Paris - Day One (Friday into Saturday) - The Prelude

For our trip to Paris, we decided to fly out of Philadelphia to make it a direct flight and to drop Jezebel off at my mom's house. We were going to drive up to Philly on Thursday night, but work obligations prevented us from leaving until Friday morning. Larry had been anxiously awaiting the delivery of his new glasses to the Sears and they were supposed to come in on Friday, but no one knew when. We loaded up the car, got breakfast, drove to Ellicott City to drop some computer equipment off at my boss' house. As we were getting in the car, Larry got a call - the glasses were in! We turned around and headed back down to Bowie and got the glasses. I waited in the car with Jezebel. When Larry returned to the car from the Sears, he handed me the glasses and says "Put these on and tell me what you see!". Of course, what I saw was what I see when I have had a few drinks, everything was blurry. Turns out, it was blurry for Larry too, and he was worried that he had given them my prescription instead of his. Realizing that this was not the case, I suggested that he try them on upside down. They worked perfectly. So, Larry had glasses and would be able to see Paris, but Paris would have to see Larry wearing his glasses like he just got off the short bus.

We needed to run back to the house to get yet another jacket for me, so Larry removed the lenses, flipped them and screwed them back in. They looked pretty good, considering, and he could see without wearing glasses like a retard. Hooray!

We headed up to Philly, visited with my family for a few hours, then drove to the airport. Security was not too bad, made it to the gate and had a few drinks in the hopes that it would help us sleep on the plane. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:40PM. We were on the plane, on the ground, until 9:50. Apparently, the luggage loader had gotten jammed, and in the process had jammed one of the containers of luggage half way in/halfway out of the plane, and it took them an hour to get it unstuck. Finally, after an hour of waiting, we were airborn.

We were airborn sardines. The seats were so tight that Larry's knees were constantly pressing against the seat in front of him. And the little leg room that you used to have under the seat has been replaced with big boxes that house the electronics needed for each of the personal entertainment systems. Now, I like TV and all, but not when it means less space for my body to sit comfortably. I literally curled up into a ball, with my legs half on Larry's lap, so that he could turn and put his feet under my seat (thats love, people). We slept uncomfortably for most of the flight. The sleeping pills that Amanda gave us gave Larry horrendous gas pains, which thankfully did not turn into my horrendous nose pains.

We arrived in Paris at 11AM on Saturday, instead of the scheduled 10:05. Hooray, Paris!

(One hilarious sidenote- while on the plane, Larry and I observed the bottom legband of someone's tighty-whitey's. The teenage boy in the seat next to us had his pants so low, that I am pretty sure that you could just call them off. Just in case you were wondering- and I know you were - boy whaletail is not cute. Don't worry, Larry took pictures with his cellphone- let me know if you want a copy. And I'll let the proper authorities know.)