Father’s Day Tie
e, 4.5 years old
15 June 2008
markers on colored paper
We were set to leave the Ft. Meyers airport on Saturday just after lunch. We had a flight to Atlanta, and then a ridiculously long layover – over seven hours – before we headed out to our final destination – home. We had tried lots of different combinations in the flight planning but all increased the price of each ticket several hundred dollars, so we figured we could certainly survive it and save six hundred dollars in the process. Our original itinerary had us arriving home very late, and we anticipated once we got the luggage, the car and drove home it would be well after midnight.
Right before we got on the plane, the airline called for three willing participants to step aside and reap the benefits. The plane was overbooked, and they were offering twelve hundred dollars in airline vouchers (hey! – we can apply half of that to the fuel and baggage surcharges on our next trip!) a night’s stay in a hotel, transportation, meals, and the bonus – first class seats on the early morning flight the following day. Um, yes! Over here! Three willing participants! And despite not being able to retrieve our checked luggage from the departing plane, we managed to survive by raiding the toiletry stash at the hotel and whiling away the hours shopping, catching a movie, and going out to dinner – all of the things that we had planned to do the next day – Father’s Day – at home. We arrived home less than eleven hours after we were to arrive originally, after having spent a blissful forty-five minutes in the Atlanta airport, which was really and truly the best part of the whole deal.
The half pint portion of our travelling trio wasn’t bothered in the least with the change, and rolled with it…until she realized the implications of this change on her carefully laid Father’s Day plans. I managed to convince her that we could make those things work, even away from home, and she did her part in making sure that he was “surprised” by her thoughtful little gestures all day long. As soon as we arrived home, she scampered upstairs while we unpacked. Awhile later she came downstairs with the first of many surprises behind her back. It was a tie, complete with a piece of scotch tape for him to affix it to his shirt, which he did. I think it’s really hilarious – I don’t remember ever giving him a tie for any event, especially Father’s Day. But it’s such a widespread symbol of the typical gift – she must have seen it somewhere!
She did get him a combination of two of their favorite things – a car and Lego’s, and she happily sorted while he built all evening. And of course, they were flight buddies in first class with their headphones on all morning. So it turned out to be a really great, really relaxing, and somewhat profitable Father’s Day…complete with a tie – and a lovely patterned tie at that.
