After 36 hours of flight delays, I’m back from the Moonbeams wedding in Charlotte, North Carolina! Thunderstorms were the problem, but misery loves company and at least our delays made a splash in the news. There were 1600 flight cancellations, three of which were ours, as we arrived at the airport at the crack of dawn, got reassigned to flight after flight, then had to leave the airport at the end of the day. Out of my last few vacations, I’ve ended up begging for a hotel voucher more than half the time, and I’m not eager to fly again soon.

All that might make you think I didn’t have a good time– but it was wonderful. The Moonbeams wedding came off without a hitch– or you could say, with a hitch, actually!

The bride is my son-in-law’s sister, and his parents invited me to stay at their house… who would want a sleepover guest right before your daughter gets married? Our daughter’s in-laws are great people and have become a very dear part of our family. Their house in Tega Cay was just lovely and I spend quite a lot of time enjoying the fully land-scaped backyard. I was made to feel completely at home and was filled with delicious food. Thank goodness for the wraparound dress I bought for the wedding– haha!

But I vowed to make myself useful! One of the bridesmaids needed her dress hemmed, so when she asked me to do it– of course I said, “Yes!” I actually made many of my own clothes starting in middle school and right through my early working years. How hard could it be? As I cut off the extra fabric, I would measure and snip a bit, measure and snip. I kept cutting and cutting. Then, panic, as I realized this was taking way too long– I thought I must have made a wrong turn and cut right up the side. After all the hospitality, what irony that I might be the one to ruin the wedding! Turns out, everything was fine–you, wouldn’t believe it, but the hem on this dress was 24 feet long!

It took me about four hours to do, but I was in my happy place, behind a sewing machine, and happy that I was able to contribute. While I worked, my DD, who was also a bridesmaid, made this beautiful seating chart board. I think we both earned our keep… we are the craft aces!

I broke protocol, and gave the couple their Moonbeams quilt before the wedding. Their enthusiasm was super gratifying, and I know it will be in good hands. Best of all– I can now rationalize starting a new project!

Here I am, all cleaned up and ready to go.

And here is my handsome SIL and the DD… no one is getting married these days, so for both of them, it was their first time in a wedding party.

Our four days just flew and it was back to the airport– we were already pooped! I settled in for some lovely cross stitch time– do you always bring a project with you, when traveling? I do. As the delays wore on, I tried to remind myself how often I had wished I could just have a full day of cross stitch, as we waited hour after hour. I did start my Sandy Orton Summer Sampler and got quite a bit of progress until until finally my neck was killing me from too much stitching and too much stress!

We finally cancelled our United flights and re-booked on South West, which required renting a car and driving to another airport, two hours away, to try again the next day. I have never flown South West before, and it seemed chancy as we wanted to go North East. Instead of the familiar seat numbers, like 14B and whatnot, my boarding pass said “Position 51.”

As I boarded the plane, I kept looking for seat numbers but saw nothing, so as I walked by a flight attendant, I asked, “How do I find Situation 51?”

🙂

For years hence, in dark sleepless nights, I will ask myself– why did “Situation” come out of my mouth? In retrospect, I think because it shares a “-tion” with Position and I was thinking of getting myself “situated” with my beloved cross stitch. The flight attendant looked at me with all the poorly masked impatience of an orderly trying to reason with a psych-ward patient. He replied dryly, “You are on Southwest Airlines. You will choose any available seat.” I wanted to assure him I knew exactly where I was, but by then I realized my mistake and started giggling uncontrollably– a problem I’ve had since I was a little girl in church. So I blurted out, “Ah! It’s every man for himself!” and moved on as quickly and gracefully as I could. Everyone looked at me as if I was from “Area 51” after that, but I was still able to secure a decent aisle seat and off we went. Home.

We arrived back late, late at night. This morning, it’s sunny skies on the meadow. Flowers I’ve never seen before are blooming and my baby chicks are getting tall. It’s July, and I can’t wait to greet all the summer “Situations,” closer to home, as they come.

xox
Carol