It's a Busy Life

I can hardly believe that much time has past since my last post, however, I have been very busy.

I went to Holland the end of March for an Open House on our Marian Gobiushof House. I had a chance to have the house cleaned and clean up the yard a bit. Lots of stuff needed trimming. Unfortunately, there was only one couple that looked at the house. We are now offering the house for Sale or Lease. The market seems to be picking up now that the weather is getting nicer. Europe had a pretty cold winter this year, and that slowed the market down a lot, in addition to the current economic condition of the entire world!

My trip going to Holland was pretty uneventful; however, coming home was a nightmare that I hope I never have to repeat again. My 9:30 AM KLM flight leaving Amsterdam was 45 minutes late leaving, and arrived 30 minutes late into Munich. Therefore, I missed my connection on Qatar Airways by about 2 minutes. The plane was still parked at the gate, but they would not let me on the flight because I did not get to the gate 20 minutes before departure. Very frustrating! I went over to the ticket office to rebook on the next flight only to find out that the next flight was not leaving until the next day at 4:30 PM. The ticket agent not exactly wanted to be helpful, so I had to think through this myself. I asked when the next flight was leaving Frankfurt. She looked and said that there was a flight leaving at 11:00PM that night. It is now 12:45 PM. How much would it cost to get me on a flight to Frankfurt? She said about 400 Euros. Ok, so where is the closest train ticket agent. She directed me to the train ticket agent, which was about 100 meters away. There was an ICE train leaving Munich's main station at 1:55 PM. The underground train takes 45 minutes to get to the main station. Ok, that was no problem. Fortunately, I have spent a good amount of time in the past on the underground system in Munich with all of my trips to the Back Surgeon, Dr. Zeegers. This was the first time that I had flown into Munich and was NOT going to see Dr. Zeegers. Basically, I had only a few minutes to rebook my airline ticket and get downstairs to the underground, and once I got to the main station, I had about 10 minutes to make the transition. When I get on the underground and start shuffling through all the papers that both agents had given me, I realize that the Qatar Airways agent did not give me back my bag tag or my Bank Pin card. I was not too worried about that because you have to have the pin to use it, however, my bag tag was a problem. I was sure that I could get that sorted out when I got to Frankfurt. When the underground arrived at the Main station, I grabbed a sandwich for lunch and a drink and got on the train. I bought a 1st class ticket, so I knew getting a good seat would be no problem. The train has T-Mobile HotSpot internet, but I could not connect to it because so many people were already connected. I had to notify Jim that I was not going to be arriving in Doha until the next day. I sent him a text message from my phone and hoped that he received it. Four and a half hours later when I arrived in Frankfurt the Qatar Air counter was closed because they are not there until 3 hours before the flight. I got connected to the T-Mobile HotSpot and sent Jim some instant messages via gmail hoping that he would get those messages as well. Jim finally called and I explained what happened and what flight I would be arriving on the next day. I was the first person in line when the counter opened. I explained the situation to the agent and his English was not the greatest, so he called his manager over to help me. The manager says that he received a fax from the Munich office saying that I "forgot" my credit card at the counter in Munich. There was probably steam coming off the top of my head by then. I said,” Excuse me?" “Your agent did not give me back my credit card or my bag tag. I am pretty sure that would be her responsibility!” He shuffled around awhile trying to figure out how he was going to fix this problem. The manager said that since things were such a mess that he would bump me up to Business class, which was good. I don't normally fly economy, but this was a daytime flight and only 6 hours. By this time my stress level and anxiety level were through the roof. I have anxiety when I have to spend a lot of time in airports under normal circumstances. This was my third airport in one day! I could not really take any Xanax before I boarded the flight, as I was afraid of not getting to the gate on time. Once I was on the plane, an agent came on and gave me the number on my bag tag, which she had traced through KLM. Ok, so eventually I would get my bag.... well, maybe. There was a really smelly man sitting next to me and two empty seats across the isle from me, so I moved as far from him as I could get. I took some Xanax and a muscle relaxant. They came by and took my order for dinner and I told the Stewart that if I was not awake when dinner was ready to NOT wake me up. As soon as I could recline my seat, I went to sleep. I arrived in Doha the next morning at 6 AM, March 30th. Jim had paid for the Meet & Greet service. There is an agent that is waiting for you when you get off the plane and she takes you to a lounge while she takes your bag tag and passport and gets everything processed and then comes back and gets you. We usually do this so that we do not have to wait in the passport line. She went with me to report my lost luggage, because of course it was not there. Jim drives me home and goes to work.

My luggage arrived that night and was almost just as much a nightmare as the episode was the day before. The flight arrived at 10:30 PM and I was at the airport when the flight arrived. I return home about 3 AM....with my luggage.

With all the stress from that trip, my Fibromyalgia has kicked in vigorously. Every muscle in my body was tight and painful. Thankfully, Yoga does help with that over time. However, two days later I start with cold symptoms and it progressively get worse, so I self medicated with antibiotics and now I am all better.

I'm back to teaching 90-minute Yoga lessons twice a week and going to a 3-hour Bible Study each week. I also fit in mosaics when I have time. I tend to my garden daily.

Sadie, the dog that we adopted for a brief period, we have now re-homed. I could not give her enough exercise a day. She was very active and would run around the yard like a crazy dog, just to get her run in for the morning. It got to the point where she needed to do this 3-4 times a day. She is living with a nice Indian couple that has more room for her to roam. A compound is not a place for a very active dog.