Blogging From The In-Laws: Days 1 & 2 (Recap)

Entries Pertaining to December 20th & 21st, 2004
It’s that time of year again – time for my wife and I to make our pilgrimage to Dallas. In classic Stewart fashion, the weekend immediately preceding our trip was harried, hectic and ever so much fun.
As a condition for getting ten days off from work, I worked a total of 14 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday, leaving me in a strange, zombie-like state of consciousness. This condition was further exacerbated by staying up packing until around 2 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning. With my parents scheduled to take us to the airport for a 9:30 a.m. Monday flight, we had planned to drive to their house Sunday night and drive in with them the next morning, which, given the late hour at which we finished preparations necessitated we make the drive at 2 in the bleedin’ morning. On the plus side, it actually began to snow at some point late Sunday night, so I at least had the residual adrenaline incurred by that happy event to run on. Had it not been for that, I’m not quite sure how I would have been able to drive. As it was, I barely made the 45 minute drive with any consciousness to spare.
We staggered in to my parents’ house at around 3 that morning and fell facefirst into bed, hoping to catch a few hours sleep. In the rush out of our house, we forgot to grab our travel alarm clock and were forced to use my cellphone in its stead, which turned out to be beneficial, as that little phone has what could, quite possibly, be the most annoying alarm ever.
After our all-too-brief sleep, we awoke to hustle off to the Philly airport in what had turned into the coldest morning in recent memory. The ambient temp hovered around 10 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course. None of this metric system crap, thankyouverymuch!) with a wind chill somewhere near -20 or so. Wheeee!
Once at the Philly airport, the SkyCaps checked us in at the curb and received a bigger-than-usual tip from this tight-fisted Scot for simply having the guts to stand out in that (for this area) cold weather. I mean, it’s not like they were bikini-wearing babes at Lambeau Field, but you still have to give them credit.
Our airport security experience went off without a hitch this time, with my wife and I practically sailing through the screening. Let’s hope there’s no deferred airline security karma, or the return trip’s sure to be a doozy…
Once aloft, the flight was fairly typical, although it was bookended by rather severe (to this semi-experienced flyer’s mind, at least) winds on takeoff and landing, which, while not too worrying did make me question just how rational we are, as a race, to go hurtling off into the stratosphere with merely a thin alumin[i]um skin between us and fierce winds, low pressures, the ground, etc.
My in-laws met us at the baggage claim in DFW and, after the usual round of hugs and pleasantries were exchanged, our luggage claimed and the car found, we proceeded to a Sonic with all due haste for the now traditional sandwich, tater tots and “Ocean Water” – a strange concoction of Sprite and various unknown/unknowable flavor syrups that is a treat for the tastebuds and, given the lack of Sonics in the Philly area, available only to me on our trips to Dallas. (Side note: Sonic still feels fit to advertise their wares on TV, thus mocking me and my love of their wares with each second of ad time they buy. Curse you, Sonic!)
The rest of Monday was largely a blur, given the sleep-deprived/travel-weary fog that descended upon me with frightening ferocity, although I recall watching the first appendix disc of the new Return of the King extended edition DVD set that was obtained last Tuesday but remained unwatched for a week’s time due to scheduling constraints.
Tuesday dawned significantly early (a pox upon thee, Central Time Zone!) and it was only through a combination of willpower and coffee that I was able to face the day. Once up and about, my wife and mother-in-law set out for various retail locations in search of those elusive “just-right” Christmas gifts that had remained just out of reach to this point. I, on the other hand, remained behind, having christened the day “Official Fix The In-Laws Computer Day”. I met with limited success, due largely to the fact that my in-laws are tied to the grand expanses of the Internet by a mere trickling dialup account. Oh, foul, cruel dialup! How you mock me! How can I possibly absorb all the information I’m “missing” when you only deliver it to me at a mere 44kbps? Death to copper! Fibre to every home, says I!
Ahem. After the womenfolk returned home, they convinced those of us blessed with a Y chromosome to accompany them on a trip to a Half Price Books, a Borders and some sort of record store (CD Source, I believe it was called…?), the highlight of which turned out to be a trip to an eating establishment by the name of Freebirds World Burrito, purveyors of what amounts to average burrito fare in Texas but which, by comparison to Philly area “Mexican” food is practically divine.
We concluded the day by viewing the cinematic portion of the RotK DVD set Tuesday evening.
All in all, a pleasant first two days in TX. I’ll recap today and its attendant pleasures tomorrow. The Incredibles and a snowstorm in Dallas are featured prominently. Don’t miss it!