"Those People"

Father's Day came and went... Without much fanfare, occasion, and nary a card from me or the kid... It sounds kind of sad, but really, who could expect more from me?

We returned from a trip to the Midwest at 10:00 pm the night before. We started that day at 5:15 am in Wisconsin, drove to Chicago and flew from there to Dallas Ft. Worth Texas, then on the Colorado Springs, CO, for an emergency medical landing, and then FINALLY landed in Portland, albeit two hours later than planned... And traveling with a cranky, teething (5 new ones coming in at the same time) and tired little boy had both Mom and Dad wishing for a great, big, huge bottle of single-malt scotch... Oh yes, we were "those people" flying with the child, the one who was jumping in his parent's laps, trying to pull the woman's hair in the seat ahead of him, screaming to play with the light switch and air vent, lifting the sun shade countless times, and every 4 minutes screeching out of frustration because Mommy wouldn't let him chew on her arm. We changed his diaper in the cabin in our laps when we weren't able to get up to use the "changing table" in the lavatory -- which amounted to a 6"x10" ledge hovering above the sani-can. Added to this were were toting around 3 carry-on bags, 3 suitcases, a stroller, a folding crib, an enormous car seat, and one squrimy child to boot. Needless to say, I'd have bought the entire cabin a couple of rounds had we not been seated in First Class to begin with. Which kind of makes it worse, if you think about it.

At the start of our flight out of Dallas, my fellow seatmate asked me where we were ultimately headed. After telling her that we started out in Chicago and were headed to Portland, she commented that we had quite a strange, weird route in getting there. Then a few minutes later, I heard the passengers behind us comment on it as well, who speculated WHY in the hell we'd choose to take such a convoluted route... Unless... What they didn't finish with was, "Unless they're flying First Class for free because they're using her mother's frequent flyer miles, otherwise they'd be sitting in the main cabin with the rest of the peons and we could be enjoying our chilled chardonnay in relative peace and quiet..."

So yes, we were "those people," those who get what they can in life for free and inconvenience all others who pay their own way for the sake of more leg room, comfortable seats, and the prestige of having been served a free beverages before anyone else boards the plane.

So regarding Father's Day, we went to breakfast at one of the few restaurants that does Eggs Benedict right, then came home. Daddy got to read from his book for a little while, and it was much like any other Sunday. And because he's such a wonderful human being, he was perfectly content with it all.