Hitting the purchase button

Let the games begin.

That’s what ran though my mind as I tried explaining to my father where plans for a trip to Costa Rica stood.

No more than a minute before I dialed him, the travel Web site we used to book the trip had stopped flashing all the pretty banner advertising and put up a more stark page with a final, and large, price. Below that was a small “purchase” button that allowed us to reserve for four coach tickets to San Jose Costa Rica.

“Dad!”

“YEA!?!”

“We’re about to buy the tickets. This is what we have …”

“PIA!?” (My nickname)

“Dad.”

“YEAH!?”

“Dad?”

“PIA!?!”

“Dad. Listen.”

“Pia! Como van los planes? (How are the plans coming?)”

“Dad. Can you hear me?”

“YEAH! Que paso? (What’s up?)”

By this point, a small aneurysm starts to throb in the back of my brain.

Me: “Dad. If you can hear me listen, OK. We are about to buy the tickets. We’re going to hit purchase. To get the best deal, we may have to do a few extra things. Our flight leaves at 9 a.m. so we have to be at the airport no later than 7:30.”

Dad: “OK!”

Me: “OK, Good. We have a layover in Dallas. There we hook up with Vicki (my cousin) who is taking the same flight out of Dallas to Costa Rica…”

Dad: “What time do we get there?”

Me: “About 7 at night.”

Dad: “How long is the layover.”

Me: “Only a couple of hours. We won’t have to wai…”

Dad: “What will we do?”

Me: “Maybe we can grab some food.”

Dad: “Oh. So can I change my plans if I need to?”

Me: “What did you have in mind?”

Dad: “Depending on how I feel, I may want to stay longer.”

Me: “Dad, we’re traveling with you because the doctor said you shouldn’t travel alone.”

Silence.

Me: “Do you think you’ll stay longer?”

Dad: “Depends on how I feel.”

Me: “Well, we can’t stay longer.”

Silence.

Dad: “Bill said he might want to go to Panama.”

This last statement is not true. My father has been trying to convince my husband to go to Columbia. Bill has tried to make clear that traveling for any extended length of time to another country with our 2-year-old is difficult enough, let’s not add any more countries. Plus we want to see as much as we can of Costa Rica and the family, and we’re already going to be short on time. My guess is that Dad figured, if he said no to Columbia, I’d say yes to Panama which is only one country over from Costa Rica.

Me: “No dad. We can’t go to Panama. But if everything sounds OK, should we go ahead and buy the tickets?”

Dad: “Who’s going to drive us?”

Me: “Don’t worry dad. We have time to take care of that. Does everyth…”

Dad: “Are we going through Miami?”

Me: “No dad, Dallas.”

Dad: “We’re not going through Miami?”

Me: “Dad if we go through Miami, we don’t see Vicki.”

Dad: “That’s true. Have you called Fernando? (my uncle).”

Me: “No dad. Not yet. I wanted to buy the tickets first. I think we’ll go ahead and hit ‘purch..’”

Dad: “So how long are we going to be there?

At that moment, Bill announced, “I’M HITTING PURCHASE!” so that my father could hear. I’m not sure that he did. My father went on about buying things for the family and so on. You could argue that my father is 72 and people his age think a bit differently. But he’s behaved this way since he was 35. If anything he’s mellowed with age.

Now he knows that he can ask for a lot and when his requests bring people close to the boiling point, he will slip into the ‘Oh I’m sorry. I’m a harmless old man mode.” How do I know this? He’s told me.

So far. This appears to be the launching pad for the trip. I’m not whining about it. It is hilarious. And it is also just the beginning.