<p>“Travel stalk”…great!</p>
<p>If I didn’t travel stalk, my kids would be lost in the baggage claim area of some far flung city wondering when I’m coming to pick them up.</p>
<p>I love the phone calls, “What’s my confirmation number?”</p>
<p>this, after, “Did you put your confirmation # in your phone?”</p>
<p>“MOm! I have been traveling by myself for YEARS now.”</p>
<p>Right. I’m like the family control tower…just call in to see where you have to be next. :p</p>
<p>We call it “COMMAND CENTRAL” at our house. The mom (me) goes on high alert and every family member, including DH, knows it only takes a call and I am totally on any and all inquiries or need for information of any kind whenever anyone is traveling. It is who I am. And yes, I am a TOTAL travel stalker when it comes to my kiddos. I’ve gotten too many calls that start like this:</p>
<p>“MOM, my flight’s been cancelled!!!”</p>
<p>Most times I already knew and was waiting for the call to discuss the options.</p>
<p>While they have slowly learned how to deal with the nuances of such situations, they also know that Mom has their back if need be. Getting ready to send the last kiddo out there - oh, boy, here we go again.</p>
<p>“command central” is great.</p>
<p>During her first week in college, my D was on her way to a prof’s office hours and called me…“Are you at the computer? I need you to look up my professor’s office and find it on the map.” </p>
<p>I just did it. I was so happy she was going for office hours. ;)</p>
<p>Not a call from a kid, but trying to call to a kid:</p>
<p>My D was about 15, dating a 17 year old for a few weeks, were “car dating” in his mustang. Curfew time came and went, called her cell, called his cell, 1/2 hour goes by, by this time I am frantic, call boyfriend’s parents, they start out in their car looking for the missing kids, I go down to the garage to get my car out to go and look for them and behold, just out of reach of our security lighting is the Mustang, with steamed up windows and 2 kids perfectly safe. Boyfriend says security light doesn’t come on because his car is silver. Hmmmm (so is mine and light works just fine). They are still together 3 years later.</p>
<p>“Car dating”? Interesting euphamism.</p>
<p>“Mom, what airline I’m flying?” Arrrrgh, I forwarded her the airline e-mail last night! Now “command central” needs to dig it up and text her the flight number! Aren’t cell phones great?</p>
<p>I would like to jump in and proudly state that my most absent-minded son, now that he’s out in the world, has succeeded in getting himself from NY to Calif. for work-related events, to Australia and back, and to Italy and back. </p>
<p>So parents, there’s hope! :)</p>
<p>Thanks Very Happy, Central PA has a language all its own!</p>
<p>Last Friday night rec’d call from d who went away for w/e in another NE city before heading back to school at 12:30 realizing she lost the car keys… AAA could do nothing for her except suggest getting car towed-I checked online for dealers in the state for her to call in the AM, after she took a cab from where car was parked to where she was staying. H went to dealer where we bought the car with VIN # from insurance papers early Sat AM-had car towed to dealer in other state-had new key made and calibrated. Explained to d- not only was this a very expensive mistake but took up her entire day of break and why you always have to be extra careful with your belongings at all time-this was the best case scenario and all worked out but all other options were considered throughout the night including possibility that d would have to get back to school some other way and h and I would have to deal with the following Monday.</p>
<p>Travel stalking… ha ha. We were stalked last weekend, and it turned out to be a good thing. We were 700 miles from home at Accepted Students day at D’s college, and went to bed early Sat night expecting to get up at 5 am Sunday to make our flight home (which was really 4 am, thanks to Spring Ahead for Daylight Savings). At 11:30 pm my phone went off loudly (I had it set to be our alarm clock) because I had a text. Turns out it was D’s boyfriend. “Hey I’m trying to find when youre coming in tmrw and it looks like your flight got cancelled.” Sure enough, I check the laptop, there’s an email from our airline 30 minutes earlier - our flight was cancelled. Spent an hour and a half on hold to re-book (couldn’t get a flight till Monday), turned off the alarm clocks and went back to bed. Awoke to a panicked D at 8:30 am - “Mom, we missed our flight!” uh, no…</p>
<p>Sometimes I travel stalk when I can. S is on a semester in Europe and has been traveling all over the place. Sometimes I know what airline he’s flying and can figure out his flight numbers using the airline’s website. Other times I just have to trust that all is ok. Found out he nearly missed his flight back from Prague because he & friends accidentally got on the wrong tram, he said the airport was on the upper left of their map, but they ended up off the map to the right. Took 2 trains and a bus to get to the airport… and none of them spoke German or Czek or anything resembling what they speak in Prague. He said they made the flight only because there were NO lines and their gate was the first one after security. Glad I found that out AFTER the fact…</p>
<p>The first sentence of an actual call from S2: “How good is the insurance on our car?”</p>
<p>From DS at 8:30 AM on a Sunday morning about two months ago:</p>
<p>“Ummm, there was a fire at the fraternity house, so we’re all waiting in line to get room keys 'cause they’re moving us into the dorms.”</p>
<p>No injuries to people, thank goodness. Just to stuff.</p>
<p>I’ve lurked for a long time and was kind of hesitant to join, but this thread drove me over the edge and I had to contribute. </p>
<p>At 3:00 AM: </p>
<p>Me: Hello? …(lots of background noise, people calling out and things banging and slapping around, a baby crying)… Hello?!? Who is this? … Tell me who this is! </p>
<p>Person: (shouts in Italian) </p>
<p>Me: (chills running down my spine) What??!? Who is this?!</p>
<p>Person: (begins yelling hysterically in Italian through tears) </p>
<p>Me: What?! Oh! Is this PsychoDaughter? </p>
<p>DD: <em>through tears</em> Oh, MOM! I’m in SO much pain! I’m in the - (background noise and then phone clicks off) </p>
<p>I was terrified. Anyway, it turns out that my daughter (who is studying abroad in Italy) and her roommate had gone out to get breakfast (it was 9 AM or so there) and on their way, my daughter had been hit by a fast-moving car while walking through the parking lot! One of her legs was broken (!) and she had a fracture through one of her arms and a concussion. She called me in hysterics from the hospital, and I guess she had forgotten to make the switch from Italian to English. </p>
<p>Anyway, she’s fine now. But I was horrified and didn’t sleep a wink more that night. The worst part is that the person driving the car didn’t even stop and was never tracked down! if I hadn’t been working I would have hopped on the next plane to Italy to find the sucker. </p>
<p>Also, less frightening, but once my son (DD’s twin brother) phoned at 2 AM asking how he could get a “substantially large piece of metal” out of his eye without going to the doctor. </p>
<p>Yeesh, they never call me except when they have some sort of life-threatening medical emergency.</p>
<p>OMG, PsychoMomTX!</p>
<p>OMG, Psychomom. I have chills down MY spine after reading that.</p>
<p>Psychomom I would have FREAKED out! Spent the next zillion hours trying desperately to call her back, calling the emergency line for the study abroad program… what a nightmare! Glad she’s ok.</p>
<p>
THAT’s a classic.</p>
<p>Yes, I think I would have had a really tough time if I got a call like Psychomom’s!</p>
<p>I guess I should be happy that all I got was “Mom, what’s the policy number for our car insurance?” from S on one of his 1st days of driving himself to work!</p>
<p>Me: Are those sirens I hear in the background? What’s going on?</p>
<p>S: Everything’s fine. [long pause] I collided with a motorcycle who was going straight & I was turning, but everything’s fine!</p>
<p>Fortunately, everything WAS fine & the only thing that was damaged was the poor motorcycle (which was brand new–until then).</p>
<p>PackSon: I jumped out of a helicoptor into the ocean, but first I had to jump out of a boat and swim to the rope ladder to climb up into the helicoptor…then jump out…and swim back to the boat. It’s hard to swim with boots but I made it. It was so cool.</p>
<p>Me: Yes…hmm…very cool. Thanks for waiting to tell me after you did it.</p>
<p>Reviving an oldish thread. Phone call received recently (mercifully, not by me):</p>
<p>Friend to DS: " Quick! Look online and tell me how to cure a rattlesnake skin!"</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Cure a rattlesnake skin? Or did the friend mean a bite?</p>