Saw a chiropractor. Will see her again on Wednesday. I am building a team of professionals to help heal. It is working. My somatic healer, Mauris aka Viana worked my neck and shoulder today for a good, long time. She talked about how people are always into either fight or flight and how that is very human, but also how we do that with our bodies as well. The idea is to try to stretch into the activity rather than to pull back into ourselves.

The chiropractor and Viana agree that my tolerance for a lot of pain has hurt me in this case. If I was more sensitive to it, I would be more likely to pay attention which, in turn, would get me into healing quicker. Cest la vie.

I took a trip on the Victoria Clipper this weekend. Marty, Max and Adam were supposed to accompany me, but alas, Adam was sick; Max was sick; Marty wanted to go to a green conference and volunteered to care for the kids.  I was a solo traveler.

I called the Clipper on Thursday to let them know two people would be “dropping out.” I explained that my kid was sick. They said they would not be able to change the hotel (to downgrade us from a suite to a room) and they probably wouldn’t be able to do much about the tickets, but that I could try to get credit. Fair enough. Friday morning, Max woke up sick. I took some of his clothes out of my packed bag and Marty took me to the ferry. I checked my little suitcase and hanging bag. They asked me to check in Max’s expensive guitar.  They wanted me to check it and sign a release. I told them I would carry it on instead.

They said if I carried it on, I would have to purchase a child ticket for the guitar. I told them this didn’t seem fair since we both knew there would be at least three empty seats due to my entire family’s illness. They said it didn’t matter because it was the company policy. I said, “Look, if I hand it over to you, I have to sign a form that says you are not responsible for damage. It leaves me no choice, but to be responsible for the guitar and I promise, it won’t take up a seat.”

They insisted I had to buy a child’s ticket. I remembered that our younger son, Adam, is 11. He was traveling for free (with a AAA parent). I told them my guitar was under 11 and that it would use Adam’s free child ticket. They relented, but said we would not be able to get credit for his ticket. Okay. The guitar easily fit in between two seats on the floor. No one even knew it was there. It is a very low-need guitar. On the way home, I was stopped and hassled about the guitar. Where is the guitar’s ticket?

I explained it was riding on a round trip child’s ticket. They pointed out that I had no ticket. I pointed out that they took all three of my tickets away when I arrived a couple of days before. This had to be discussed with a supervisor. I lost out on my group 1 boarding privilege. There was a very long discussion. One clerk noticed I had patiently waited for 5 minutes….there goes group 2. She went to see where the discussion was heading.

My original clerk came back to tell me that the Clipper was full and there were no seats for my guitar. I was asked to check the guitar. I went through the same routine. They said there would be no room for the guitar (no kidding…every other passenger was on board except for me). I explained I would handle the responsibility. They relented and said they would let the guitar ride for free just this once because of our misunderstanding. What was the misunderstanding, I asked. I was told my guitar had a roundtrip child’s ticket which they forgot to give me. They sold the ticket (to a fully paying adult, by the way) and told me they were being kind enough to let my guitar on board? What is wrong with this picture? I walked aboard and no fewer than three crew members wondered how I would find a spot for my guitar. I found a spot in between two seats on the floor and asked a suitcase owner whether it would be okay to put my guitar under her suitcase. No problem. Again, not a peep out of the guitar the whole way home.

Yes, I will be writing a letter to the Clipper, but meanwhile, no instruments on board unless you buy them a ticket.