Juuuuuuuuuuuuuust one...
So to preface this cautionary tale of woe, let me start by saying that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, and I often don't have a whole lot of patience with peoples' stupid mistakes. However, there are definitely a few occassions where I goof up quite masterfully (some would say artfully) all on my own, this is one.
So today we were (note the foreboding past perfect tense/aspect) scheduled to depart for our Peru trip at 5AM. Bags were packed; we'd stayed up all night, Emily working on grad school stuff, and me reading photography blogs (as usual). At about 3:45, I'm hopping out of the shower and finishing paying for Spirit Airlines completely absurd carryon luggage fees, and since Emily got a new passport, I made a copy for her and put the copy with the rest of the itinerary papers for our trip in my suitcase. Check and Check. And as 4 AM rolled around, our dear (dear doesn't seem quite forceful enough a word) friend Sara came to pick us up and drop us at the airport for our 6AM flight. We roll to the airport and get up to check the bag when they ask us for our passports, I dig mine out and am digging in the bag with the papers, but I can't find Emily's. Why isn't it here!? That's about the point I get that cold sweat feeling devolving into terror when I realize, it's absolutely not. The ultimate travel gaff! I can't even believe it! I'm just flummoxed! I'm the super organized one too! It's 5:03 and a thirty minute drive each way to get back to the house for a 6 o'clock departure with security check and boarding; yeah, it ain't happening. In a flash I realize exactly where it is, on the scanner.
As I'm about to hurl the chocolate milk I'd drunk about midnight, the booking agent informs us that there are no more flights that day that will connect to Lima, and there's a 125$ flight change fee... per person. I wipe the cold perspiration from my brow, reluctantly consent, and she calls the manager over to set up the transfer in the computers. The manager comes over, sees me dry heaving, looks at Emily's sweet smile of exasperation, and tells us that she's been in that situation before and that she's going to waive the transfer fees for us! Really, no other explanation for that than the Lord working through her, because as well all know the airline as an entity has pretty much no soul and customer service is a completely void concept, and things like her action, just do. not. happen. Everything is easily moved to tomorrow, same time, same everything.
Reason x^n that I love my wife: she is not flipping out, being pissed off, and making me feel terrible as I probably would have done if it had been her in the doghouse. I knew a married a good one, and I'm definitely blessed that she's a better person than I am.
We frantically try calling Sara back to no avail and eventually have to get a cab ride home, now for a person as frugal as I try to be, watching a taxicab meter run is basically the equivalent of waterboarding followed by that thing LeChiffre did to James Bond in Casino Royale. Anyway, as we were riding home, my phone buzzed me with my daily bible verse; the good Lord had shown some clemency in the tranfer fee help, but he definitely wanted to make sure I didn't forget it:
Proverbs 26:12
Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Emily and I rode along, and she asked me if it had been me that had forgotten it? My first thought was well there would have been no point in being pissed off, and though I do tend to let my frustration show a bit more easily at little things, when it is something that big, somehow I see more clearly that being pissed does no good anyways. I'm afraid I probably would have been pissed and let it show. Like my friend Ian Buchanan told me one time about the foibles of marriage, "[...] sometimes in marriage we don't always let our best side show." However hard I am on others, I'm usually ten times as hard on myself, and this was certainly no exception. I felt miserable.Emily called her mother and told her of my cock-up and after hanging up, she said, "You know, everything happens for a reason."
Upon arriving home, we immediately crashed for about 5 hours, and when I got up (right about the time we should have been in fort Lauderdale) I woke with a redemptive realization just on my mind, the reason this happened was to remind me of my fallibility, to give me another reason to appreciate my wife more, and to remind me what's important - the journey. And that's what marriage is all about, the journey. We're still on the journey whether we're riding in a taxi - sanz one all-important travel document or flying over the Atlantic ocean; we're on the journey together. Not to mention, I forever more have something crystalline to look back on whenever I get frustrated at Emily with which to temper myself .
So after I went out to get Emily an atonement breakfast of Starbucks, Taco Cabana, and Sprouts, I knew I had to post about it. Alls well that ends well (I guess). Emily got to have a much needed day to finish up her grad school work so that she doesn't have to take it with her. I got to tie up a few loose ends, i.e. more research on MP photo angles/shots, and we found a few other (albeit less important) items that we'd forgotten to pack up. And hey, I've waited this long, I can wait another day for Winter.
Thank you Emily for being a better person than I am, and not making me feel much worse than I already did. You're the best!
