Ireland Trip Part 1...Airplanes!

Before we went to Ireland, I had flown on a plane approximately 3 times.  Once was a short trip from Kansas City to Wichita when Vanguard airlines had cheap-o flights and my sister and I got to fly back from a trip to our family in Iowa when we were young.  The other time was from Dallas to Des Moines, and back, with the husband to see my grandmother for the last time.  These were all fairly short flights.  So I was a little anxious about making 4 flights in one week!  Yep, we had to fly from Dallas to New York, then New York to Shannon in Ireland.  Then of course do the same, but in reverse, to come home.

Our first flight was about 3 hours long on a small, little plane.  It was an uneventful flight.  We had about a 5 hour layover in New York, and then boarded a much, much bigger plane for Ireland.  This flight would take almost 6 hours and we would arrive around 8:00 a.m. in Ireland.  Once we boarded the plane, the captain told us we would probably taxi for about an hour, since a lot of international flights leave at night.  So we sat without moving for a little while longer when the captain came back on and said that a passenger hadn't checked-in on the plane, so they had to get their luggage off the plane.  So we had to wait for them to throw all the suitcases off the plane and find this no-show person's bags!

Finally, we were moving and up in the air!  I had planned to try to sleep as much as possible on the plane, but first they served everyone dinner.  That took for-ev-er.  Then they dimmed the lights for a bit and I snoozed off and on.  It's hard to sleep in economy class seats when your 5'10" knees are shoved into the back of the seat in front of you, but I did manage a few cat naps. (This also helped me develop cankles from HELL!)  Before I knew it they were turning the damn lights back on to serve breakfast!  We had just eaten, and now were eating again.  It was ridiculous. 

So I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted, but it was ok. Now, the flights back made me hate how entitled people feel.  On the flight from Ireland to NY there was some dude who would repeatedly push the flight attendant call button, which makes a dinging sound throughout the whole plane each time one is pressed.  I thought maybe he was having some kind of emergency when he pressed the button like 20 times in a row.  But apparently he just wanted more Coke.  The rest of the plane hadn't even been served yet!  And from what I had seen, they really don't give refills on your complimentary beverage. 

But the people with the biggest entitlement issues were on our 4 hour flight from NY to Dallas.  There was a couple on an exit row.  If you don't know, exit rows have TONS of leg room.  As soon as everyone got on, the man started complaining that his seat was too hard.  Mind you, we were in economy class on some rinky-dink little plane.  So he told the flight attendant that they wanted to be moved to the front of the plane.  She said she would be right back and when she came back she told them they could sit at the back of the plane.  Well, the man said he wanted to sit at the front and if they couldn't do that, they would just stay there.  Hello, front seats are better and cost more! If he wanted to sit up front, he should've paid the price!  Anyway, this man wasn't done bitching.  The flight attendant started to explain to them about the exit row they were on and what to do in an emergency, when the captain started speaking, so this complainer man started saying in a very rude tone that he couldn't hear what was being said so she needed to be quiet.  So she came back and started to explain again after it was quiet and the man again was just very rude and insulting to her.  He was just going on and on about his hard seat and the flight attendant being stupid and not knowing anything, so my husband and I piped up and said we would trade seats with them. Hello leg room!  That was agreeable to all, so we stretched our legs out and enjoyed the extra room!  Then the man started to complain that he better get a pillow and blanket.  Again, 4 hour flight...they don't do that!  Then he saw the first class people getting meal and the rest of us get pretzels or peanuts, and he wanted to demand a meal.  Seriously?!  Again, pay the extra money if you want to be up front!  Otherwise, shut the hell up!

We went on a holiday!

Ok, so since I am from the states, I guess I should call it a "vacation" instead of "holiday".  Yep, we finally took our trip to Ireland and had a blast!  I will probably be writing several blog posts in the next few days, rather than make one huge post that never ends.  You're welcome.

I'm totally turning into my parents

For reals.  I am totally turning into my parents, and I don't know how to stop it.  Maybe I should just embrace it.  My latest transition has been dishes.  Yes, dishes.  More specifically, washing dishes.  Our house has a dishwasher.  For many years we have used the dishwasher and for many years we have re-washed dishes and scraped pieces of dried on food off dishes.  I guess the husband and I finally came to our breaking point.  It may have been partly that the dishes weren't coming clean all the time, and partly that it takes the two of us forever to fill up the dishwasher, so we would run out of bowls constantly.  So we have purchased a dish drainer and have begun to hand wash our dishes. *gasp!*  Now we say stuff like, "think of all the water and energy we are saving!".  "Look how clear our glasses are becoming!"

So, you might be wondering how in the world washing dishes means I am turning into my parents?  Well, once upon a time, a long, long, looooong time ago, they had a dishwasher.  Then they decided it wasn't getting their dishes clean and could use the cabinet space, so they began washing their dishes by hand.  Every night, after dinner.  Just like the husband and I are doing now.

Here I go again!

So school is finally out for the summer!  I am counting down the weeks to our Ireland vacation!  In the meantime, a friend and myself have signed up at a local gym that opened last fall and is different than the other gym in town because this one offers about 55 classes a week.  You pay your dues and attend what you want.  (There is no contract or sign-up fee, you just pay month-to-month, which is nice!)  We started going to classes on Monday morning. Now, it's Friday evening, and every single inch of my body hurts.  I have been sore all week long, but have gone back each day to work through the pain and get stronger.  But now, I am glad I don't have a class the next two days!  (Ok, so there is a boot camp and a spin class tomorrow, but since I am new to this I think I should rest. Ha!)

So far I have attended two spin classes and my hiney is so not used to bicycle seats!  OUCH!  Spin was the first class I attended, and at one point I seriously thought I was going to pass out.  But I went again today and it was much better.  My "sit bones" still hurt something fierce though.  I also attended some stretching/yoga type class, which was nice.  Tuesday I had to work, so I went to a circuit training class in the afternoon and about died again.  (Did I mention that most of these classes are 1 hour long?)  Wednesday was our last day of work and I decided to give the body a break.  Thursday I went to shadowboxing (but we got to put gloves on and punch stuff..score!!!) for an hour, and then did another class called "Body Slay".  I think that is what has finally caught up with me today as I feel slayed.  That was a class where you do all sorts of exercises holding a weighted (mine was 12lb) bar the entire time.  Then today I decided to go to spin and then try the abs class.  Spin was much better today, I didn't feel like passing out.  The abs class...well, let's just say I tried.  I have like zero abdominal muscles, and I am pretty sure I banged the hell out of my back doing situps since I can't really slowly go back down (because of the lack of ab muscles) so I just slammed back down on the floor instead.  Repeatedly.  Good times. 

Now I am in misery.  Ok, I may be a little over-dramatic, but I did get out of doing dishes tonight.  I can't wait until next week so I can do it all over again!

In Other News...

I turned 32 this past weekend.  I had some sweet lil kids bring me birthday gifts to school.  I guess they just paid attention to the birthday calendar I have in my classroom and were thoughtful enough to bring me something (I sure didn't announce my birthday...it's not as much fun when you're in your 30s!).

The husband and I went and saw "Dark Shadows".  My husband got a little snippy with the refreshments worker.  I guess it was because he caved and donated a dollar to the Children's Miracle Network at the ticket counter, and then the refreshments chick kept trying to get him to upgrade his popcorn, upgrade his drink, and donate again to the Children's Miracle Network.  He tried to tell her that he already donated at the door and she mentioned something again and he went off about already spending $20 for some popcorn and 2 drinks and something about squeezing him for every penny he's got and so on.  It was mildly embarrassing, but I could totally see his point.  (Oh, we did enjoy the movie...but I love all Tim Burton and Johnny Depp films!)

After the movie we went to eat and drink beer at BJ's Restauarant and Brewhouse.  I love their California burgers!  Then after that we went to Ganache and got a few delicious cupcakes (instead of a birthday cake).  I am in *love* with their chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.  They have a peanut butter ball in the chocolate cake, and then are topped with the most delicious peanut butter icing.  To die for!

Then my present was the new Charlaine Harris "Sookie Stackhouse" novel, "Deadlocked".  I read it in a couple days.

All in all it was a good day.  I'll leave you with a picture of what 32 looks like. :)

I have the worst luck!

I thought PayPal was supposed to be the most secure service in the whole entire world.  I switched to pay my Netflix through PayPal after I had my debit card number stolen again.  That's all I really use it for, besides the occasional eBay purchase.  So imagine my surprise when I came home from work yesterday and checked my email on my phone and saw that apparently I had sent around $2,500 in donations overseas to someone going by the name "Rick Ross" while I was at work.  The subject for all of my donations..."wheezy".  Really?  REALLY?! 

PayPal had emailed me after the 4th "donation" had been made to tell me they had limited my account and I needed to change my password and gave instructions on how to dispute any transactions.  So I pulled up my laptop to take care of all of this, and of course my internet was out!  So you better believe I ran back to my car and drove 100 mph back to the school so I could use a computer.  I got everything changed and reported all the transactions.

Now it's a waiting game.  The 5 "donations" I did not authorize are pending out of my checking account...so yeah, someone who gets paid once a month got more than her monthly paycheck taken out of her checking account balance today. Yay me. PayPal has temporarily credited my PayPal account for 3 of the 5 transactions.  I am waiting to see if they credit me for the other two.  "Rick Ross" apparently refunded me for one of the $655 "donations" he stole, but that's only showing up on PayPal at this time and not my checking account.  He apparently has 7 days to prove those donations were valid.  The investigation PayPal is doing can take up to 10 business days.  My account may not be fully refunded for up to 30 days.  My bank said just to let PayPal handle it.  I. HATE. WAITING. Especially when thousands of my dollars are involved.

It also pisses me off that someone has nothing better to do than steal money from people who work hard to earn it!  It's not easy being a teacher.

Oh, and a google search revealed that the real Rick Ross is a rapper with a charity.  But that charity is in the United States, NOT overseas.  And when I went to his website, there was no PayPal button.  And I doubt an official website would use Hotmail.  Who actually uses Hotmail anymore???  I'll tell ya who...thieves.

Oh, kids

Teaching is definitely never dull.  I have a student who spends the whole class period talking, so his work rarely gets completed unless I can sit right next to him and keep him on task.  Well, that is near to impossible when you have 19 other people in a room who are needing help as well.  So sometimes he has to come see me during his PE time for me to help him get caught up.  He came today so I could work with him, and of course he started talking like he always does, and we got off on a tangent about missing pet posters around town and how much he wished his mom would let him go around and look for these animals so he could earn the reward money.  I was telling him about a cat that our neighbor had lost and was offering a $500 reward for, and then he suddenly says, "Ok, we need to focus and get back to work."  I wanted to die laughing!  I have probably told him to focus and get on task about a million times this year, so to hear him tell me that just about cracked me up!