April 13 was a very sad day, a very trying day, and a very painful day for me. When I say painful, I mean it in the literal sense. Yes, every time I have to leave Vernon it is painful, but this time, I experienced pain in more ways than one.
I checked in at the airport at the Air France counter. I get someone who can barely speak English... HELLO! WE ARE IN ENGLAND! WTF??? And I find out I do not have the seat that I confirmed 4 times through their partner airline since I made the reservation in January. You cannot reserve a seat when booking with Air France. I find that UNACCEPTABLE. I checked in early and I wanted an aisle seat. I told her the seat that I had reserved and confirmed 4 times and that I wanted THAT seat. I did a lot of research on planes and seats and locations of bathrooms and ratings of the locations of the seats and I paid for that seat and when I booked the plane was pretty much empty so I should have first pick of the coach seats. Well, every other airline lets you do that, but NOT Air France. UNACCEPTABLE. I was very upset that I did not have my seat and tried to understand her broken English and I told her I wanted an aisle seat close to where I had reserved the seat I didn't get. She found one for me, and I was sort of happy.
I had a long layover in Paris. I witnessed a lot of impatience and mistreatment of Asian travelers by the TSA. Obviously there are a lot of Asian travelers that pass through this INTERNATIONAL airport, where were the folks that could speak something besides French? UNACCEPTABLE. It was my turn to go through and having traveled before, I know the drill. I took my laptop out of its case, put it in a bin, then the BITCH looked at me, grabbed the empty laptop case and yanked it out of my purse with such force everything in my purse went everywhere. She just smiled and said "sorry". I wanted to punch her in the face. I just looked at her and said "What was that for?" I got nothing. NEVER have I been mistreated so badly by the TSA.
I boarded the plane and I was directed toward my seat. There was a girl sitting in my seat. It was on the aisle. I politely informed her she was sitting in my seat. She said her seat was the correct seat. I showed her my boarding pass and she said, yes, your seat is the second one in, mine is on the aisle. WELL SON OF A BITCH! That stupid incompetent non English speaking moron put me in an inner seat. I apologized to the girl and she got up and stepped into the aisle. I had my carryon, was stepping over the girl's stuff, over the seats, making my way to the inner seat and POP! My knee exploded and I dropped like a sack of potatoes. I ended up in 2 seats and some poor guy's lap. I just lied there, not really sure what happened or how injured I was. The nice girl asked me if I was ok and I said "I don't know". I got into my seat and realized that I think I did some damage as I was in a ridiculous amount of pain. I fought back tears and didn't know how I was going to survive the 9hr flight from Paris to Detroit. Thankfully the girl I was sitting next to spoke to her family and they all switched seats so I could sit in an aisle seat next to a nice girl sitting by the window. Once I got to Detroit I was in the worst pain, I limped through the airport, had to get my luggage and go through customs. Then I had to go through security again so I could get to my destination. The TSA in Detroit were much more pleasant that the ones in Paris and I was happy to be home (almost). Airport employees would see me limping and gripping the wall and ask me if I wanted a wheelchair. I just wanted to be left alone and I was miserable and upset and just kept telling them "No".
Well, it's one month later. I got an MRI and I have a partial tear on my ACL. I have been using crutches and can't get in to see the orthopedic surgeon until June 1st so now my back is out. I have been working from home for over a week, I can't get up or sit down without help. I have to call my daughter every time I need to go to the bathroom so she can help me stand up, I have to have her bring me my food and I'm taking vicodin every 4 hours. I'm in constant pain, I'm miserable, and I can't move. I'm worried that work will ask me to take time off and I'm out of vacation and sick time. I also recently lost 39 pounds from eating a balanced diet and exercising every day, and now that I can't even walk I've gained 5 pounds. I'm pissed and I'm upset and I'm feeling useless and neglected and very very tired. All because of stupid Air France. I will NEVER use that airline again. Oh yeah, and the food sucks too.... everything had this disgusting white mushy cheese on it and there were things I couldn't even tell what it was. YUCK.
Yeah, sorry about the venting, but the photo above is all I've been able to look at for the last week. If this injury affects my employment I'm definitely calling a lawyer.
I had a few things I wanted to accomplish in July. It never happened. No cleaning out the garage or anything like that took place. I'm having enough trouble keeping up with my laundry. I also didn't sign up for a class. I have no money. I'm going to lose my spot in the program if I don't register for school this semester. I really don't want to lose the progress I've made on my degree but I'm still trying to pay off the heat bill left over from the winter. I really need a class to keep me occupied in the evenings, especially right after Heidi leaves for school which will be the beginning of September. It was an emotional, difficult miserable month. I know I'm supposed to be looking at the positives but I don't see them right now.
