The Returning of the Sam
Blog
Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 12:34 on 22 July 2005
I returned Sam to
Mom last night, and she's driving Sam and Jackson to Chris and Michelle later this morning.
Sam and I left last night for the airport at 4:40, for our flight at 5:50.
Mike tried to clue me in that I wanted to leave earlier, rush hour traffic,
101 backing up, carpool won't help, but all I heard was "... spend a full
hour at the airport with a semi-bored kid. How about it?"
So, we left late.
And 101 was backed up.
And the carpool lane stopped.
Just like Mike said.
Taking Central, Mike managed to get us to the airport by 5:10. Somehow, the
bags I had carried out to California were twice as heavy going back to
Arizana. How does that kid do it? Especially since we were carrying less
stuff back.
When we arrived at the top of the escalator, my heart sank as I saw the
security line wrap down around the corner. "Well, kid, you might just have
to stay with me an extra night."
Sam perked up. "Really?!"
"We'll see."
We made it through the first part of the security line. After my boarding
pass was matched against my identification, the agent, in the most
uncomprehensible Asian accent, asked Sam, "Your name is Samuel?" which
sounded more like "Yoo nahm-es Soh-moo-oo?"
Sam looked at him and replied, "No."
My stomach sank.
"Yoo nahm-es naht Soh-moo-oo?"
"No-oh."
Crap! Kid, don't do this to me. I repeated the question, "Hey Sam, your
name is Samuel, right?"
He looked at me. "No."
Argh!
The agent looked up a me suspiciously.
I tried again.
"Sam, what's your full name?"
"Samuel ****** Hodsden."
Victory!
The agent smiled. "Yoo no go bee Soh-moo-oo?"
Sam looked at him agitated, "No!"
Move along! Move along, kid! Phew! Through the line!
After getting through the security line, finding the gate took another five,
so by the time we lined up at the back of the A queue, we were reading to
board. Whoo!
Sam really wanted to sit at the window this time. I didn't allow him to sit
at the window on the way out because I was worried about the two of us
having to use the restroom a billion times on the flight, so we were middle
and aisle on the way out. On the way back, however, Sam was having none of
this aisle crap, and plunked his little butt down in the first row with a
free window seat.
Which was also the first row. And no underseat storage space.
I had to go back to row four to find a place to stow the bags, which
completely endeared me to my fellow passengers as I moved back to row one,
pushing past everyone trying to find seats. Twice, once for each bag. Good
lord, people, move out of my way!
The flight was completely uneventful, thankfully, and Sam took a few
pictures with my camera phone. Some, not so good. The ones of the
bulkhead, for example. Others I thought were really good: the sunset and
landscapes. I was surprised at his eye for the latter: he became very
excited when he saw the city squares and just had to get a picture of
them.
Not bad for a five year old: