Every other time we’ve flown into the Bay Area to visit with Josh, we’ve always mapped out very carefully exactly where we will eat and when - to jam in all the good eating experiences we can before we have to return to wherever it is where we lived. It’s crazy to think that now we don’t have to eat ourselves into a food coma in less than a week, since we’ll be here and can comatize ourselves anytime we want.

Our trip wasn’t bad at all. The car service came and loaded our stuff, crated Ava and all, and we arrived at O’Hare with no problems whatsoever. United, however, sucks nuts. It’s no wonder bankruptcies are abound because good christ, were they ever inefficient and sloppy.

Case in point: When we first booked our flights, I called United to ask about how to transport Ava and how much it would cost. The guy on the phone said, “Oh, that’s $85,” and then proceeded to book our flights without really telling us what he was doing nor understanding a damn thing I was saying and then wanted to charge me $15 for the privilege. I told him that he was making this entirely too complicated (he couldn’t grok that Josh and I don’t have the same last names) and hung up and booked the flight online. Chicago to San Francisco, one-way via Las Vegas.

(Herein lies a rub: if I’d just booked the flights to begin with, we could have gone straight from Chicago to San Francisco at the rate I’d chosen, cheeep.)

A week or so later, I call back and ask if there’s anything else I’m missing, because of a thread at TUS I’d started about flying with pets and hot weather and such. I call and the guy tells me that there’s in fact a pet embargo from July through September on flights with any stops in hot weather areas, of which Las Vegas is definitely one. So Ava will be able to fly, but instead of $85, it’ll be $286 “approximately”, and no worries, Ava will be able to fly without us, directly from Chicago to San Francisco.

We get to the airport yesterday and Josh checks in himself, his two bags (which the way things turned out were my bag and Matthew’s bag), and Matthew as a “lap infant”. I take Ava to the pet cargo area and the woman’s like, “No, you can’t take her on this flight. She has to stay with you at all times.” I told her exactly what the last agent had told me, and she typed furiously into her computer. When she was done, she announced, “OK, you’re now flying directly to San Francisco,” and tore up Josh’s and Matthew’s old boarding passes. And instead of $85 or $286, her flying fee was $200.

We got to San Francisco with little to-do - thank goodness - and Ava was alive, if not a little wary and a little stir crazy. The bags Josh checked didn’t make it to the new flight, so we filled out a form to have them dropped off. I called last night at 11pm to find out what the status was and the customer service person said that the bags had arrived in San Francisco, and would be on the 12:30AM delivery service route. “Leave a note on your door and we won’t disturb you.”

This morning, no bags. I call back and it turns out that the bags didn’t arrive until 4:30AM (!!!) and would be on the delivery route this morning, so right now I am waiting, and very cranky.

Not one piece of this trip worked out with United, except we got into town a lot earlier than we anticipated, and United didn’t kill my dog. So I guess that’s something to be happy for. But I’d also like clean underwear.

Matthew was a bear on the plane for a while - not saying bye bye plane but for awhile shouting at the top of his lungs because he was fighting a nap. He succumbed to my will after patiently patting and shhing (Thank God for Dr. Harvey Karp - the shhing still works!) and slept for a good chunk of the flight. He fell asleep straight away once we got to Susie’s place and didn’t stir until 4:40am, at which point he nursed and rolled over, cuddling me in my back, for about an hour and a half. That would have been really sweet - and I enjoyed it, I admit - if I’d had more than 4 inches of space to lie on my side. Alas.

Also, today, he fought a nap like crazy. I glanced in his mouth and he has an incisor and a molar coming in, at the same time. Poor kiddo.