magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

Sam called first thing this morning in a huff. 'America West has to be the worst run airline that I've ever flown.'

'I take it your flight has been delayed then.'

'According to the departures board, yes. But I haven't even been able to talk to anyone at the counter yet. I got in line with plenty of time, and it's been over an hour and the line has hardly moved, and only a few people have gotten their boarding passes. Meanwhile the lines at the other airlines in the terminal are just clicking right along.'

'Well, how long has it been delayed? Your stopover in Phoenix is only a little over an hour, and you don't want to miss your connection.'

'It was originally half an hour, and that came and went. Now it says an hour and twenty minutes.'

'Let me call the airline and see if I can figure anything out. Stay in line and find out what you can. And I'll call you back.'

According to the airline the hour and twenty delay looked to be accurate. There was no way that he'd make the connection. The only other flight into Columbus today was through Las Vegas, and wouldn't be leaving until 2:00, over four hours later than he was supposed to be in the air. That wouldn't put him in Columbus until 11:00. He was originally scheduled to arrive at 6:43. Aaron and I were arriving from New York at 6:44.

'We're all flying in for a surprise birthday party for our father. It's not going to be quite the same surprise if we arrive separated by four hours. I don't know how many hours I spent trying to book affordable flights that all got in right around the same time.'

'I'm sorry, that's all I can do that will get in today.'

'Well, he already spent last night sleeping in the airport. So I guess if you could change him to that flight we're just going to have to figure things out from there.'

They bumped him up to first class for the forty minute trip to Las Vegas, but then made him return to coach for the rest of the flight. They wanted him to get off of the plane, but because this wasn't the plane he had originally been scheduled to be on he didn't have a boarding pass and was afraid that they wouldn't let him back on to continue his trip.

---

I met up with Aaron at the Audubon holiday party which they were holding at a restaurant in SoHo. Afternoon holiday parties tend not to be quite the same thing as evening parties, but seeing as how I would be missing my own office's party in a handful of hours, 'crashing' my brother's party and drinking a free beer was about the best I was going to do.

We got to LaGuardia with nearly an hour, check-in was breeze (they had to pull me aside at the security check because my bracelets set off the metal detector), and our plane was on-time.

Annette met us at the airport in Columbus and took us to a vegetarian restaurant she had read about online called Dragonfly while we were waiting for Sam to get in. She called our dad and told him that she was out shopping and would be home late. Dragonfly was easily on par with my favourite fancy restaurants in New York. All vegan, as it happened, and very tasty.

---

Sam's flight arrived, finally, and we all headed out to West Liberty to surprise Dad. 'I'll go in first,' Annette said, 'and tell him that I have some bags in the car that I need a hand with. While he's getting ready to come outside, you guys can come in and surprise him.'

However, as he is in possession of the worry gene (which I am fortunate enough to have inherited) he had been waiting by the door for the previous half hour and came up the walkway as soon as he heard a car pull in. He was flabbergasted to see all three of his sons come piling out of the car.

He knew that Annette had had something up her sleeve for his birthday, we had been planning this for about two months, but had absolutely no idea that we were all coming out. It's the first time that Aaron has been out to his place in Ohio. Sam only just moved to California. And I've hardly left New York in the past few years.

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I do have to mention that there is a little bitter to the sweet of of being here. The last handful of times I visited were all with Stef. The last time, almost exactly two years ago, was the last night that Stef and I ever spent together.