At the check in counter, her bag was weighed and it was 7 kilos too heavy. She had her boarding pass so we went out of line to sort the bags and redistribute the weight....she has a big interview on Monday so she really needed her botany books and notes....we stuffed them into her carry on. But still...it just wasn't working. We weighed the bag at home but somehow she had the wrong weight limit.
So we went back to the Air New Zealand counter and planned to drop $150 for a small bag...there really wasn't anything else we could do. This time we were with a different clerk and she could see we were definitely teary-eyed and stressed. The clerk opened the zippered bag to see the text books and spiral notebooks. She asked if the botanist was traveling alone...she looked to the next counter to make sure no one else was listening and said, "We will gate check this bag. There is no charge." We both started to cry....it was just too much. Then the sweet clerk looked at the seat the botanist was assigned- mid plane, middle of the row- and she asked if the Botanist would like a window seat....OF COURSE!! So she gave her a window seat with no one in the middle seat...and a nice young girl in the aisle seat. An 11 hour flight is much nicer when someone isn't snoring and leaning on you :)
We said Goodbye at the security gate...and shed some tears....and watched our Kiwi Botanist head back to N Zed where she is now a resident. I know I couldn't have made this past month without her....she asked the Dr's good questions, helped with therapy homework and made me laugh.
*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*LOVE YOUR KIDS*
