air travails

The whole trip will get mentioned eventually, but the air nightmare is at the forefront of my currently aching head. I know airlines don’t control the weather, but they can sure as hell control how their service people DEAL with the results of the weather. And when customers follow every little stinking rule put forth about when to arrive, how much to bring, what to WEAR (belt and shoes, off missy!) – because if they don’t, airline & airport personnel will call them on it… it really hurts when those same employees don’t return the favor.
Wednesday afternoon we lucked out and were let go at 1pm, which meant that I would get to the airport in plenty of time to sit and relax, flying first class I wouldn’t have to wait in a long line to get things done, all seemed well. And for the most part, it was, until the snow started. My flight was a little delayed, no big deal (so I thought), so I found an empty seat and waited. Well the delay of my first flight screwed me catching my next flight so I had to rebook. My original direct flight to San Diego was now a connection in Pittsburgh
(which is a lovely city when flown over from above.. at night).
Long and short of it is, I was supposed to leave at 4 and get to Cali around 8:30. I ended up leaving at about 7 and getting in near midnight. Thankfully our hotel was near enough to the airport that Sean didn’t have to even leave until he knew my plane was touching down. Bless him though he did have cosmo makings waiting for me at the hotel, and I had plenty of people to call and text message to keep me somewhat sane before leaving DC… and I found and claimed a power outlet to keep me going. Which is one thing airports REALLY need to think about. When people have been there all day long trying to make calls and notify loved ones, how about pointing them to the nearest power outlet so they can charge up?
I got a call on Saturday telling me that my flight was cancelled. The recording didn’t say anything about who to call, or what to do, just “Your flight tomorrow morning has been cancelled.” Nice, eh? So I called and after an hour on hold, rebooked my 7:30a direct flight to a 1:40p with a connection in Philly.

Sunday was yet another optimistic day, since I was flying later in the day, I got to have a really nice brunch.
I’m rarely travel burned when I fly, so I smile and patiently wait and move from gate to gate or remove all my accessories for rude TS
A people.. but damn if the San Diego airport security check isn’t S-L-O-W. Still, it was ok getting to my gate, I watched Lost, turned up my headphones since everyone was watching the Eagles game (and they were loud). But the flight left on time, they had no food for people flying in coach, and advised that people should buy food in the airport now if they wanted to eat since it was nearly a 5 hour flight. Craziness.
Aside from me being extremely fidgety and 1/2 of a couple flirting with me every time his (apparent) boyfriend got up to go to the bathroom or fell asleep, the flight was great. I caught up on Law & Order (WTF Serena?!) on the laptop. I bought an adapter before my trip out of DCA, works great, but seems like it can only charge my laptop, not run it, thankfully the recharge time isn’t that bad, still I got 3 hours out of it before it ran down and left it to charge while I slept.
Unfortunately the flight didn’t get in on time.. but fortunately the next flight out was late.. VERY late. 10:10 moved to 10:55.. to 11:00.. to eventually loading the plane and just sitting on the ground while the standby people were assigned seats, and the bags were loaded (at least that’s what the pilot said was happening).
I ran into a friend of an ex in the waiting area for the flight, I always thought he was cute aside from his voice (premature grayin
g… *rowr*), but there was the usual how’ve you been and then a lot of pessimistic comments about if we’re getting home at all. Then when we boarded the flight was was in front of me and I stopped in first class and he kept on going, then turned around, to say something to me and was 1/2 way down the plane. He muttered something about me being in the big seats and that’s the last I saw of him.
Still, the flight home was more nerve-wracking than anything else, mostly because I had no clue how I was getting home.. and this is where my overthinking makes me freak out. I knew metro wouldn’t be running.. there’d be a WHOLE lot of people in need of taxicabs and it was COLD. Though I didn’t foresee my bags getting lost and having to stand out in the cold in a light jacket freezing my ass off waiting for a cab. But eventually I got a cab and $15 and a painfully long cabbie conversation later I was home.
Glad as hell to be home though, I’m weary.. have a headache.. and crave chinese takeout.. and really want to know where my luggage is, it’s worse than waiting for UPS/FedEx.. the moment I leave the building, they’ll show up.. What’s the best way to get my body clock reset? Sleep a lot?