Vindication

Last night when Torsten and I left for the airport to pick up his parents, it was with no small amount of trepidation. Both of us had visions of his parents getting off the plane and immediately launching into a litany of complaints about the trip, involving turbulence, crying children, rude customs agents, and all the rest--and of course telling us that if we had just left them on their (nonexistent) original flight, none of it would have happened.

Of course, we should have known better. Torsten's parents never, ever react the way we think they will, about anything. Truly.

Imagine our shock when they came off the plane falling all over themselves to THANK US for rebooking their trip. We weren't quite as stunned as we were when they got angry about the rebooking in the first place, but still. Definitely quite surprised.

Turns out that they went to the airport yesterday morning at 9, as originally planned, and discovered that almost all of the nearly 200 passengers who had been booked on their canceled flight were at the airport trying desperately to get a flight, ANY flight, out of there. Most of them didn't have any rebooking whatsoever, not even a crappy one later in the week like the in-laws had. There was no communication from Delta to anyone on their plans, and most people were facing days or more stuck in Frankfurt with no way to get to their destination.

And from all this, it was VERY CLEAR that there was no 9 a.m. flight that was going to take them all to Detroit. And apparently at this point Torsten's parents decided to believe us about the horrifying itinerary that they'd been given, and start feeling GLAD that we had spent the time to get them on this much better, and earlier, itinerary.

And not only that, but they actually SAID SOMETHING about how grateful they were when they arrived. Of course, they did not acknowledge or apologize for their initial reaction, but truly, that would have been awkward more than anything else and totally unnecessary.

Seriously, I'm not sure I've ever been so glad to be thanked for something. It was just so unexpected! And I was SO GLAD that they had received external proof that we aren't incompetent, clueless, interfering children. Seriously, I just feel incredibly vindicated.

Now the next question is, will this little lesson of theirs that sometimes we DO know what we're doing carry over into other areas of our lives? Or would that just be expecting too much?