Flashback (Part III)

Thursday 11:30am (EST) / 5:30pm (Turkey) I think I have the times right. I’m actually not really sure. If I’m not exact, I’m close. And close, especially right now, is good enough.

We are now one hour from our new home on Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey. I am amazed that one mere mortal (me) can learn so much in such a short period of time. Here are some of the highlights of the education I have received in the last approximately twenty-four hours.

• Headphones. In my opinion, you have totally missed the reason for having them if you turn up your music so high that the person in front of you (me) or to your side (me) can hear it. You might as well just not wear them, don’t you think?
• Snoring. I’m glad I am not a snorer. I think it is funny when people start snoring on a plane. Okay so, yes, it can be annoying. But then it can be funny when it wakes them up and they jump and realize they were snoring and their face gets red and they are embarrassed. I generally don't like people being embarrassed. But this snoring embarrassment cracks me up.
• Repetition. Did you know it is possible for one five-year-old young girl to yell at the top of her lungs that she “don’t want to wear her seat belt” 47 times in a row with barely a breath in between? How exhausting must that be? What stamina she must have. And her poor parents.
• Call nights. I have a new appreciation for JB and the call nights he had to do so frequently during residency. They stink. I mean, really, really stink. Staying awake for long periods of time is not a fun thing to do. Sleep is a much funner activity.
• Food. Food is a strange thing. Why is it that tortellini can taste so good at 6pm but then be so incredibly unappetizing when offered to you mid-morning. It may have been dinner time in Europe, but it was still breakfast time back in the U.S. I tried to eat the tortellini but it was really difficult to meld with my palate at 7am US time.
• Food Part II. While tortellini may require a certain amount of timing, a Twix bar and a bag of M&Ms truly can be eaten mid-morning. It really isn’t that hard to do. Close your eyes and dive in. You quickly forget that it's morning time.
• Extra food. Since our boys own a seat, they are entitled to all the food we are. Only they don’t eat all the food we do. Not only because their stomachs are littler but because they were sleeping for a good majority of both flights. This freed JB and I up to request an extra snack many times and then eat it for them. Sweet!
• Out-of-body experiences. I almost asked the Veterinarian (gosh that is hard word to spell on a few hours of cat naps) who helped us get Scrubs out of his kennel in Turkey to take a potty break, where she was from when she started to talking to us with a German accent. Then I realized, all in a moment, (and thank goodness that moment was before I actually said anything), that we were IN Germany. Oh yeah. We did leave the country didn’t we? That was probably also the reason that she used the word “meadow” to describe the grassy slab that we could let Scrubs do his business on. A meadow? Not quite.
• Blessing in disguise. The fact that Elijah and Isaac slept for a good portion of both of our flights (7 and 3.5 hours respectively) is a good thing. We are sure it is. But we have to wonder if, when we arrive in Turkey and we are on–our-butts exhausted and they are wide awake, if we will feel the same way. This time zone change is a lot easier to maneuver when you only have yourself to worry about.
• Scrubs and squishyness. Scrubs is usually not a big barker. But mannnn he can bark when you take him out of his kennel in Germany for a grand total of about 9 minutes and then put him back in and return him to the people who are going to box him up under the plane. Oh gosh he got mad at us. He barked at us for many, many minutes, and I swear that his bark was talking to me. I think it was saying, “Hey person! What are you doing? Are you really going to put me back in this kennel and back under the plane? Are you crazy? I want to stay with you.” Oh Scrubby darling. If you saw how much room we had in our row you’d quickly realize that you got the best end of the deal. If given the choice, I really think I’d take a kennel over the tightness present throughout this plane. Seriously I did not know it was possibly to have so many people jammed into one place. Scrubs got the good end of the deal!
• Camaraderie. Military people were right when they told me how this overseas thing would go. There is a sense of camaraderie when you are in a military situation with other people. So many people helping us today. So many people talking to us. So much kindness from one set of people to another. Many of the individuals on our plane are in uniform, headed to Afghanistan. Others are like us – moving their pets and children across the world. Others were flying stand-by, hoping to secure a flight back to Europe for themselves and their children. Three different women, their husbands deployed, and towing 2-3 children a piece, simply walked up to us and left all their luggage next to us, trusting us to keep an eye on things while they tried to manage multiple additions at once. I washed chocolate off the hands of one little girl I had never met. I played cars with two others. There really is some bonding in these situations.
• Government-run. While the camaraderie is wonderful, I am reminded, every step of our journey, how things run when they run without customer service. While nothing terrible has happened today, it is different when you aren’t trying to impress people. The pilot overshot our landing. I mean wheels on the tarmac, he had to pull up and circle around and try again. No explanation was given. He also gave no explanation when we sat on the runway for two hours waiting to take off. Seats are cramped. Explanations do not run rampant. This airline (a military chartered flight) has no reason to try to impress us. The government will continue to use them. And they will continue to cram more people in that one can think humanly possible. This is a frustrating feeling. There is something about having healthy competition that breeds good service. No doubt about it.
• Teddy Grahams. These little bears rock. (Thanks Becky!) The boys love them. They especially love them in their little blue bowls that have these handy lids that they have to reach into to prevent spillage. Did you know that a Teddy Graham, when held upside down, looks like a rabbit? It’s true. You should buy some and try them for yourself. Isaac told us at one point, “Look! It’s a bunny.” When we told him that it was not a bunny but in fact a bear he looked at it, squinted up his nose and said, “No it’s not. It’s a bunny.” Later, upon closer examination, JB discovered that, in fact, Isaac was correct. Upside down Teddy Grahams do "bear" an eerie resemblance to a bunny. No joke.
• Packing. Somehow, someway, we have to figure out a way to take less stuff with us in our carry-on’s in our future travels. We just have too much stuff. Way too much stuff. But everything really seems valuable. Either way, we must figure out a simpler way to maneuver our way around without so much extra baggage.
• Talking. Car seats must go in the middle seats of our row. This leaves JB and I on the aisle seats of our four-row endeavor. The problem with this is not huge but it is consequential. We could not communicate like, at all! Talking over two sleeping kids without waking up everyone around you is next to impossible. I cannot tell you how many times one of us mouthed, as loud as we could, "I can't hear you!" It got quite frustrating and we basically gave up knowing what the other one was trying to say.
• Date night. This was a cute movie. They showed it on the plane. Funny. Light-hearted. Especially when it was edited for language. I can't vouch for how it is without the editing.
• Sleep. When you are tired and everyone is tired, no one cares, at all, what you look like. You know how they have pictures of the crazies in WalMart? Well, they should have a page for the crazy things you see when watching people sleep on planes. Quite interesting. Maybe there is a website for this. But either way, no one cares. Mouths open. Pink eye masks. Pillows everywhere. Sleep is the most important thing. Not the way we look.