Take me home please

Monday Weigh In: Back to 209.5 pounds this week, down a pound from last week. I didn’t workout quite as much as I would have liked but after I tell the story about what happened last night I’m surprised that I somehow didn’t gain five pounds last night alone. It was a night filled with unhealthy options that is for sure.

As everyone knows I fly an awful lot. It is just what my life has now brought me to: in order to enjoy life to its fullest I have to deal with planes and airports and events that make you go more than slightly insane. Last night was one of those nights as I was stuck dealing with the flight that would never take off.

I was connecting in Orlando and originally had a really quick layover scheduled. 50 minutes, not even enough to get a bite to eat. I knew I was in trouble when I picked up my boarding passes and instead of a departure time from Orlando it said “Will advise”. That is pretty much industry shorthand to let you know that you are going to be screwed. Well, once I get to Orlando I see that it is going to be a two hour delay.

I can deal with a two hour delay pretty easily. Find a spot to settle down, read my Kindle and even make my way to McDonald’s for a late evening snack. As it gets time to get ready to board the plane I look outside and see that the sky is turning a not very happy color. Even inside the terminal you could feel the weather changing. Sure enough a massive thunderstorm whipped through the area, shutting down the airport and delaying my flight by another forty minutes. Which meant, time to pick up some Twizzlers and something to drink.

Well, that forty minute delay was then switched to two hours as the plane that I was supposed to get on had been diverted to Fort Myers due to the storm over Orlando. Given that I had left Fort Myers several hours earlier it dawned on me that if I had known all this ahead of time I could have saved myself a hell of a lot of heartache. But finally we have a plane and we have pilots and yet we’re still not boarding.

Yep, while the weather in Orlando had improved to the point where we could fly the weather in Philly was bad enough that they weren’t going to let us land. This went on for another 90 minutes during which they cancelled a flight to Baltimore, which was not a good sign. Finally, five hours late, I was able to board the plane at midnight along with a group of very tired and grumpy passengers. Adding to the fun because of all of the storms it was the bumpiest flight I can recall and as a whole I really don’t like looking out a plane window and seeing lightning. It was not fun at all.

I finally made it home at three in the morning. I remember back from my KC days many a night where I would come home from shows in Lawrence at two or three in the morning and still be fine at work. Sure, I might have needed to take a slight nap in my cube, or my car, or in one memorable instance one of the office’s decorative fountains, but I was able to function. I’m older now though and I have to say that it was just brutal today. All I want to do now is crawl into bed and sleep for the next day. And then look forward to my next trip.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Gomez “A New Tide”
2) Carbon Leaf “Love Loss Hope Repeat”
3) Arc Angels “Arc Angels”
4) Star 69 “Eating February”
5) Aimee Mann “Lost in Space”