Resolution 1:
Remember I have a blog, and actually update it.
Resolution 2:
Attempt to leave house and do fun things so there is something to say on said blog.
Resolution 3:
Use fancy new camera I got for Christmas to take fun pictures and post on said blog.
Well, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me. Happy New Year to the 3 people who probably still check this. :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
mishaps, mayhem and more travel issues
Oh hey.
So my travels were fantastic. Well, let me rephrase. My trip was fantastic, the actual travels were pretty much as per usual. Specifics? Ok, you talked me into it.
My trip back to Michigan started out rocky the night before I left. Returning to my apartment Friday evening after hanging out with the girls, I turned on the light in my bedroom and saw this:
Yes, that would be the ceiling fan and overhead light hanging halfway to the floor, directly over my bed. Now, as it was 9:30 at night, my landlord's office was closed, but because that is not an unreasonable hour I thought it might be possible to get the maintenance guy over there that night if I called right away. Riiiight. About two hours after leaving my first message, I left a second one informing the answering service that I was leaving town for a week the next morning and I would like for someone to at least let me know when the fire hazard would be taken care of.
In the back of my mind was also the fact that I had someone staying at my apartment from Saturday to Tuesday and that chances were my friend would prefer not to sleep under something that could fall on him. Whatever.
Luckily, I finally got a call back at 6:30 Saturday morning and said friend reported that the fan was fixed by the time he arrived Saturday afternoon. Which was approximately 4 days sooner than I expected, but then again it's entirely possible that the landlord wants my apartment on fire about as much as I do. In the end it doesn't really have to do with my traveling, but it was too close to be mere coincidence. I ended up getting into Lansing about 10 minutes early on Saturday, though.
Anyway, the week was swell. I'll do my best to post about actual events later (hopefully less than two weeks from now)
The day of my trip back Sunday began ominously. Headed out for a farewell lunch with my family I remarked that it was snowing rather hard and wouldn't it be funny if my flight were canceled? After lunch I checked my flight status online, saw that it was still on time and left for the airport. Of course, once I arrived there my flight's departure was sitting at one hour after its scheduled time. Eh, no problem. Well, the one hour became an hour and a half, which became two hours, which ended up being almost 3 and a half hours. But we took off. And word was that everything out of Chicago was delayed, so there was a chance I was still going to make my connection.
Obviously I did not make my connection. I was supposed to have a two hour layover, I took off three hours late and my connection was delayed an hour. Which translates to: as my first flight was landing, my second flight was taking off. Still, I was not phased. I figured there were probably still at least a couple of flights from Chicago to Boston that night. I was right, there were three. The nice United lady with the longest fingernails I have ever seen put me on the 7:45 flight, which was already delayed until 9:10 (central time). All three of the remaining flights to Boston were now going to be leaving between the hours of 9 and 10. All this time, the weather was getting progressively worse, but the airport was still open, flights were still taking off, the outlook was good.
We boarded our plane, we got the wings de-iced, we taxied out onto the runway. At this point, I began fading in and out of consciousness, figuring I'd wake up when we got to Boston, go home and continue sleeping. If you've read this blog with any regularity, you know that by now I should know better. And, in my defense, I was not at all surprised when the pilot came on the air and said that we had to head back to the gate for more deicing because of snow buildup on the wings. I was even less surprised when we got back to the gate and the pilot announced that the flight had been canceled (sound familiar?). However, since the only thing I was going to be missing was work, I wasn't exactly broken up.
We filed back off the plane and waited for some agents to come and tell us when we were going to be getting out of Chicago. There would be no flight that night. All the flights on Monday were completely sold out due to the holiday travelers. Right when it seemed definite that a mutiny was about to take place, we were assured that a special flight at 6am was being scheduled just for us, we were guaranteed spots on that flight, no worries.
If you're wondering about the other two Boston flights, yes they took off. It was just us and one other flight to San Francisco that got canceled. My luck is amazing. Of course, because it was due to the weather, the airline was not liable, so they were not about to pay for a hotel room. They were offering discounts, but when the hotels in the area run about $400 a night regularly, you're still looking at about $150. Not so much. Most of the flight hunkered down on some benches and settled in for the night. Or what turned out to be about two hours of actual sleep after standing in line to get our receipts for the next morning's flight (now moved to 11:15) and talking amongst ourselves for awhile, and before the cleaning crew came through to vacuum by our heads at 4am.
By this time, we had bonded as fellow stranded passengers. My two new friends and I went off in search of the earlier flights to Boston in order to put ourselves on the standby list in hopes that we could actually get out of there as soon as possible. While in line we picked up a fourth comrade and we waited hopefully to hear our names called. No such luck on the 6:40.
After a breakfast break we were off to try our luck on the 9:20. One of my friends was called, and we immediately turned on her (not really). We were extremely jealous as it was looking more and more like we were going to be stuck for another few hours. Then, like a Christmas miracle, about 5 minutes before scheduled departure they started calling off names like Bingo numbers. In the end all of us made it on the flight! Hooray! We landed in Boston at about 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time, all our bags came on the same flight we did (hooray!), I called a cab (not a scary drunken one, but one I called myself from Winthrop which I'm pretty sure I will do every time from now on) and made it to my apartment about 2. A full 23 and a half hours since I had left for the airport the day before.
I walked in, crashed onto my couch, and stayed there until I woke up again about 7. I was up for a couple of hours (though definitely not coherent as evidenced by the voicemail I left my brother, which he responded to with a text saying he'd just call me tomorrow because i sounded dead), and then got back in bed at 9, where I stayed until this morning (and could have stayed much longer).
Phew! When I got to work this morning I got a standing ovation, and I was informed that my new nickname is Typhoon Jessie, and also that no one is ever going to travel by plane the same time I go anywhere. Probably a good idea. :)
So my travels were fantastic. Well, let me rephrase. My trip was fantastic, the actual travels were pretty much as per usual. Specifics? Ok, you talked me into it.
My trip back to Michigan started out rocky the night before I left. Returning to my apartment Friday evening after hanging out with the girls, I turned on the light in my bedroom and saw this:
Yes, that would be the ceiling fan and overhead light hanging halfway to the floor, directly over my bed. Now, as it was 9:30 at night, my landlord's office was closed, but because that is not an unreasonable hour I thought it might be possible to get the maintenance guy over there that night if I called right away. Riiiight. About two hours after leaving my first message, I left a second one informing the answering service that I was leaving town for a week the next morning and I would like for someone to at least let me know when the fire hazard would be taken care of.
In the back of my mind was also the fact that I had someone staying at my apartment from Saturday to Tuesday and that chances were my friend would prefer not to sleep under something that could fall on him. Whatever.
Luckily, I finally got a call back at 6:30 Saturday morning and said friend reported that the fan was fixed by the time he arrived Saturday afternoon. Which was approximately 4 days sooner than I expected, but then again it's entirely possible that the landlord wants my apartment on fire about as much as I do. In the end it doesn't really have to do with my traveling, but it was too close to be mere coincidence. I ended up getting into Lansing about 10 minutes early on Saturday, though.
Anyway, the week was swell. I'll do my best to post about actual events later (hopefully less than two weeks from now)
The day of my trip back Sunday began ominously. Headed out for a farewell lunch with my family I remarked that it was snowing rather hard and wouldn't it be funny if my flight were canceled? After lunch I checked my flight status online, saw that it was still on time and left for the airport. Of course, once I arrived there my flight's departure was sitting at one hour after its scheduled time. Eh, no problem. Well, the one hour became an hour and a half, which became two hours, which ended up being almost 3 and a half hours. But we took off. And word was that everything out of Chicago was delayed, so there was a chance I was still going to make my connection.
Obviously I did not make my connection. I was supposed to have a two hour layover, I took off three hours late and my connection was delayed an hour. Which translates to: as my first flight was landing, my second flight was taking off. Still, I was not phased. I figured there were probably still at least a couple of flights from Chicago to Boston that night. I was right, there were three. The nice United lady with the longest fingernails I have ever seen put me on the 7:45 flight, which was already delayed until 9:10 (central time). All three of the remaining flights to Boston were now going to be leaving between the hours of 9 and 10. All this time, the weather was getting progressively worse, but the airport was still open, flights were still taking off, the outlook was good.
We boarded our plane, we got the wings de-iced, we taxied out onto the runway. At this point, I began fading in and out of consciousness, figuring I'd wake up when we got to Boston, go home and continue sleeping. If you've read this blog with any regularity, you know that by now I should know better. And, in my defense, I was not at all surprised when the pilot came on the air and said that we had to head back to the gate for more deicing because of snow buildup on the wings. I was even less surprised when we got back to the gate and the pilot announced that the flight had been canceled (sound familiar?). However, since the only thing I was going to be missing was work, I wasn't exactly broken up.
We filed back off the plane and waited for some agents to come and tell us when we were going to be getting out of Chicago. There would be no flight that night. All the flights on Monday were completely sold out due to the holiday travelers. Right when it seemed definite that a mutiny was about to take place, we were assured that a special flight at 6am was being scheduled just for us, we were guaranteed spots on that flight, no worries.
If you're wondering about the other two Boston flights, yes they took off. It was just us and one other flight to San Francisco that got canceled. My luck is amazing. Of course, because it was due to the weather, the airline was not liable, so they were not about to pay for a hotel room. They were offering discounts, but when the hotels in the area run about $400 a night regularly, you're still looking at about $150. Not so much. Most of the flight hunkered down on some benches and settled in for the night. Or what turned out to be about two hours of actual sleep after standing in line to get our receipts for the next morning's flight (now moved to 11:15) and talking amongst ourselves for awhile, and before the cleaning crew came through to vacuum by our heads at 4am.
By this time, we had bonded as fellow stranded passengers. My two new friends and I went off in search of the earlier flights to Boston in order to put ourselves on the standby list in hopes that we could actually get out of there as soon as possible. While in line we picked up a fourth comrade and we waited hopefully to hear our names called. No such luck on the 6:40.
After a breakfast break we were off to try our luck on the 9:20. One of my friends was called, and we immediately turned on her (not really). We were extremely jealous as it was looking more and more like we were going to be stuck for another few hours. Then, like a Christmas miracle, about 5 minutes before scheduled departure they started calling off names like Bingo numbers. In the end all of us made it on the flight! Hooray! We landed in Boston at about 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time, all our bags came on the same flight we did (hooray!), I called a cab (not a scary drunken one, but one I called myself from Winthrop which I'm pretty sure I will do every time from now on) and made it to my apartment about 2. A full 23 and a half hours since I had left for the airport the day before.
I walked in, crashed onto my couch, and stayed there until I woke up again about 7. I was up for a couple of hours (though definitely not coherent as evidenced by the voicemail I left my brother, which he responded to with a text saying he'd just call me tomorrow because i sounded dead), and then got back in bed at 9, where I stayed until this morning (and could have stayed much longer).
Phew! When I got to work this morning I got a standing ovation, and I was informed that my new nickname is Typhoon Jessie, and also that no one is ever going to travel by plane the same time I go anywhere. Probably a good idea. :)
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