Hysterics

Okay, so a friend of mine just mentioned that I forgot a part of the story. I have purposefully left it out. Why? Because up till now you think I have it together during all of this. That I had a firm grasp of reality and was functioning. However, that is not true. Really. If God had directed my ways, if I hadn't been leaning on him, and keeping my focus on his promises, we'd never made it to Miami.
So here is two examples of how I really functioned.
1. We needed pictures to send to request the visa's. I spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out how to scan the hard copy we had. It was a picture of us with the kids in Haiti, from our visit. I was kinda freaking out. A friend stopped over, and suggested rather simply that Target does that. Puts a picture on a cd, so you have a digital image. It was like I had never heard of that. Except that two years ago, I took an entire stack of pictures and negatives in to Target, to put on a disk. So off to Target, pictures on a disc, emailed off. Two days later, I realized I had a picture in my email that would have worked. Clearly not thinking clearly. God sent my friend, to help guide me through, when my mind wasn't working.
2. I booked our flights on the phone, and then was transferred over to the hotel reservation line. I book a hotel room, explaining that we needed one we could check in early. And also that had 24 hours shuttle, because we didn't know when we'd need to be shuttled. So we booked a room with early check in and 30 minute shuttle runs, and moved on to the packing. Those things didn't happen. Here is what happened, and my reaction.
-We got off our flight, and went to wait for our shuttle. We waited 45 minutes. Which didn't make sense, because it was suppose to run every 30 minutes. We call the hotel. They tell us they send the shuttle when they know someone needs picked up. And they will send it, and will be there in 15 minutes. Another 20 minutes go by. I insist that R call the hotel. They state it just left the hotel, and will be there in 5 minutes. We've now waited over an hour, I'm very tired, and just spent the night on a plane, not sleeping and reminding myself that there was enough air for everyone, and I wasn't really going to die because I had to share my personal space. ( I don't fly well ) The shuttle shows up, and we stumble on it. I don't say anything to the driver, but if looks could kill, he'd have been pretty dead. For some reason, I pictured him sitting there finishing a cup of coffee and reading the paper for the first entire time we waited.
We walk into the hotel, a nicer hotel that catered to business people, to find three men at the desk, checking in or out. So we set our bags down. And stand there and wait. For over 15 minutes. Not one of the three people working at the desk acknowledged us. We conclude that they aren't actually checking in or out. They are just talking. So I ask if we can be helped. We are told we'll be helped when they are done with the people standing there. Standing there visiting.
Another 10 minutes go by. I'm getting angry. I'm tired. I expect to be at least greeted. I expect them to at least make a feeble attempt at customer service. I'm tired, and irrational at this point. This is not a cheap motel, and we certainly were not getting a deal. I ask again, still trying to be nice, to check in. The young man informs me check in is at 3:00pm, and points to the sign on the wall. It was about 12:15. And I was about 3 minutes away from losing my mind. I explain that we were told we'd have early check-in. He informs me that they only do early check-in, if they have rooms available, and that housekeeping is working on them. He'd check with them and get back to us.
Another 15 minutes go by. He doesn't call housekeeping. One of the housekeepers walks by, he talks to them, and tells me he doesn't have any rooms available. Now check-out is at 11:00am. So I ask if they have had people leave at 11:00, and it's almost 12:30, then it seems reasonable that at least ONE room might be available. Nope, doesn't appear so. Now, I stomp over to the couch, lay down and try to calm down. This last all of 3 minutes. I go back to the counter, and tell them we need a room in the next 10 minutes, or they need to cancel my reservation, and I'll walk over to the Hilton and get a room there, which they will get ready for a paying customer. They then tell me they can't refund our money, because it was paid to the reservation line. So I call the reservation line, and they insist that the hotel's description includes early check-in. And they can't refund it, unless it's 24 hours prior. I didn't even make the reservations 24 hours prior.
So I go inform the clerk that they have told the reservation line they do early check-in, and need to get us a room, considering we booked them for that reason. He again said they didn't have rooms available. And I became hysterical. Really, look up hysterical woman, and there is a picture of me. Tired. Wrinkled. Mad as all get out. And about to rip this kid's face right off of him. *disclaimer- he turned out to be a nice kid, he was just doing what he'd been taught to do. I demanded a manager, in the next 5 minutes. I figured they had to have one on the premises and it wasn't that big of hotel. I demanded it loudly. A few minutes later, a manager arrived. I explained, while trying not to weep, what the situation was, without being melodramatic. We reserved a room, with early check in through this company. You are refusing to check us in. We want you to get us a room in the next 10 minutes, or call the booking company, explain you refuse to honor the early check-in and we will go to the hotel next door. She went to explain they don't do early check-in and I lost it on her. Really lost it. Something like this, "You have to be kidding me. You are in the service industry. You advertise with the booking agent, that you do early check-in. You advertise you do 30 minute shuttle runs. So you lied to them, and to us. We waited over an hour just to get picked up. Then we waited 15 minutes to get someone to acknowledge we were waiting to be helped. We were told we couldn't check in early, but we booked you specifically to check in early. Your clerk said he would check with housekeeping, but couldn't be bothered to pick a phone up and call them and explain the situation. You are now refusing to refund or cancel our reservation, even though you haven't provided 2 of the 3 things you advertised and we booked you for. WE'D HAVE RECEIVED BETTER SERVICE AT THE FRICKIN SUPER 8. So I'm going to lay down in 10 minutes to sleep. Either in a room here, that we've paid for. Or at the Hilton next door. Or on the couch in your waiting room. Or maybe in the doorway, so everyone can step over me. " And then I just broke down in tears, almost to the ugly cry. I just started to lose it. And this poor woman, looked a little bewildered. And then I realized she had no clue what the big deal was. Why we didn't want to leave our baggage, go out to lunch, shop and come back in a couple hours. I started to explain that our kids were coming from Haiti that night, we hadn't really slept in days, we just flew across the states, and we NEEDED to sleep. As soon as I started to explain our situation, the ugly cry started. I managed to get something like this out, "tired, flew all night, getting our kids from Haiti, tonight. Tired, need sleep. Can't wait another 2 hours. "
She seems to get a grasp of the situation, and called housekeeping. We had a room in 10 minutes. And the offer to come get us or take us at any time, regardless of the shuttle schedule or non schedule. And they were kind enough to give us blankets to take to the airport, which turned into a very good thing. They drove us to the grocery store, they really did redeem themselves. The poor kid, who I apologized too, as well as the manager, was actually just new and young. God somehow stepped in and kept me from using all the naughty words that were running through my head, that usually aren't filtered when I'm that tired and upset. That even though I was hysterical, and it took that to get their attention, I didn't do anything that would have made me a complete hypocrite.