Anchorage

Well we finally made it here, safe and sound. Luke had a pretty decent flight. The flight attendant assigning seats gave us the back row, which was great because I only had to worry about bothering the people in front of us. AND the only empty seat on the entire plane was right in between Luke and I !! A different flight attendant gave Luke a digeplayer (movies, TV shows and video game system) for FREE !! That thing kept him entertained for about 5 of the 6.5 hours we were in the plane. It was fantastic. I love flying Alaska Air.
We landed and I called the car sales man I had been working with. Luke and I wrestled all of our luggage (we checked 6 bags- all of which were exactly 50 lbs.- I know because I had to rearrange things - on the floor in front of the baggage counter- to get each bag at 50 lbs or less to avoid additional fees) out the door and Carlton picked us up and took us to the Subaru dealership to pick up our new Forester.
It was during this period of waiting for Carlton that I began to realize just how little control I truly had over my son, and how well aware of it he was. The next 3 hours were hell. Luke has never acted that spoiled and defiant before, and believe me the boy has had some practice. Finally, after talking to his grandma, it came out that he was nervous and scared. Prior to that he had just let the entire Mall know that I was a terrible person who was running away from something I had done in Wisconsin. All those years working with oppositionally defiant teen agers helped a little- that and the fact that literally no one here in anchorage knows us. But still, I just wanted to kill him. I hope this attitude goes away because if it doesn't it's going to be a long lonely year for both of us.