all the way up to next August! I am hoping that will be when I can give my answer so that the election will be decided (pray for those chads) and I can have a better grip on my crystal ball.
The ONLY negative I can see in taking on the next rank will be the possibility of being deployed to some sandy or jungley place where tiny, sharp objects fly at you at incredible speeds. So far, I have been able to choose duty stations that are "forward deployed", which means that the personnel don't normally deploy (most overseas locations and recruiting). I was in Guam and then recruiting and then Sicily. My only choice for a future duty station will be Great Lakes in Northern Illinois due to family considerations. Very, very deployable.
I wish the decision would be easy but unfortunately there is no possible way to pick the right answer logically. I am probably going to go with the rationale that one more duty station will allow me to save a chunk of money to start my business and allow us to get our feet on the ground after being overseas for so long. Hell, what's three more years after already doing 22 (in Nov 2005)?!!!
Posted by DebC at 09:06 AM | Comments (5)
August 18, 2004
We eventually did make it believe it or not!
But it wasn't without visiting the third ring of Dante's Hell. We managed to catch a flight out of Sicily on Tuesday (we started trying on Sunday) but on the way discovered that we would have to spend the night in Spain. Just as we were landing, the pilot told us, over the intercom, that we may be taking off in a few hours (way ahead of schedule) due to the tropical storm over the gulf coast. This info coupled with a few horror stories of people who were unexpectedly left behind, made me decide to sleep in the terminal. About half the other passengers were able to get hotel rooms, the rest of us pulled chairs together and got "comfy". The boys and I discovered that no one knew about the nursery, so we actually slept on kid sized cots and crib mattresses. It was not good, especially when everyone else showed up the next morning freshly showered.
About an hour before the scheduled flight, fourteen people were bumped off the flight - fortunately it wasn't us, but the anxiety around the terminal skyrocketed. After 26 hours of traveling, we finally made it onto the flight. The plane is one of the largest in use, a C-5. They can transport tanks inside of it. While there are passenger seats (that are added as space is available), there are no other similarities to commercial airlines. You have to wear earplugs because it is so loud you can barely hear yourself think. Of course, we could still hear my seven year old across the aisle. Seth thought the earplugs made a reasonable replacement for chewing gum - look ma, no sugar".
We arrived in Norfolk thirty minutes prior to my commercial flight that I had already rescheduled once. One hotel room later, we were eating our first American food in nearly two years ... pizza. I kid you not, it was FABOO! Italian pizza has very, very little sauce and only one kind of cheese (usually). It is very simple and very good. American pizza is a study in excess. And it is excessively good.
We got up at 4:00 in the morning to catch our flight because we had to rework the tickets. We were the first ones in line with plenty of time to spare. Except the computers were not working. The people in line being routed through Boston, which was the first flight out, were starting to hop from foot to foot. They finally got us out of there with 20 minutes left to get through security and board the plane. Did I mention how much I hate running through an airport with three tired kids? Oh and did I also mention that my backpack weighed 13 pounds and my two year old (who suddenly developed a leg condition and could not walk) weighed 30 pounds? And that ALL of us were selected at the security line as suspected terrorists? And that two years ago I had confiscated a mock leatherman from Eli and hidden it in my backpack?
We made it just as they called for boarding, with great relief. One of my very favorite feelings is the one where you settle your butt safely in the seat prior to take off. All is well and you are on your way! Before I forget, what is the deal with airlines not serving food anymore? They don't even have tasty snacks like they used to - pretzels only get you so far. We were starving by the time we hit Boston and made it a mission to get food and coffee on our one-hour layover. I would give anything to turn back time and erase this next part. I apologize in advance because it is disturbing.
We ran for for a coffee shop and loaded up on croissants, juice, fruit and a huge cup of coffee. We put the food on a teeny tiny table and I turned to get cream and sugar for my coffee. I was a couple of steps away when I heard Jake say "Mom, he has your coffee".
I turned and as I did, Seth realized the cup was too hot to hold. He dropped it and as it hit the table, the lid flew off. It poured down his leg and he immediately screamed that it was hot. I ripped off his shorts and underwear. Too my horror, I watched blisters form and then his skin melt away. I put our blanket around him and ran him to the counter and yelled at the guy to get some tap water. I poured water down his leg to cool it off. My mind was going a million miles a minute. "my poor baby, this is a nightmare, we are going to miss our flight, we can still make it, he will be okay, we have to go to the hospital, no I can take him to the hospital when we get there, no we have to go to the ER now, I can't believe this is happening, poor Seth" and on and on. What I said outloud though was, "call 9-1-1". One of the airport staff gave us a cool gel pad that appeared to be for burns, I carefully held them onto the worst parts. Within 10 minutes of the burn, the EMT's were there and took us to Massuchusetts General Pediatric ER. Seth and I cried the whole way. They were incredibly nice and helpful to us there. They estimated that Seth had second degree burns over 6% of his body surface (down most of the back of his left leg) but that it didn't involve his groin or crease of his knee so they were not the worst they could be. They gave Seth some codeine syrup for his pain which took an agonizingly long time to work. They then took off the extra skin (called debriding). This is not something I EVER want to repeat. All the while, they offered Eli and Jake a box lunch, cartoons, coloring books and gave Seth bubbles and a lollypop. Once they put the dressing on they gave Seth breakfast too. They also donated extra bandages, bacitracin, tape, hospital jammy pants, a diaper and socks for Seth since our suitcases had already traveled to Chicago. I think there is no worse feeling in the world than having only the backpack on your back. They even offered to get me a cup of coffee ("since you obviously didn't get your coffee this morning"), which I promptly turned down.
We were able to fly out four hours later on standby status (our third rescheduling of flights) and got to Chicago without anymore problems. After fifty-nine hours of traveling.
I was worried about Seth riding in a carseat but he didn't complain at all. I gave him one more dose of codeine but as the stuff was pretty vile, he refused it ever after. The only way I could tell he was in pain was that he would mutter to himself "stupid coffee, you hurt me".
I would then ask "does your leg hurt?" and he would say emphatically "no it feel good!"
I talked one of my pediatrician friends into doing an internet consult because the hospital had admonished us to "have it checked everyday". I sent a picture to him and he reassured me that the burns looked okay for me to do the dressing changes. This was a huge help and saved large amounts of time and money. I am happy to report that 13 days later his burns have nearly completely healed and are just large patches of white skin now. I got some scar reduction cream (called Mederma), so hopefully he will have very little scarring.
This has gotten long, so I will post more in a few days. I promise that the rest of the trip went very well!
Posted by DebC at 09:50 AM | Comments (1)