Just as I thought, the thanksgiving week was so busy I didn’t have time to write until now. You better hold on, keep all hands and feet in the car, this is going to go fast, so hold on, sit back and enjoy the story.

Monday and Tuesday were fairly normal days. Here at HK the schedules had changed, so everyone was trying to get use to a new routine. Monday I went to all of the classes I had been told to go to. Tuesday, I was given an embossed braille copy. First thing, first class of the day, I was apparently in the wrong place. But my schedule says I should be here, but no that is not the way it is supposed to go. All day Tuesday, I went to every wrong class, and spent most of the day lost. Overall Tuesday was just a frustrating day. It didn’t help that there were a million details to work out for not only HK but transportation, hubby, our trip, and getting back. Of course that Tuesday the weather was super bad, and was expecting to get alot worse. So all of these adding up, made for Tuesday to just be one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed, under the covers, had lots of ice cream and or chocolate, and watched TV and or slept all day. I would have much rather been doing that, instead of the day I had. The highlight of the day was that after classes, I began to pack for our trip, which in turn meant that I was just that much closer to seeing my hubby.

Wednesday, began early, as I was running around doing all of those last minute packing items that people usually forget until the last minute. I had a fairly small suitcase, and how I fit everything in, I am not sure. Of course I had my clothes, my CPAP machine, my toiletries, dogs’ food, dogs bone and her crate. I have learned from the best in how to pack a suitcase. When classes began, I was all ready to go. The only problem that the weather was rainy, warm, and windy. The weather people were predicting that it would get cold, snowy and windy in the afternoon thus potentially delaying our flight. Hubby got on his bus and was on his way without too much difficulty. I first went to classes, which consisted of an SDS, a session with the social worker, and VE; working on a background document for a future planning session. Hubby and I had hired a person from HK to take me to the airport, to help us get through security, to wait with us at the gate, to help us on the plane and more. That HK person and I left at noon, with traffic we didn’t arrive at the airport until 2pm. I will be the first to admit I was a bit stressed. I had no clue how long it would take to get there, then to find hubby, to get through the line to get our boarding passes, to go through security and then to get to the gate. But within a little while this all got worked out.

Funny story about our departure at JFK. The person from HK was a male, but I of course needed to go to the bathroom. He gets me to the door, and I go on my way from there. I do what I needed, wash my hands, and then tell pup to go outside. She takes me outside, exactly like she is supposed to. There is no HK person, I walk around for a few minutes, looking and looking for this person. Then two airport employees, at least I think they are, come up to me and ask me something, granted I could not hear them at all. I was frustrated, sad, and upset. They are trying to do something, to tell me something. I finally tell them that I was with someone and I can’t find them. They say that I need to go back through the bathroom to get to the entrance I came in. So I do, I instruct puppy to go back into the bathroom, and then to find outside. She does a great job and does what I ask of her. So I come out of the original entrance and there the HK person was. He said that he was getting worried and I explain the funny story. I found him and was able to laugh about the story afterwards. I probably only took minutes for all of this to happen, but it felt like it took forever. Yet again another time where I can’t communicate with a person in the public. Grrrr!

Finding hubby was its own challenge, there were two sides to American Airlines. It didn’t take long to find him, but there were people everywhere. I gave the HK person very specific description of hubby, and he did find him. Granted I think hubby was the only blind tall person in that area. The reunion with hubby was beyond words. I wanted him to just hold me, to hug, and kiss me; but we had to go on. It was like instantly my heart was back in one piece again.

So we find hubby, get in line for our boarding passes, the gate pass for the HK person, and are on our way to security in a matter of 15 minutes. I will say that JFK was the busiest by far I have ever seen any airport. There were long lines everywhere, and it was so noisy that I could not hear. Security was very uneventful. Granted it would have been a ton harder without the person from HK. Once through security, we then head to the gate. We are at gate 42, which is a long long way away from security. We first walk down a very long hall way with gates on either side of it, then we go down an elevator, walk a bit, then another elevator, walk down another longer hallway. This hallway had those moving walk ways, of course which I avoid, with lights that change color. Those lights totally wigged out my eyes for some reason, plus as you walked by the moving sidewalks it made an announcement. At first I thought it said “Marsha, you’re coming to the end of the sidewalk, watch your step!” It wasn’t saying that at all. It was telling people to be Cautious! How I heard the first, I have no clue. The wonderful world of a hard of hearing person. LOL

We get to our gate in time for hubby to talk to the desk about our seats, about pre-boarding, and about puppy. Of course there was a quick bathroom break too. We boarded our plane at 3:10pm with the assistance of the HK person. The airline had been gracious enough to provide us with an open seat in our row to accommodate puppy with her own space. This was absolutely wonderful. We quickly got arranged, settled, and the other passengers started to board. Our plane took off at 3:40pm, on the dot, and we were off and going to Dallas, Texas.

The flight itself wasn’t super exciting. Once we are in the air, I can’t hear, even with my hearing aids. I am not sure why this is, of course beside the fact that there is a huge amount of background noises, plus the air pressure. I would think I would be able to hear something. So of course this is a really good time for hubby and me to practice our signs. The cafeteria at HK, had fixed a snack lunch for hubby and I, which we ate while on the plane. We ate, read and slept some.

Once off the plane, neither hubby nor I knew where we needed to go to meet my family. It would have been nice for the airline to have someone there to help us, but they didn’t. So with lots of stress and frustration hubby and I started to walk down to where we thought the baggage claim was. The difficulty was that I could not hear hubby to follow him, so he would have to look back to see if I was following him, plus of course he didn’t know where he was going. Communicating with him was not ideal, plus we had baggage so I could not hold on to him. It would have been a perfect time to have a tether between us. Of course there was also a ton of people in the airport, lots of background noise, and just busy in general. We eventually found our way out to where my family was waiting.

We quickly got to the car, got everything into the car, people and puppy, and were on our way. It was already dark there, and quite a bit colder in Dallas, than it had been when we left Long Island, New York. On the way home, to my parents’ home, we stopped at a hamburger place called Whataburger! It’s sort of a play on words. They have good hamburgers and fries. Hubby and I were both exhausted and just wanted to be to my parents’ house. We landed at 6:30pm; we were home to my parents’ house at a little before 8, and probably in bed at 10. Of course we also were dealing with the time change, even though it was only an hour, both hubby and I were so tired already. Granted we had been both traveling since early, I in classes and he on several mode of transportation.

Wednesday night into Thursday, hubby and I slept at my parents’ home.

Thursday, thanksgiving. Hubby and I set our alarms for 7:30am, but I don’t think we actually got out of bed until at least 8:30, maybe even later. It was incredibly nice to be back with my husband. Waking up next to him was just a treat in itself.

My brother was gracious enough to volunteer to go and pick up the teenagers from my ex-husbands house. It’s about an hour from where my parents live to where my kids live. It’s literally from one side of Dallas, to another side, but yes it does take an hour.

The teenagers invaded around 11:30ish. Boy are they all growing up so quickly. My daughter is now taller than I; she is 14 years old now. And of course the boys grew several inches themselves too. We, hubby and I, and teenagers sat around, and talked, caught up mainly for a long time. While we were doing this, my mother and father were getting dinner ready. This year, my parents got all of the food from a grocery store called Central Market. It’s not just like your normal giant or Stop and Shop, but it’s a gourmet store, with very nice food. We ate dinner around 2pm. We had the traditional turkey, green beans, stuffing; two types actually, mashed potatoes; I think, rolls, and a few other things I am forgetting. As usual we had my parents, brother, hubby and I, the three teenagers, and my step father’s brother. So a total of 9. I probably had two plates of food, but although that sounds like a lot, I didn’t stuff myself so full I was going to be sick. After dinner, all of the adults wanted a nap, and the teenagers played video games. For a part of the dessert, we had one big celebration of birthdays. We are never around for everyone’s birthday, so celebrating it all once is good, so that we are all in place at one time. My brother for all of the birthday celebration went and got cupcakes from a gourmet shop in North Dallas. I think there was a Carmel, a mint, and death by chocolate cupcake. I had one of the chocolate and Carmel’s at various times, all of which were delicious. It was certainly a treat for us all. For those who were receiving gifts, we exchanged those too. Plus sung happy birthday to everyone.

After dinner, we hung out, talked with family. At around 8pm, we packed up our belongings and went to the hotel. When I and hubby have the kids we stay in a hotel. For a number of reasons, one which is that my parents’ home does not have enough room for all of us. Plus hubby and I then have private time with the kids.

I have been working on this entry for a week now, so before this becomes a novel, I am going to post and then work on the rest of Thanksgiving Part 2. Stay tuned!