Queen for a Day

I'm back in town.

I was supposed to leave my conference at 1 pm and get home at 6 pm, but after missing my family and checking the agenda for the conference, I decided that I didn't need to attend this morning's sessions. So, I woke up at 4:15 (ugh!) and headed to the airport to catch an earlier flight. I had checked online last night and saw that the 6 am flight was wide open, and that there was a 6:50 flight only half full. I figured that I could get on one of those.

I did, but barely.

The 6:50 was cancelled and those passengers were called the night before and told to come get on the 6:00 flight. I waited in a terribly long line (especially for 5:00 in the morning!) and was told that there was only one seat left. Great! I said, I only need one seat. Well, in order to hold it, the ticket agent said, you'll have to pay a fee. She said this with a sad look on her face. Uh oh...so I quietly asked, what's the fee?? (praying that it wasn't the difference between my ticket and the current price...which would be an unachievable $400 and also praying that it wasn't the $100 fee they charge for changing your flight on the phone.) I held my breath....She said, 25 dollars. $25! :> :> :> no problem, $25 to get on a plane and not have to wait for 7 hours in the airport...why that's less than four bucks an hour. Count me in!

So I got home at noon instead of six tonight, much to the delight of M and T (who were home at the time) and R (who got home a few hours later). T decided that I should be a queen and proceeded to get out paper, scissors, tape, and markers (the necessary requirements of all good art projects.)

He asked me what name I wanted on a royal name tag that he was making and I said "S....". He said I couldn't use my real name and I needed to pick another. So I picked "Sue", my middle name. He didn't like that either, so he said, I'll pick a beautiful name for me. So he made me a name tag that reads...

Queen Rowala Diamond

He got help on the spelling, but the name is all his. I don't know where he got that name, but he is very proud of it. "Isn't it beautiful?" he said. Yes it is, I said, proudly wearing the paper crown and nametag, with a very warm feeling in my heart.

It's nice to be home....and it's nice to be queen :>