There and back again

I won't bore you with all the details of my vacation. But there are a few stories (and pictures) worth sharing. Now for those of you who have never traveled with me you may not know that something is always sure to go wrong when I travel by air. There was the Cuban crisis of 2006 and let's not forget about what happens in Vegas.

This time around it appeared everything was going according to plan. Our whole group of five arrived at the airport on time. We checked in without incident, had zero problems going through security and had time to eat dinner while waiting for our flight. Granted, our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes but one expects those things in this day and age.

What I did not expect was that our group would be separated on the plane. This shouldn't have been a huge problem. The window seat was empty, I was in the middle, my teeny-tiny roomie was in the aisle. The boys were right across from us and Liz was several rows closer to the front.

Not a problem. Until I noticed a woman who appeared to be eyeing that window seat.

The woman was enormous.

I'm not talking just overweight. I'm a big girl myself, so I have plenty of sympathy and compassion for plus-size girls. But this woman was way beyond overweight. She was huge!

I tried to stay calm and convince myself she was looking at the seat in front of me. She inched closer and closer down the aisle and within moments was standing right there, pointing at the seat next to me, asking to slide in. Oh, mommy.

I was crushed, both literally and figuratively. Praise God for teeny-tiny roomies because I had to lift up the arm rest and half sit in her seat. My whole body ached from sitting in a half-bent position on the edge of the seat for the entire three-hour flight.

And so begins vacation.