…Over a delayed flight (and I didn’t kill my wife!)

(Posted by Ron)

It was 3:45pm and we still had to wait for our luggage.  We weren’t even sure it had gotten on our plane.  It had, and by 4:15 it was in tow.  Remember we had over packed?  There was more luggage than two people could handle.  Nerves began to fray again.  The cruise line representatives were milling around trying to figure out what to do, but didn’t seem very organized.  Finally, at around 5:00pm, which was the scheduled “drop dead” sailing time, a bus arrived to take us to the ship.  It took two separate trips by Gayle and me to get our luggage to the bus.

We finally got to the ship around 5:30 and the gangway was still open.  Hooray!  We made it! We went to our stateroom and crashed for a while.  There was a knock on the door and two of our three pieces of checked luggage were put on the bed.  One was missing even though we had seen it loaded on the bus.  A couple of hours later we had dinner with our honeymooning friends Dixie and Jeff.

After dinner we went back to the stateroom.  No luggage.  I finally found it lying beside the customer service desk.  I was told they had been unable to identify it for delivery even though it had a luggage tag, a cruise line provided ID (with stateroom number on it) and a large strip of very pink duct tape with our name written prominently on it in magic marker.  A cruise representative said they would deliver it immediately.  An hour later it wasn’t there and when I called again I was told it was being delivered.  In another hour I called and was told there was no undelivered luggage except for one piece beside the desk.  I asked “is it blue with pink tape on it?”  It was.  I was “stern” enough this time to get it ten minutes later.  It was now 12:30 am.  We had been awake since Thursday morning.  It’s now Saturday morning.  I have had 2 hours sleep in the last 36 hours.  Gayle had none except for an airplane catnap.

Like many of our posts this story is really about being a couple not just a MayDecember couple.  Throughout the first day of what should be the trip of a lifetime we’ve had numerous opportunities to combust and mar the entire trip with anger and blame.

There’s no question we had some angry moments with each other during the stops and starts of getting to the ship and settling in.  In fact, there were many times when we weren’t talking with each other because our words seemed to come out more as indictments than soothers.  We again used the quiet time, however, to calm ourselves so we could reenter the day without the accusations or blame.  After all, neither Gayle nor I were the cause of the delays and luggage problems.  We were responsible only for our reactions to them.

Although we were both extremely tired and frustrated, we were able to use the years of work we’ve done on our communication skills and relationship to allow us to come back together rather than just continue the arguments.

It would have been an excellent day for battle.  However, we’ve learned that wars between us can simmer for days and even weeks.  We made the choice to not let that happen.  It has taken a lot of practice and willingness to look to our own reactions to circumstances before blaming the other.  There is no war aboard this ship now, just peace and enjoyment.  Life is good!

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