I’ve been planning to take Justin to Walt Di$ney World for nearly two years now. No really. I promised to take him for his seventh birthday, but then I started working at this nightmarish job in this nightmarish field and lo and behold, planes struck buildings and the economy went into a recession and I was borrowing ungodly sums of money from my dad just to pay my bills.

No trip.

Then, just when I’d decided I’d take him this summer, the wedding happened. My dad’s philosophy of, “I paid for one, you pay for the others,” although fair, cut right into my WDW budget.

And the whole thing was that I wanted to be the first person to take Justin on an airplane.

Justin’s cousin Zack has been on airplane. Twice, Justin reminds me. And he’s only three. So I promised Justin I’d take him on an airplane. We’ve talked about it bunches. So earlier this summer, I told him that he and Stephen and I would take our first family trip to Orlando this November.

Then last week, it was announced to me that Evil Ex-Dan is taking Justin to Orlando on July 18th.

I don’t think fury quite adequately describes how I felt in response to this news. Furious and disappointed is closer. Sad and mad and disappointed. Justin giggled when he told me - “I knew you’d be upset!”

[Background: See, Justin likes his dad better than me. I'm the mean mom who makes him eat vegetables and get in bed on time. I make him take showers, dammit, and don't let him watch 40 hours of cartoons a day. This means that dad is the cool one. Dad can be talked out of showers and Dad (easily) forgets to make him do little things, like eat real food and clean his room (or anything else). Dad lets him do basically whatever he wants. Therefore, being at mom's is a drag. Being at dad's is like living at Grandma's house. Which, actually, is basically what he does. Dan's parents have basically raised my son, because Dan spends nearly every waking minute at his mom's and dad's. Whatever. This just pisses me off to think about.]

Back to story: So Justin giggles and says, “I knew you’d be upset!” Although I’m making a fist so hard my fingernails are nearly drawing blood in the palm of my hand, I tell him no, noooo, he’s completely wrong, I just want him to have fun! “But I thought you wanted to take me on the airplane,” he says, getting a little quieter. Maybe I’m not the only disappointed one here. “Of course I did, baby. But you’ll have a great time with dad!”

Then Justin explodes into a lengthy story about how his dad told him that he could still go to Orlando with me later, and that there’s soooo much to do that we could all be there weeks and weeks and not do the same things. (Ha ha, I thought to myself. Apparently Justin was looking forward to going with me as much as I was with him!

Within hours of this phone call, Stephen and I are on the computer, frantically searching for somewhere to take Justin within two weeks that doesn’t cost over $1000 round trip due to the late notice. I just really wanted to take him on a plane first. I love to fly, and I know he will too. Sadly, this was an exercise in futility. We could have flown to Chicago for $350 round trip, but it required an overnight stay, which would have pushed costs higher than I could afford for a stupid, petty trip with no point or purpose.

Still, every time I think of how Dan waited til two weeks before the trip to tell me, my face gets hot and I get all pissed again.

So anyway, it was good to get that off my chest. Perhaps one day I won’t be so upset when I think of it. And I’m sure Justin will have a good time. (And if he hates it, at least it wasn’t my vacation he hated!)

Annoyed,
michelle