Sunday, December 03, 2006

The unexpected layover

When I was in my early 20's, younger and definitely kinda stupid, as so many people in their 20's are, (no offense to the 20 year olds- you'll understand in about 10 years) a group of us always used to go and hang out at the airport. Yes, the airport. Remember those pre 9/11 days when you could go to the airport, go through security whether you had a flight or not, and head right to the gate? Well, we'd do this for fun. 3am and we'd hang at the airport. Steal a wheelchair and take rides down the parking garage ramp.

God immaturity was bliss... the only thing I want back from my 20's is my body.

Friday I was thinking about how we used to do that while I was stuck in Chicago's airport for eighteen hours. Yes, that is a 1-8. I am currently in Boston, visiting Dad for a quick weekend. I took a red-eye that left at midnight Thursday/Friday, because I figured I'd get more time that way.

Ha. We landed, and I saw the snow flurries. My first thought was, "I'm going to get delayed." Yep. My flight was supposed to leave at 7. It was moved to 8am. No problem, I found a corner and recorded some audio for my next podcast. Do you know they played dance music on the plane when everyone was boarding at midnight, then when we were getting off at 4am? It was so funny- a plane full of tired people and there is dance music playing while we get off the plane.

Then as we were waiting, the snow still coming down quite steadily, I noticed the departure board. Everything was cancelled- EXCEPT my flight. Wow. They held on as long as possible, then after moving it to 9am, realized it just wasn't fair to tease us any longer, and they cancelled it.

Well ok then. I got it changed to a 7:30 flight that evening. Nothing was going out any earlier. I played with the idea of leaving and actually seeing a little more of Chicago than the airport, but I decided to try and sleep a bit. Well that didn't work either. Every 10 minutes or so I woke up. So I gave up, found a place to eat, and listened to some podcasts. I had no idea I'd have so much time to listen! Thank you ROFLcast, and Wingin It!, for helping me get through my day. I had 6 episodes of one and 4 of the other to catch up on.

By 4pm I was feeling it- I was wandering through the airport in a daze. I had to find a place to recharge my iPod. Wow- those are highly sought after things in airports. It's like finding a parking space at the mall during Christmas season. Two people see the same outlet and the gloves come off.
And could you please tell me why you're so goddammed important that you have to dress up to fly in an airplane? Yeesh, I'll take comfort over a nice sweater and high-heels any day. I am not curling my hair and wearing make up fora plane ride- who the fuck cares? You are NOT all that.

So my flight for 7:30 gets delayed again, and now I'm starting to feel more bitchy about it. That was mostly because the lady next to me was complaining about how she wouldn't have left home so soon for this flight if she knew it was going to be delayed 90 minutes. I fought off the urge to deck her. Husband said if it was delayed one more time, that I should probably just fly home, because I'd be no good visiting with my dad. He was right, but we finally took off and I was on my way...

... into another storm. Boston had wind gusts and thunderstorms, so it was NOT a fun flight. Had to change our runway at the last moment, so that was delightful. Everyone was rather unnerved. But obviously we touched down, and I got to my sister's at about 1:30am. Immediately crashed, which is quite telling considering I NEVER crash so quickly.

In the end, it was worth it, because I hada great visit with Dad today. He looks great! Tomorrow I'll see him for breakfast, then whoosh back home again. We all will be back in a few weeks for Christmas. My girls can't wait to see their grandpa, as well as the husband. It will be a good Christmas this year I think. Funny how facing the mortality of a loved one makes everyone suddenly bond and focus on the good things. If only the planet lived this way all the time, I think we'd see a much different world.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that I actually get home on time!