Chapter 24: Waiting and Stuff

We are sitting at our gate in the 'port. Sarah's snacking on her new love- Marilyn Harper's "granola", which is not granola a'tall but trail mix. (Apparently crazy is catching.) We both had to walk through the security rectangle of doom several times, but I was the one who was patted down by a large Hawaiian woman on account of my wire-infused unmentionables. We had the amazing luck to be in the "expert traveler" line and I felt like I abused the privilege by not realizing underwire would set it off.

In any case, we are already on the verge of slaphappy. Mom and Dad left the hotel at 7 am, which meant the necessity of Sarah and I awakening at 6:20 because we wished to say goodbye. It was a new experience for Sarah to watch Mom's last minute packing ritual and Dad's impatience dance. We listened to her instructions about the remaining food in the condo (eat breakfast and take the oatmeal) and his instructions about checking out (I already did it so just leave the keys in the room and be out by noon) and shuffled back to bed. Thus began our long and obnoxious series of wake-ups which seemed to occur every five minutes or every time we finally fell asleep again: a wrong number to our hotel bedroom for Cason Jennings from some community college, kids running around outside our window and screaming, Sarah's phone going off, a car alarm freaking out, housekeeping (who couldn't understand English, so when they cleaned my parent's room took all the food) and finally Reba McEntire singing "Why Haven't I Heard from You?" because my mom was calling to tell me they'd made it to their gate.

We spent the remainder of our time after noon in the hotel lobby reading and playing Nancy Drew. (After we'd had breakfast at a Mexican food place across the street.)