The MommyRoo Blog

Getting back on the topic of booking my flight home to see my dying grandpa, let me tell you how unbelievably pissed off I am at Orbitz.  I spend 2 1/2 hours last night trying to book a flight back to Michigan.  My tickets were listed at $398 and when I went to purchase them, I got an error message saying the price had changed to due reservations through the airline and my price was now $517!  $517???  What the fuck?!   Oh…not to mention I couldn’t even book the $517 flight…it wouldn’t take me anywhere in the site except back to the same page I was just on.

So I called to see what the issue was.   Upon being connected to outsource to India  (let me tell you how happy that made me when I was already irate.   And don’t get the wrong idea…I have plenty of friends who are from out of this country, but when I can’t understand what you are saying to me on a customer service call because Orbitz is too damn cheap to pay Americans and would rather rip off these poor unsuspecting foreigners…I get pissed the hell off!) and trying to figure my error out with the lady, she no longer could even find my flight in their computer system and then told me their system was going through maintenance and to call back in a half an hour.

Do you know what happens to airfare late at night during a half an hour.  It goes up.  A LOT!  During this half an hour, I decide to just call Northwest Airlines, since the flights I would be flying are all theirs anyway.  The customer service lady there was very kind and did her best to help me, but the prices were still not even close to the original ones I was going to buy my tickets for.

So a half an hour later I call back.  By the end of this call he can offer me tickets for $550 some dollars.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Apparently, he submitted my complaint to tech support.  Riiiiigggghhhhtttt.  So I submitted one, too.  We’ll see how that goes, because I highly doubt Orbitz will do anything about it.  Which is bullshit.

The moral of my story is, don’t use Orbitz.  They are a pain the ass to deal with and use false advertising.  Not to mention, they don’t support American jobs.  So I can now thank Priceline for getting me a decent flight for well under $500.

The last few weeks have been difficult.  On my way home from Jason’s family’s property an hour from where we live, I got a disturbing voice mail on my phone.  My grandfather, who has been diagnosed with dementia wasn’t waking up and was in the hospital.

My grandfather has been in the hospital several times.  Every time he goes, I never really worry too much that he’s there, because I always just assume he will get out within a day.  Which is true.  Even this time, he was out within a day.  But this time, it was different.  For the first time it hit me that something was very wrong.  My gut instinct on this one told me things were not good.

Following the news he was in the hospital, the diagnosis was that he was old and needed to be taken care of by a hospice nurse.  Not good.  Anything dealing with the word, hospice, is never a good thing.  So I had to make a decision.  Do I go home to Michigan and see my dying grandpa, for which will likely be my last time ever seeing him or do I  not go and maybe fly back for the funeral to support my mom and grandma?

In making my decision it was perhaps my grandma who put it best.  “Deanna, you have two options.  Do you want to see grandpa alive or dead?”  Those words hit me like a rock.  Because, sadly, that is the terrible reality of the situation.  And I chose alive.

As hard as this trip is going to be, I need to go say goodbye to my grandpa.  I dearly love him and I need to let him know this before he goes off to the white light in the sky.   I’m hoping going to see him will give me some closure.  I get the opportunity to tell a loved one goodbye before they die and I think I need to take it.