Story of the Day 2/ 29/ 2012

My son, Aaron, will, God willing, be flying home from Israel on April 2nd.
Just in time to help do a little last minute cleaning for Passover.
Actually, I have been planning on saving the bathrooms for him. After all, he is the family champion shower stall scrubber, and how could I possibly deny him the mitzvah ( good deed) of doing this for his tired, overworked , old mother.
Well, the last adjective is true.

However, my son, in a fit of sociability, has decided that he wants to visit his grandparents who are all in New York. He wants to actually leave the airport between his flight from Israel to New York and his connecting flight from New York to Indiana.
Yes, Virginia, there really are Jews in Indiana.

This means several things. First of all, it means changing his airline ticket.
It also means calling his grandparents and making sure they want to see him.
It is not that no one loves him, it is just that they are all on fixed incomes, and our son , who is 6 '3" - or , at least- he was before his feet grew recently- eats their entire food allowances for the week each time he sits down at the table. And he likes to eat more than three times a day.

Being Jewish grandparents, they find this thrilling.

Instead of having to repeat, over and over, "Eat , eat!" and having the grandchild pick at the food they have lovingly prepared, they can just stare, wide -eyed in amazement as all of the food in the house, well apartment, disappears into this massive baby boy.

Of course, then we have to worry that they will not have anything left in the house to eat.....which is the wrong direction for the "eat, eat" worrying.

For some weird and inexplicable reason, they were all thrilled with the idea of him coming and eating them out of house and home. They even find this, and him, charming........

My next job was to change his airline ticket.
So, like a good mother, I called the airline. Three times. The first time, I was disconnected. The second time, I was told I needed to call a different number. The third time, ELAl told me that I needed to call Delta, since it was their flight that need to be changed.
I made a 4th call... to Delta.
And the agent at Delta told me that the third agent at EL AL was wrong; since they issued the ticket, I needed to call them back .

I decided that it was not a good day to make a fifth call.
In case you think I am easily discouraged....well, you are right, but I should also explain that three of those phone calls involved long conversations where they had to look up exactly what kind of a ticket we had purchased for our little boy, and then go over what the fees would be to change the ticket.
And this was after listening to a lot of really bad muzak.

So, late this evening...actually, so late it is very late at night, I made another call. to El Al.
To the same guy I spoke with who had told me I needed to call Delta. I cringed when I realized it was him. I mean, what were the odds.
You are now allowed one guess as to what he told me.
Gee, you are brilliant. Much more brilliant than he is. I told him good bye and I hung up.

And I did NOT call Delta.

I called El Al back. And got a different agent.
I figured my bad luck couldn't last forever, and I was right!

This agent went through the same long ," let me see what the fees will be to change it", routine.
I waited patiently, then reaffirmed that I still wanted the change.
He checked for the date I had originally given him, April 5th.
"There are no seats available to Indianapolis on April 5th."
"What about the morning of April 6th?"
If the flight leaves New York in the morning, he will easily arrive before Passover starts. It will be a pain to get him at the airport, but....
"There s a seat on the 8:50 PM flight."
"I said the morning of April 5th."
Since it was ELAL I added, "He has to arrive before YomTov starts." Surely this person with the strong Israeli accent has at least some vague idea that my kid cannot be on an airplane when it is Passover, and that he needs to be at home sitting at the table.....

"That is the only seat on April 6th."

Okay, what about April 4th?"
"In the morning?"
"No, any time on April 4th."
Which will make for a short visit with the assorted grandparents, but.....

"No, there is nothing available."

I thank the agent and hang up.

I send an email to Aaron in Israel, and to Larry, who is asleep in the bedroom, that I couldn't change the ticket because there were no seats available. I add that i might call ElAl back in a couple of days, because it is possible that someone with a ticket for April 5th, or 4th or the MORNING of the 6th will be changing their flight.....we can hope.

I send an email to my husband? The same one who is currently asleep in our bed, down the hall?

Yes, because I will see him briefly, tomorrow morning when I will be at my not-very-well-rested best, which isn't' very good even on a good day, and unlikely to remember to mention this.

Then I do what I should have done, and go to sleep.