There are no good people left in the world

I am in a bad mood. We had a travel day from hell yesterday. We returned from VA (a great visit with my dad, but that will be another post) and all I can say is that we are alive and healthy, which is a lot to be grateful for. But still it was a freakin miserable day and it had nothing to do with traveling with a toddler. Lana, in fact, was wonderful--she rolled with the punches and her behavior was nothing short of stellar. I swear to you, after many painful flights with her as an infant filled with nonstop screaming and me sweating with embarrassment and apologies, I never thought I would write the previous sentence!

So this is what happened. Our flight from Richmond to Chicago was delayed oh, about 6 hours due to a broken plane. If we waited, we would never make our connection and we would probably still be in Chicago, in a hotel. So we quickly boarded a different plane headed for Dallas, where we could catch a connection back to Seattle. This added about 2h to our already long itinerary, but hey--at least we made it onto a non-broken plane. So we finally get to Seattle and it feels like about 11pm, even though it was only 8pm PST. We gather our bags and I check 3 times the seat pockets in front of us to make sure we have everything. We then stop at Customer Service b/c our suitcase did not make it onto our plane and was likely somewhere in Chicago. Then I freakin realize I left a little backpack on the plane. I NEVER EVER carry anything else other than my big ol diaper bag as a carry on, but my dad and stepmom gave me a handy little backpack that I could use as a purse. Yeah, I left my purse on the plane. The American Airlines people called the plane, which had been towed to storage, but they would send someone to check and retrieve our bag--it would take 10 min max. When we got my bag back, it was ransacked and our brand new camera and our GPS was gone. We were the last ones off the plane--no passenger took it. Someone who works for American Airlines clearly saw an opportunity. Don't get me wrong, I am blaming myself up and down for being such an idiot not only for leaving the bag, but for carrying it in the first place. However, I am super duper pissed that an airline employee stole from us and they have our address (in the GPS) and photos of us. I am also pissed b/c this is the THIRD GPS that was stolen. Our first two were stolen from our car. Ugh!!! I have found countless personal items in my life and I have always always turned them in and I would never ever look inside a lost bag, let alone steal from it. I know people are desperate in todays world, but still it feels like an invasion and I am kicking myself over and over for making such stupid decisions. Bill kept telling me last night the day was cursed from the beginning, but at least we didn't get on that broken plane b/c who knows how bad the day could have ended in that case.

Ok, done venting. Happier posts on the way, but sadly no photos for a while.