The Labyrinthine Wedding – Day 16

Not much to report today. We flew back to Athens on a late flight, so the majority of the day was spent packing and closing up the house in Cyprus. We were on the same flight as my wife’s cousin and his family, so we had another chance to see them and say goodbye.

Unbelievably, the return of Chippy went more smoothly than expected. Troy went with my mother-in-law to return her, so she could be reunited with her family. And he simply said goodbye, gave her a good pet, and handed them the box. That was it.

Troy was a bit excitable today, which meant he was all over the place and into everything. I spent the entire time chasing him around and dragging him back to the group. It was exhausting, but my wife was so on edge and anxious that she got onto him whenever he crossed her path. I was the lesser of two evils.

The only real excitement today occurred when my mother-in-law went to get the car from long-term parking. As is usual with her half-thought-out plans, she left us at baggage claim without arranging a place to meet us. So, when we got outside, we called her to tell her where we were. She only half listened, so instead of coming to the “drop-off / pick-up” lane, she ended up in the bus pick-up. We waited for her, she waited for us. And finally after 20 minutes, my wife tried to call her back. My mother-in-law was anxious and annoyed by this point, so she didn’t hear my wife tell her that we’d walk over to the short-term parking lot where she normally parks, and she could pick us up at the curb. So, my mother-in-law went into the short-term parking and parked. We finally connected after another 10 minutes, but when my mother-in-law went to pay the parking ticket, it didn’t work. She couldn’t tell us exactly what the machine had said was wrong, mostly because she hadn’t fully read the message.

She was beside herself, freaking out and unable to be reasoned with. She was talking a hundred miles a minute, waving her arms in the air, speaking over every suggestion we made. So, we decided to just go to the car and at least unload our suitcases while we figured it out. She was so manic about the stupid ticket that she walked off and left us, didn’t even help with the suitcase, including her own. We trailed along behind her, as she faded into the distance. As I packed the suitcase in the car, she suddenly realized that there was another ticket inside the car. Apparently, the reason the ticket hadn’t worked was because she was trying to pay the long-term parking ticket again. She had gotten the two tickets mixed up. Wouldn’t feel right without the drama…

I’m still annoyed that my mother-in-law doesn’t care or understand how the flight tomorrow is going to screw me up. I even brought it up today, and she just waved it off. It’s funny, because when she came to see us at the beginning of this year, I remember it taking her an entire week to stop waking up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and needing to take naps in the afternoon. And she didn’t even have a job to go to! I understand that there’s nothing I can do about it now, but the lack of any sort of sympathy from her irritates me.

So, after a quick dinner, we started repacking the suitcases again for the flight tomorrow. We’re not supposed to get in until after 10:00 pm. Going to be a long day.