The Ups and Downs of Snyder Siblings

Note:
The title of this post is a reference to a lovely book I've taught many times to 2nd graders, who, by the way, are some of the most awesome people ever. The book, The Ups and Downs of Simpson Snail, chronicles the literal and emotional rises and falls of Simpson and the steady support his friends provide through his adventures. This post chronicles the turbulence of today's events in the life of me and my brother:

Up: I wake up excited that Joel is arriving today for a visit. A quick day's work and he'll be home waiting for me when I get off.

Down: I see him online, message him, and realize that he has confused his departure date and missed his flight.

Further down: the airline company informs him that they have canceled his entire itinerary, including his trip to Arizona that was to follow his visit to me.

Up: Joel informs me that he was able to work something out with the airline.

Down: Joel informs me that "working something out" means that he got them to apply the money he already paid to a new flight to Arizona but that he can't get a flight to CA that isn't ridiculously expensive.

Down Again: We resign ourselves to not seeing each other for another few months.

Up: I do some research and discover I have enough frequent flier miles to get Joel a free flight.

Down: I do some more research and discover I have ALMOST enough frequent flier miles to get Joel a free flight.

Up: I discover I can purchase the additional frequent flier miles I need to get him a flight.

Down: After purchasing said miles, I discover that they may not post to my account for up to 48 hours.

Down, Down, Down: After much talking with customer service I discover there is no way to get around this waiting period and there is no way to make the purchased miles available any sooner.

Down: I spend all afternoon and evening realizing just how excited I was to see Joel and just how pissed off I am at airline companies for their inane policies.

Up: I check the airline website one last time and discover that against all probabilities my purchased miles have actually posted and can be used.

Up, Up: I use said miles to get Joel a ticket to arrive in SF only two days later than originally scheduled - I was going to have to be at work those two days any way.

Up, Up, Up: Joel on an airplane, thousands of feet above the ground, on his way to visit me.