I’ve often described my life as an excellent adventure and I’m never sure if people a) agree with the terminology or b) believe any of the stories that I tell. Well, this is another one of my patented true stories wherein my life once again resembles an episode of the Amazing Race.
It started when I woke up Friday morning to discover myself lying in bed and wearing my glasses. This happens about once a year and it is disconcerting as hell. I spend the next five minutes trying to figure out if I had never taken them off, hazily put them on before my alarm went off or put them on while sleepwalking the night before in a journey that probably involved me gassing up my car and stopping by Kelly’s while still in my pajamas. It’s just the sort of thing that makes the entire day feel a little oft-kilter.
The good news is that I was taking Friday off because I was flying to Chicago and getting a haircut, though not in that order. I knew that the weather report was for sleet and freezing rain but it wasn’t until I went out to fill up the car (which sadly I did not do while sleeping though that would be a great way to multitask) that I noticed just how bad it was. Really slick roads and it made me wonder about my flight. But I was able to get my haircut and drove to the airport early and checked into my flight as part of the A boarding group on Southwest so I was feeling good about myself.
I went into my usual airport routine of grabbing dinner and checking out the magazines when I glanced at the flight board to discover that my flight was cancelled. And that the last flight to Chicago was leaving in fifteen minutes. After a great deal of swearing I dashed through security where I…ok, how to explain this. I’m a creature of habit. More accurately, I’m obsessive to the nth degree (a topic I’ll write about eventually). When I go through security I follow a very strict procedure of placing my keys and cel phone in my backpack and having my ticket in a certain pocket and being really zen while going through security. Well, this time it was more like screw that. I cut in line, through my stuff on the conveyer belt and hustled through the metal detector completely forgetting that I had my keys and cel phone still in my pocket causing the guard to even go “What the hell?” I profess my stupidity and somehow make it through.
Get to the last Chicago flight and along with a half dozen other people who noticed that the flight was cancelled was able to get a seat on the flight though I had no guarantee if my checked bag was also going to be on the flight. I am the last person on the plane and grab a seat and I realize that everything is wrong. I’m sitting up front, on the right side of the plane, and in a middle seat and I always sit in the back left next to the window. Again, this just freaks me out more.
But I do get to Chicago as does my luggage so I meet up with my family, as the reason for this entire trip was to celebrate my dad’s birthday. It was tough for me to relax because I was so out of sorts from my flight as well as the fact that I kept on checking the weather and the airport and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to make it out of Chicago on Sunday. I moved up my flight but still wasn’t sure it was good enough. I was literally trying to time a flight between two weather systems while still hopefully catching most of the Bears game.
That leads to my trip back today, where I get to the airport early to see if I could weasel my way onto an earlier flight. I was prepared this time, leaving my shaving kit at my parents though this means that I currently do not have any toothpaste or deodorant. Got placed on standby but was told that the flight was oversold and that my chances weren’t good. But, I got lucky once again and picked off one of the last seats on this flight, which turned out to be the last Chicago to KC flight that got in today. And I was back home in time to watch the second half of the Bears game.
Of course, everything that I just wrote is really pretty meaningless. Just a bit of a humorous and harrowing travel story. It’s not at all what I’ll remember from this weekend. I’ll remember having all of my family back in one place again and having a great time. I’ll remember being ordered around by my four year old niece. But most of all I’ll remember playing with my nephew and making him laugh and giggle and smile more than I’ve ever seen. The little guy has had a tougher life than anyone his age should and just those moments of happiness might be my proudest moment in years. And no snow storm in the world could make me miss it.
The five random CD’s for the week:
1) Continental Drifters “Continental Drifters”
2) Paul Burch “Last of My Kind”
3) Liz Phair “Juvenalia”
4) Nora O’Connor “Til the Dawn”
5) Various Artists “New Orleans Party Classics”
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