The Longer Version

On Friday, as we got in line to pay for our Badger tickets to cross Lake Michigan, I checked my voice mail. I said to Lee "Oh. I bet we didn't pass court again today." (Since we'd had no luck on Wednesday and power outage on Friday.)

I listened to sweet Terra's voice saying "Congratulation! You passed court today!" The message was longer but I didn't hear anything else after that. I yelled over to Lee, who was sitting with the luggage "Hey! We're parents! And we're traveling June 7! Get on line quick and post something." Then I started calling our parents. Left messages as neither set of parents were home. (Where the HECK were they! Hello! Important news!)

Got a call from AWAA, but was on another line, so called back, assuming it was Terra. But it was the travel coordinator. Oh gosh. Paid for Badger tickets. Called Travel Coord as we were walking onto the car ferry. She asked if she could call me back since I was clearly distracted, and the ferry was loud with all the cars being loaded on. I said sure. We got seats and settled in, and then I realized that NO, she couldn't call me back because in about 10 minutes we were going to be out of phone range. Called her back and left message saying that she'd have to call me soon and that my in-laws were traveling with us as well. She didn't get that message, as I called her back again just as the boat left the dock.

We made the travel arrangements, I gave her the credit card number. Whew! Still have a signal... called Lee's sister Carrie who was very excited for us. I think we got a "Holy Schnickeys" out of her. Called Lee's mom again. Left message about tickets being ordered and that June 7 was a go.

Lost signal.

If all that sounds choppy and breathless... well, it was. It was all HURRY HURRY HURRY, and after so much PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE it was quite overwhelming.

When we got to our motel in MI, my credit card was denied and I had a call from the anti-fraud dept. of the credit card co. Well, yes, I suppose $10,000 in tickets to Ethiopia DID look a little suspicious! Got that all sorted out and collapsed into bed, where we watched cable TV. (We don't have cable at home, so it's sort of a treat for us... except that nothing was on....)