Can you spell S T R E S S E D?!?!?!

All the trials and tribulations are worth it!

Most people would NOT describe me as a "controlling" type of person, however when it comes to driving and travel...watch out...I'm a notorious backseat driver (Dan is honestly a saint) and for travel I like to be in control of the itinerary from start to finish. On Tuesday, we received the green light to go ahead and make our travel arrangements. Now a normal person would allow the adoption agencies travel agent to set up the flights and hotel...NOOOOOOOO...Not me! I want to be in control! Since I can't sit in the cockpit and tell the pilot to watch out for that bird and why are you driving through the clouds? And do you see that airplane off to your right 1000 miles away? I being the travel controller have to make all the arrangements myself. Do you see how I am???? I'm a fool.. prior to Tuesday I didn't realize what a big fool I was, but, let me expound on this fool concept and you will see it unfold before your eyes.
After reviewing several different airline search engines, I have determined that we are going to go with Delta which works for us because we want to use Dan's miles to upgrade to business class. Let me preface this next statement with the fact that my cell phone which is my only phone is only half charged at best. And I can't find my charger anywhere...I think I left it at my brothers house over Easter...ugh! So I call Delta's SkyMiles phone number and proceed to work with an agent to get our flights booked to Shanghai because honestly how long could it take to reserve 3 tickets??? The first thing I find out is I can not use Dan's miles because the tickets go from $1500 to $3,000 if we use miles...what? Hello? What kind of system is that? But hey, I'm working with them and I might as well just complete the reservations. TWO AND HALF HOURS later all three reservations are completed along with a lap seat coming back from China for the baby. The 2.5 hours was not without sweat, since the gal put me on hold for VERY long increments of time and I'm very worried that my battery is going to go dead! Plus, I have a 4 year old that needs attention! At least, this representative would come on the line and check back with me every now and then. Okay, so I gave up 2.5 hours of my morning...but I'm in control! Call my dad immediately after I hang up with the airlines because he had surgery on Monday and my battery basically goes dead after talking with him for 5 minutes. Whew...that was a close one. (BTW, my dad is on the mend, but prayers would be appreciated).
So, I run out get a phone charger and charge my phone. In the meantime, I talk to Dan and we both don't like one of the times that we have for a certain leg of the trip coming back. We want to switch from 8:00 a.m. to a noon flight time. No biggee right??? Call them, they put 12:00 on the E-ticket and we are good to go...well not so fast Charlie...Here is how it really works; I called and told the lady that I want to change flight times and she tells me, "well we are going to have to void the current tickets and replace them." Ahhh....that doesn't sound good, I'm not so sure about that. What if we can't get those same flights, but she assures me we will, because our seats will become available...basically she says it is easy peasey...my feelings of control are starting to wain at this point. But, I said okay and she told me she would have to put me on hold, but to stay on the phone. Can you already tell I'm a fool who is totally not in control???? So I'm put on hold and I realize I didn't mention the lap seat to her which was dealt with differently then the other three seats, but I'm on hold and there is nothing I can do to get her attention. I have this nervous energy and don't know what to do with it...I'm so praying for her to come back on the phone to me and check on me. Well an HOUR and FIFTEEN minutes goes by and I am still on HOLD!!! PANIC sets in because I realize I have NO CONTROL! There is no way that I can contact this lady and I imagine that she has voided my tickets and left for the day! I decided to walk over to my neighbors at this point and to call Delta using my neighbors phone and try to raise holy hell! As my neighbor opens the door...there is a voice on my cell phone. This is what she said, "Sorry to have kept you waiting but I had to get my supervisor involved and she decided to put in a waiver instead of voiding and replacing, so I'm going to transfer you to the reissuing department." Click...transfer happens..."Hello can I help you??" At this point, I am in blabbering don't know what has just happened mode and I finally asks are my tickets still there? "Yes, they are ma'am" At this point, I am grateful and I say just please leave them as they are.
So you think I'm done do you???? My trials and tribulations are over??? Well that is now how life works when you are trying to be a controller...I had more lessons to learn! After I get Bei to bed, I still have to make hotel reservations. So I go on-line and decide on my first hotel and put in the information and wa..la...I get the good old error message that there is something wrong with processing my credit card. Do you know where this is going??? So I call Hotels.Com and tell them I'm having problems processing my credit card and they also receive the same message. I knew right away what the problem was...my credit card company put a fraud block on my credit card! I had to call them and they have an automated system that will release the fraud block if I could only answer three easy questions. Push 1, 2 or 3 based on the right answer. Easy enough for someone who knows how to use their brand new cell phone, but for someone who doesn't, you are screwed, screwed screwed! (BTW, I tried to read the cell phone instruction manual and the font size is a 2!) It all got figured out, but I learned a valuable lesson yesterday...next adoption...after receiving the green light, the first call is going to be to the travel agent...they can be in total control! Poor Dan, I still haven't given up on the backseat driving thing yet...