Booking

Have you ever booked plane tickets online?
In my head, I always think it sounds so simple.
Until I actually have to do it.
Then it becomes painful.
In our household booking plane tickets online usually looks a little something like this: step 1) Ideally- put the kids to bed, preferably around naptime or their normal bedtime, though if necessary, this can happen at any other time of the day too. #2 One of us mans the computer, the other one attempts to organize all official and necessary documents for our booking (dates, passports, credit cards, frequent flyer numbers, blood types, etc.).  Step #3 is the most difficult, trying to fill in all the appropriate information for five people before the webpage expires, the prices change, or the seats are no longer available. Usually one of us is frantically typing, one of us is frantically shouting all the correct numbers, dates, etc, and double checking whatever the other is typing. This is why it's helpful to have the kids in bed. They get really wound up with all the excitement and join in what they see as "festivities," which  just makes us more tired and crazy and frustrated than we already are. 
 This week, Seth and I started the process of booking plane tickets for our upcoming trip to East Asia. I am so incredibly grateful for good internet access and being able to purchase all of our tickets online. This is a really big deal folks! I now recognize that not everyone has internet access or credit card access to be able to do these things, and some airlines don't even have an option to purchase online- I know- gasp. Anyways, if the tickets actually are able to be purchased online, for us almost always requires a call to the airline (some airlines won't allow you to book international flights for children online), a call to our credit card company to verify that indeed we wanted to make that charge, and sometimes we get to repeat that process.
I'm always excited when a customer service rep has a accent from the Southern US. It reminds me of my friends in South Carolina and how much I love them. It's just such a lovely slow drawl that I always feel so relaxed, like I should be able to tell poor Patricia who was assigned to my call, all of my problems. You just can't get angry when someone says to you, "Our apologies ma'am for this inconvenience, I'll see what I can do to set ya'll up, ya hear?" Can't get angry with that.
Anyways, we successfully got a part of our journey booked.
I'm gonna rate it at a 4 out of 10 on the pain scale.