Anson Part 1

I made it to Anson.

No thanks to the rude CSA in STL. I ended up flying to Dallas on SWA. I took a shuttle over to DFW, and then had to wait for almost 3 hours to get on a flight to ABI. I didn't think I was going to get on because the gate agent told me there was only 4 seats and 10 standby's. I was about to resign myself to the fact that I was going to end up renting a car and driving that awful 3 hour drive down bare, boring Interstate 20. But I must have done something right because I got on the plane and there was like 20 empty seats left.

It's amazing how much nicer our employees are than AA's. Amazing. It's not difficult to be nice. Just treat others like you'd like to be treated. If the AA CSA in STL was following this advice, she apparently likes to be treated like she's an inconvenience. But I do have to say the ticket agent in DFW, Renee, was SUPER nice. And I told her she was. And I gave her a big bag of candy. Good candy, too. Not that crappy, no-one-wants-it at Halloween candy.

But I'm home.

And when I am at home, things tend to run on the funny side.

Let me share.

When I first arrive in Anson, after all the hugs and kisses hello, we all sit in the family room and talk. Not 10 minutes into our conversation last night, we had our first funny. My dad proceeded to tell everyone that John Elton got married. It took a couple seconds for us to translate that into him meaning that Elton John got married. My dad is always good for some laughs. Ask him to spell "goat" fo you sometime. *grin*

Also, we were talking about a family friend who has cancer. In explaining this to my 90 year old grandmother, we mentioned that this was the same friend who had given a crib to a cousin of mine. Conversation then continued to his treatment options. Then my uncle mentions that this friend "didn't want it". Silence. My grandmother breaks that silence by asking, "He didn't want the crib?". We all crack up laughing because she apparently was still had the crib on the brain, when we a were already talking about his not wanting to do chemo treatment. Trust me, it was funny. If you are not laughing out loud, I guess you had to be there.

Another "tradition" that seems to take place when the majority of our family convenes is that we watch old home movies. My dad has been documenting our lives since about 1983. At the time, it drove me crazy, and was sometimes embarrasing, but now, it is hilarious to watch. There are kazillions of VHS tapes on the bookshelf. We got many laughs today from seeing Karol as a 4 year old screeching and sqealing as she opened Christmas gifts back in 1988. We also got to see April sing her "Must Be Santa" song, complete with choreography, from her kindergarten program. No one is really safe from being the object of ridicule. Clothes styles, hair styles, and crazy antics provide lots of laughs. I was at a point of tears this evening when I watched myself participate in a pep rally dance, showing the rhythm of a pencil ... as in non-existant. OMG. I cannot believe I did that in public. But good 'ol dad got it all on tape. Watching our old home movies is one of my favorite things about coming home. I gotta get them all transferred to DVD.

Gotta get back to the family.

Merry Christmas Eve eve. (haha)

Elisa