Murphy's Law

If you look up Murphy's law on Wikipedia it states that it is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

I don't subscribe to Murphy's law but it was feeling sort of true on June 1st when we traveled to Maine with my two year old son.  My father, mother, and I were very excited about having a direct flight from Denver to Boston.  That is practically unheard of from Colorado and it was going to really shorten the traveling day...or so we thought.

We had begun our descent when all of a sudden we could feel the plane begin to ascend rather then descend.  I have flown into Logan airport before and I could tell that we were circling.  Within a few minutes this was confirmed by the pilot who informed us that really bad thunderstorms were making things nasty below.   After awhile we were re-routed and the pilot announced that we were going to land at Bradley, Airport.

Immediately the entire plane was a-buzz with chatter.  Everyone was talking about where Bradley might be.  The woman sitting next to me had a map and we began to pour over it.  We found no Bradley Airport in Massachusetts.  Next, she pulled out a travel book.  We found Bradley Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. I sank back in my seat and depression hit me square in the face.  If we had arrived at our normal time it would still have been until about 11 pm that evening before we would have reached our stopping point. 

When we landed in Hartford the pilot announced that we were in luck and that they were going to allow us to deplane but that we could not go through security as we had no boarding pass to return with.  There was a TV on and soon the word spread that there were tornados touching down in the area and certainly the weather was bad.  The flight crew let us know that we would be updated at 8 pm but then we were given the signal to board.  The pilot informed us that we would try to get in the air at 8:15 pm when the lifted bad weather grounding was lifted and try to get us back to Boston.

We were delayed on the runway by an electrical storm and then again once when we landed at Boston.  By the time we landed, de-planed, got our luggage, took the shuttle to the rental car and then drove as far as we could and stopped it was 12:30 am.  This was a far cry from the original 5:30 pm arrival time in Boston but the crying was far from over.  The next morning in Kittery, Maine we got up and began to get ready to drive to pick up my sister in Auburn, as my Dad showered my mother offered to go out and get him some clean clothes.  When she opened up the trunk she realized that we had forgotten a suitcase at the airport in Boston.  She stood there for a minute staring at the trunk in disbelief then came inside to deliver the bad news.

We loaded up and drove into Boston to get the suitcase.  We got a little lost last night leaving and we got a little lost trying to get back in.  All told it was pretty uneventful and soon we were back on our way to Tracey's house.  Once we arrived we had a tour of Tracey and Joe's fabulous apartment that is quite large and I was impressed by the stunning beauty of her fish tank.  I spend some time doing a little creative organization of the trunk and miracle of miracles made room for everything and we were on our way again.  We finally arrived at our final destination which is our Maine house and linked on this website if you want to take a gander and despite that we were all pretty beat we were still joking and laughing and trying to make the most of it.

Sweet Rest At The End Of Long Travels

I knew when we landed that I was pretty much toast.  I had lost my ability to carry our bags or manage my son and informed my parents of this.  We arranged for a wheelchair and we pushed through.  It is really important when you are dealing with an illness that causes fatigue that you respect your limits.  This is especially important when travelling because you are at greater risk of injury when you become overly tired.  I don't like admitting to needing help.  I don't care for watching my family do the heavy lifting but a week in the hospital from past issues and neutropenic fever has nearly cured me of the sort of foolishness that comes with pride and stiff upper lips.

I would also like to mention that though we were tired, stressed, and ready to meet our destination we did not take out our frustration on each other (and I am proud to say that this includes the two year old).  Instead, we laughed ourselves silly.  You may not be able to choose what happens to you but you can choose whether you respond or react and your attitude while you do it.  I respectfully suggest you choose a good attitude and a response.  It gives you maximum fun, the most control and you get to look classy while your at it.  It beats the alternative in my book, reacting, which happens usually in a state of fear or anger.  Reacting instead of responding also means that you have lost your cool, there is very little censoring that takes place, and I have yet to see anyone who looks good with egg on their face.