14 Hour Delay & 3 Boys

12:30am on Friday night all 4 of us (Bri, bro, Bri's bro) were having difficulties sleeping, it was like Christmas the next morning... we were going to Amsterdam!

I'm not sure what I was on when I decided to go to Amsterdam with 3 guys.  As a sort of anthropological phenomenon, they tend to change into something else when in groups.  They resemble a band of apes... of course there is that normal behavior of jumping around, but now we add to the rapport:  pulling/punching each other, which immediately makes we worry someone will break an arm or bloody a nose by accident, but I know all is well when I am trying to intervene and there is a big smile on their face, much like human-puppies.  The worst of the list is the loss of bodily functions and social manners.  Before when burping at the table was followed by a polite, "excuse me" and the seat was always kindly put back down for ladies- now all is out the windows.

I'll leave a room for a few minutes to use the restroom- the seat is up, often (most disgustedely) sprinkled with urine.  I put the seat down, return to a room of mania; one decided to let gas loose, another is waving around frantically laughing so hard they too let gas loose and the third decides to top it all off with a grotesque bellowed burp.  All rules that they mother taught them does not apply, and I am definitely not in a Alpha position to say otherwise.  I think this is why in the animal kingdom there are often more females in a troupe than males; too many males would just be chaos.

Not everything is bad travelling around with 3 practically grown guys, I also feel very protected.  Even if I am older than all of them, I know that if anyone tried to bother me or disturb my peace, 3 of them looks better than 1 of them, and no one wants to mess with angry brothers.

So the 14 hour delay..

I finally got everything into bed by 12:30am that night and stuffed some earplugs into my ear to get some sleep.  3 hours later, 3:45am, we were up, shuffling around, eating breakfast, chanting our Amsterdam songs.  Breakfast down throats. Check.  Coffee in me.  Check.  Bags ready to go.  Check.  Wait- gloves.. *followed by 30 minutes of chaos of finding Bro's gloves, not succeeding, being told mom would always have a plan*

We were out the door on the RhoneExpress before we knew it.  Perfect timing, everything was going great!!  The light dusting of snow had remained light throughout the night and the only indication for a late flight was about an hour delay.

Oh boy.

We got to check in, dropped our bags and wandered to our gate- me more like herding the three big guys and ensuring nothing was lost along the way.  The hour delay turned into two hours, then three, then a cancellation.  We ran back to the ticketing line, got put onto the next flight at 10:30, which they assured looked better.  Repeat.  The security guys were beginning to become my close friends!  At the gate, two then three hours later.. canceled.  Repeat.  By 1pm we had been canceled for two flights and decided to take a chance for the evening flight.  Repeat.  Cancelled.  People were exhausted, camping on the floor, giant circles under their eyes.

Broken we returned one final time to the counter and got it changed to Saturday (today) at 5:45pm.  Almost two whole days lost.. and we were all depressed and broken from waiting those 14 hours.  The excitement has turned to fear and we are watching closely.

I'll either be writing tomorrow about the horrors of waiting once more, or I won't be back before Tuesday and have a mass of stories to tell.

Until then.

a+