Day 1: Spencer is gone.

Ok, I won't label all the posts like that while Spencer is gone, but this is the beginning of it. Jacqueline has already managed to make 2 messes and he's only been gone half an hour. She really hates her diapers which means it's time to potty train. Won't wear them or have anything to do with them. (of course, b/c i just bought a truckload of diapers this week) So she strips off her diaper first thing in the morning as usual. She got to the potty this morning, no problem. 10 minutes after Spencer leaves, she perches herself atop the folded jogging stroller and unleashes a gallon of pee on the fabric seat. Great. While I clean that up, she decorates herself with another Sharpie marker that she seems to have found. We have confiscated all markers in the house, but they still show up. I swear she has a secret hidey-hole full of sharpie markers and bananas.

We got him off this morning without a hitch. The driver was a half hour late, but hey, ma'alish. See, there is this awful regulation that if you are taking an international flight (leaving Egypt) you have to be at the airport 3 hours in advance. The travel company makes sure this is clear and won't let a driver arrive any later than 4 hours in advance of when you have to be at the airport. They scheduled the driver to arrive at 9:30am. (one hour for traffic, although I just talked to Spencer and he got there in 30 minutes. But in Egypt, you never know) His flight doesn't leave until stinkin' 1:30pm! So of course the car doesn't arrive until 10am. And then he's worried that Spencer won't make his flight, oh sir, you have to hurry, we told you that check-in for international flights is 3 hours in advance, never you mind that I arrived 30 minutes late. I had envisioned a last breakfast together at Maadi House, the kids playing, etc our usual Saturday morning routine and then him catching the car to the airport, ma'asalama! .

Let's rewind to the last time we were at the airport for an international departure. The travel agency gets us there right on time, 3 hours in advance. We go up to the desk to check in for our flight to Frankfurt.

"Yes, we need to check-in for the 5:30am (it is 2:30am) flight to Frankfurt."

"Oh, I'm sorry ma'am, you cannot check-in for that flight for another hour."

"But it's listed above the desk here as being open for check-in."

"Sorry ma'am, not for one hour or so."

"But our travel agency said that for international flights, we have to check in 3 hours in advance."

"Sorry, ma'am, check-in is in one hour."

This happens every time. The airport and the travel agencies need to have a pow-wow and decide on a policy. But wait, that would be applying logic and for all you who have forgotten, don't try and do that in Egypt. Although, when we were leaving the States a year or so ago, we got to the airport exactly 2 hours before the flight took off. The lady at the desk said that we would have to gate check our baggage because we are going on an international flight and baggage needs to be checked 2 hours before take-off. Never mind that this was a little banana plane with 30 passengers going from Idaho Falls to Denver THEN we would go Denver to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Cairo. (long day, but that's another story) So, there is some policy out there that requires something of international fliers. Whenever you find out what it is, let us know!