Day 3; Travel Time

Spent the day traveling...  Left the house at 4pm PT (Pacific Time) and arrived in Barcelona, Spain at 10pm CET (Central European Time).  If I do the math, that's 21 hours.  Ugh.

British Airlines was not such a bad way to go (albeit a 2 hour delay on the originating outbound to Heathrow due to "British fog).  Of course, it helps to be in business class, with fully reclining seats.  I felt guilty for those passengers downstairs in economy who had to try to sleep in an upright position as I propped my pillow and lay on my side.  Well, only for a couple minutes (haha).  Being a not-so-friendly flyer, lying horizontally during a 10-hour redeye flight helped tremendously to tolerate the flight, and I praised my husband for shelling out the extra cash for the upgrade. 

The connecting flight to Barcelona was only a 2-hour flight, and we arrived at our hotel by 11pm CET.  Fully awake at this time (since, in my head, I was still in California) I decided to unpack and decided to send my soldier a quick text message, letting him know we had arrived safely in Barcelona.  Thank God for global cell phones (and honorable mention to Verizon for making it happen this time).  My son sent a text message back to me and only then was I ready to continue unpacking. 

One item I had brought with me was a Ty Beanie Baby named "Hero."  He is a bear soldier in camouflage with an American Flag patch on his arm.  Hero would be my constant reminder of my son and wherever I go, Hero will be a companion to remind me of my son's service (as if I can think of anything else these days).  I set Hero up in front of my hotel window so that he may enjoy the view of Barcelona ;)

I often wondered why I see American Flag patches on military uniforms that are "backwards" (star field on right). It used to bother me.  Then my son told me that the flag is worn backward to give the appearance of rushing forward into battle. The patch is always worn on the right shoulder because in the military, the "place of honor" is to the right, according to U.S. Army regulations and the United States Code.  Okay, I get it, and I like it. 
And while we are on the subject of Beanie Babies, let me tell you about an organization I joined last year.  It's called Operation Gratitude.  The main objective is to send care packages to our troops overseas. 
As of November 2010, Operation Gratitude has sent more than 580,000 care packages individually addressed by name, to our military men and women in combat.  My sister originally told me about the organization.  She is a long-time employee of the Walt Disney corporation and is very involved in volunteering her time for a good cause.  I joined Operation Gratitude not only because my son was in the army, but I believe in the cause.  We meet several times a year to prepare and assemble these packages and send out thousands at a time.  It's an assembly-line type procedure.  Many items that are included in these packages are donated items, which include DVDs, cough drops, sunscreen, candy, energy bars, knitted scarves/hats, hand-written letters from children, cookies, etc.  And Beanie Babies. 

So I asked, why would a soldier want such an item when they are overseas, fighting a war?  The whole idea seemed silly to me.  The answer was chilling. 

Here is the answer:  The soldiers give the stuffed animals to the local kids in Iraq; the kids, in return, tell the soldiers the location of hidden IEDs or Improvised Explosive Devices.  [GULP]  To think that a Beanie Baby could potentially save lives shocked me.  I've been buying/collecting them ever since and donating them for the cause. 

Check out this link:  http://www.opgratitude.com/news.php?p=5

Although I've donated close to a thousand Beanie Babies thus far, "Hero" will remain in my possession until my son returns home from Iraq.