Karma

So here's the thing about me. Sometimes I am dramatic. Sometimes I cause a scene. At times of high stress, I tend to act out. The irony to that, however, is that my chosen career, is one of drama and high stress, which I handle fairly calmly.

Today I loaded up my three angelic cherubs, and my 19 year old sister,(think drama and high stress) and boarded a cross country flight to Virginia, for a 2 week visit with my family. Everything went fairly smooth, as we boarded the plane, and if the plane attendant heard me call him a douche bag, when he made us go to the back of the line, he didn't let on. Apparently families with young children don't board in the first 50 sections now.

When we finally settled into the very bowels of the plane, I already had my, "I seriously dare you to comment on my kids" look, down. I was glad to have Hannah around to help haul kids, but her seat belt must have been laced with "sleepy dust" since she was comatose before we left the ground. The boys' were very well behaved and excited to see Grandpa Randy. They made it 2 hours into the flight before they had to use the bathroom, and so with minimal displacement, we went to the tiny bathroom, did our business and were back in our seats lickety split. I had no sooner put their little earphones back on, when the crotchety older women ahead of us turned around, and this was our exchange:

Nasty Lady: "Tell your kid to stop kicking my seat."

Me: "We just came back from the bathroom, I assure you he wasn't doing it on purpose."

Nasty Lady " Well, your baby has been squawking the whole time."

Me: "Hand me your pillow, and I will smother her."

Nasty Lady: muttered something about inexperienced young mothers, something or other, blah, blah.

Me: "You know what lady, these aren't even my kids. My sister died in a car accident 3 weeks ago and now I am doing my best. So you will excuse me if I haven't mastered the art of mothering in 3 weeks."

My voice almost cracked at the end, because I was a little stressed out anyway. After the altercation, the man sitting behind me reached up through the seats and squeezed my arm. He said, "that's a good thing you're doing." When the plane landed, everyone around me was staring the lady down, and Hannah and I were cackling, like the couple of witches that we are.

I didn't handle the situation very well, and I definitely vow to work on my self-restraint, come New Years Day. We got off the plane and made it to our connecting flight with time to spare. We got the very first seats on the plane and I was feeling pretty good, until Dawson wanted to watch a movie, and I realized I had left the borrowed DVD player somewhere in the Chicago airport.

Karma.