Yesterday I tried to figure out what to write about my Housewife Heroes trip. I started and stopped a couple of times, wondering what everyone wanted to hear.  Should I just stick to the glitz and glam of it all?  Does everyone just need the happily-ever-after-fairy-tale version?

But Momopolize is all about telling it like it is.  Was it an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?  Oh, yeah!  Does anything ever go perfectly?  Oh, no!  So…here it goes.  The good, the bad and the ugly. And, of course, the funny.

Bear with me on Part 1.  It’s not so exciting.  No celebrities.  Yet.  But still part of the story.  Parts 2 and 3 will contain the Access Hollywood worthy parts.  Actually, there really is an Access Hollywood part to the story.

I was so busy with work and holiday shopping before Christmas, that I didn’t have any time to even think about my trip.  Well, I had time to think about it.  To stress about it.  But not any time to DO anything about it.  That was ok though.  I’d still have a week after Christmas to figure out where the boys would stay, how they’d get to their sports and various activities while we were gone, buy an entirely new wardrobe.  And lose 30 pounds.

No problem.

Until I woke up sick on December 27.

For those that don’t know, I have Lyme Disease.  And Lupus.  So I’m sick a lot.  But this was a snotty nose, can’t talk without coughing up a lung sick.  Just what you want when going to have lunch with a celebrity.

Luckily after taking every supplement and medicine known to man, I was feeling better for New Year’s.  But I now had a DAY to figure out where the boys would stay, how they’d get to their sports and various activities while we were gone, buy an entirely new wardrobe.  And lose 30 pounds.

I splurged on an outfit I wouldn’t normally buy and ridiculous shoes to go with it.  I bought another outfit with a leopard print shirt.  Because even when you are scared on the inside, animal prints make you LOOK courageous.  Jim took care of the arrangements for the boys.  We were ready to go.  Except for the 3o pounds part.

The morning of, we were packed and ready to send the boys off to school with our heartfelt goodbyes.  With plenty of time to get to the airport.  Except we realized one child needed a prescription refill.  Mad dash to the pediatrician (who luckily had early morning hours that day) and then the 24 hour pharmacy.  Then one missed his ride to school.  Mad dash to drop him off…in a carpool line that seemed to take for. ev. er.  Then another one left his overnight bag at home that he needed to take to the friend’s house where he was staying.  Mad dash.  Then we noticed one left his lunch money home (won’t name names, but it was the same one who forgot his luggage.).  One more mad dash.

We arrived at the airport.  By the time we took a bus from the parking garage, got our boarding passes, checked our luggage, made it through security (why do I always get so nervous during that part even though I know I am not guilty of anything??), took the shuttle to the main terminal and arrived at our gate, we had about 10 minutes before boarding.

Our original seats weren’t together but we were told we could switch to the exit row once we arrived at the gate.  This turned out to be a fortunate event.  Because when we asked about switching seats, the gate attendant realized that while Jim had a printed out boarding pass in his hand, it wasn’t in the system.  He wouldn’t be able to board.  You’ll notice in my list of things we did when we arrived at the airport, the only thing before getting our boarding passes was taking the bus from the parking garage.  The rest of the things listed AFTER that took at least an hour.

Panic set in as I thought the attendant was telling us that Jim had to go back and somehow re-do all of it in 10 minutes 5 minutes before boarding.  While the attendant never was sure when or how the glitch occurred, he was thankfully able to make a call and do some magic on the computer to fix Jim’s boarding pass at the gate.  As he scanned our passes for us to get on the plane, he looked at Jim and said “it still isn’t working.”  He was joking.  Not cool Mr. United.  Not cool.

I won’t be going on this trip alone after all.  Whew.

All of that for a 55 minute flight which, fortunately, was uneventful after that.  We even had tons of extra leg room by sitting on the exit row.  So it was pretty much like flying first class, right?  Just humor me here.

When we arrived at LaGuardia, Melissa Gorga’s personal chauffeur was waiting at baggage claim.  Holding this sign…

Let the pampering begin!

To be continued…

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