We have officially entered the Twilight Zone...

... and it has nothing to do with vampires... (think the Original Twilight series :)  ).

Here is yet another taste into our random craziness... given in a two part series... her side/his side...

So Jerry is scheduled to go to Prague this week for yet another convention.  We have known this - we have been ready for this - just like all of the other trips... he leaves, he presents, he comes home - pretty routine, right?   Well, most of the time anyway...

Last night, when returning home from soccer, I had a little de ja vu moment...

... and kinda laughed about how this scenerio had just happened in a previous blog entry... but thought little more of it... until I went into the bedroom and saw this:
... which are jerry's scrubs from surgery days.  Why is this weird, you ask?  Well, Jerry had said he would be pretty late getting his presentation ready for Prague, so to see he had been home, but was randomly gone again was a bit weird.

    I thought he had rushed out to see the last bit of soccer, but not so.   I called his cell, no answer....

.... then as I went downstairs, I saw a random light on in the back storage room (where the suitcases are kept),  and thought he had probably started packing, but didn't see his suitcase anywhere.

... when I walked into the downstairs bathroom, I saw this in the garbage... 
... which isn't really that out of the blue - we have quite a few episodes of broken glass around here (although, most of them do involve kids)... so I didn't really worry, until I saw this...
... which again, normally isn't quite crazy, that is, unless you know my hubby.  Jerry is a bit on the ... ummm... anal, er, I mean EXTREMELY detail oriented side of things, and cleans up any spills, breaks, etc to the UTTER nuance of mess, so to see pieces of glass scattered did start me down the worry trail.

... So I called his phone - nothing.  I put the kids down, and watched a tv show - one that featured a kidnap victim who didn't answer the phone... not a good show to watch...

... and called again... still nothing.

Finally, at about 10:45, I got through to him... and got part 2 of the twilight series... His side...

... So Jerry had the flight booked months ago, and had Tuesday blocked off as his travel day, so had planned that Tuesday was his flight day. (you know where this is heading already, don't you... but wait, it gets better!!)...

... On Sunday, he tried to double check his itinerary 3 different times, but couldn't get into the Mayo system.

... On Monday, any break he got to try to double check his itinerary was interrupted by random crazy surgery complications, and one in particular took the entire afternoon.

... When he finally got a minute, at around 7:00 pm, he logged on, got into the itinerary, and saw that this...

had left the Rochester airport at 6:30 pm, and what he had thought was a Tuesday travel day was actually a Monday night-all day Tuesday travel day...

... which I am actually surprised that, for someone who has pretty much every detail planned and organized, did not cause a full on heart attach on the spot.

... He flew out of the clinic, threw some things in a suitcase, and made it to the minneaopolis airport (the connecting flight) in about 50 minutes (an 85 mile drive... you do the math...).

... He got to the counter, who told him he could still make the flight if he didn't check his luggage, so he went through security (and realized that he hadn't packed his 'liquid-like' things in neat little 3 oz bottles, so got to ditch most of the toiletry items...).

... He made it to the gate to get a boarding pass, only to be told that he would be able to get on the plane... for a fee of $250 (since it was considered a 'change of flight'), to which he quickly agreed to pay... only to have the lady put more information into the computer and come back with, "oh, wait, that will be a $5,600 fee.... (yes, you read that right, 5 THOUSAND, 6 HUNDRED dollars!)

... to which Jerry replied with the exact same phrase that you just thought, "Are you KIDDING me??!"  But no, she was not kidding in the least bit.  She tried to 'logically' explain that since he didn't get on in Rochester,  he would now have to purchase a whole new ticket, which was, $5,600.  To which Jerry tried to 'logically' explain back to her, "So, you are telling me, that there is an EMPTY seat in there, which I have ALREADY paid for, and I am standing right here, ready to claim, but in order for me to actually get into my reserved seat, which I have ALEARY paid for,  I have to purchase ANOTHER FULL ticket??!"  ... to which she didn't bat an eye as she told him that's exactly what he would have to do.

... after arguing for a bit, she sent him back to the main counter (outside of security, of course!), to speak with some managers, who also went back and forth, and then said they would try to work something out, so sent him BACK to the gate (and another trip through security)...

... by this time he was at a full sprint trying to make the gate... when an asian woman, speaking very little english, wearing a very thin, plastic flip flop sandal-type shoe stepped right in his path, causing the wheel of his suitcase to run over her foot... which broke the aforementioned strap on the flip flop... which women then got her husband and started following after Jerry.

... So he arrives at the ticket counter and starts the 'logical' discussion once again with the boarding agent, while at the same time being tapped on the shoulder by the husband of the broken-shoe woman who is ranting in broken english that Jerry broke his wife's shoe, while waving the shoe in Jerry's face. (Seriously, folks, I am NOT making this up!!!)

... The boarding agent would not be convinced, and the plane did pull away, with Jerry still in the airport, with crazy asian couple and a bunch of rude agents.  

... He made it back downstairs to speak with the manager, and after about 1  1/2 hours of deliberation, she finally took pity on him and let him do a 'change of flight' for the $250 instead of the whole new ticket... for the flight to leave on the next day... which means he just might make it to Prague just in time to give his presentation... (If he can exit the twilight zone by then, however).

   The poor guy finally made it home a little before midnight last night, and me, being the empathetic, kind wife that I am, laughed hysterically as he was relating all of the vivid details of his wreched ordeal, then spent the rest of the time begging him to let me blog about it (I mean, c'mon, this stuff is too good not to share, right??!).  It did take some convincing, but he finally relented, provided that nobody from work actually sees the blog.  So if you are reading this, and you happen to work with my hubby, you must erase from your mind what you have just read, and overcome any temptation (regardless of how great it is) to mock my poor, haggled and frazzled hubby :).