So we left off last night with me posting from the SkyClub good and late... and at 11 pm, they announced that our flight was indeed canceled - It hadn't left Mpls yet, so our prospective departure time had pushed to 1:30am by this point. Turns out the flight crew had hit the end of their shift so the plane couldn't fly. They rebooked me on an 11:30am flight the next day, with a standby earlier.
By this time, flights had been canceled right and left across the board, so there were no hotel rooms within shuttle distance, so I had to hit the internet and find a hotel a bit further out - a $50 cab ride away, no hotel voucher from Delta. But it was a semi-nice Sheraton - they have very comfy beds, but very loud elevators. I had a good talk with a Delta reservations agent who helped me move my flight to Vegas on Friday... I had planned on being home Thursday PM, spending the morning with the family, and taking a 2pm flight out to Las Vegas for my friend's bachelor party. There was no way this was going to work, so they booked me on a 530 flight instead, and that left me some wiggle room. A Tylenol PM helped ease me into sleep.
I got up and had a leisurely morning - it was pleasant. Starbucks oatmeal and a whole lot of espresso. I caught a cab back up to the airport, intending to arrive a good 2 hours before my flight. Got in a cab and had easily the least pleasant ride of my life with a IWWG (pronounced EarWig) - my acronym for Incredibly Wrong White Guy.
This man expounded on politics, economics, cell phones, healthcare, genetics, homosexuality, and the history of Apple in a nonstop monologue that resisted my every effort to not participate or to steer the conversation elsewhere. And it's important to note, he was not only wrong in terms of I disagreed with him, he was wrong on just about every fact as well. It was like sitting with the Tea Party. I endured it.
I really don't want to get into all of his wrongness, but a sample was "people think Steve Jobs was some sort of genius. He was in and out of Apple over the years, and it took him 25 years to come up with something successful - the iPhone - and it's clever, because it just took a basic concept - touch and put it on a phone. That's not genius, anyone could have said 'make a phone you can touch' - even little kids know that - but I guess he gets this one big idea and now he's a genius. I tell you this, if he was such a genius, why didn't he get treatment for his cancer? Stupid hippie thought yoga and herbs would cure his cancer, and now he's a dead genius."
For 20 minutes I got this. It was not pleasant. He did make the statement "Driving a car, it's not particularly intellectually challenging, so I wind up with a lot of time to think, and that's how I got all this stuff figured out". I just smiled and nodded and just wanted to get to the damn airport and out of his car.
Once at the airport, I heard my name on the overhead - turns out I had been called for an even EARLIER standby flight and it was my last chance to board. This was at 945. GREAT! I'll be able to see the family! I got on board, and discovered a sad sad crowd - most of these people were from the night before, and they had got to the airport at 530 for this flight that was supposed to leave at 630am. It was 945 and they had just boarded. These were tired people. Immediately after closing the boarding door, they announced a 1 hour gate hold for more weather coming through.
The woman two seats over started weeping, and grabbed a barf bag. She proceeded to live under a blanket for the remainder of our flight, occasionally crying out in pain and retching. We stayed at the gate for that hour, then pushed back and sat on the tarmac for 45 more minutes. By law, I think they can't keep us on board for more than 2 hours, and were about to turn back around, when suddenly the weather cleared and we were allowed to leave.
We took off after noon ET, and the 1130 flight I had been scheduled on took off an hour after that, according to the listings. If you're keeping track: I had arrived at Newark at 4pm for a 6pm flight. by 11, I had been sent away, arrived at 930, spent 2 hours on a grounded plane, and was finally in flight. The flight was thankfully uneventful (save for the weeping and retching).
We landed and I leapt off the plane: I had 3 hours before my flight to Vegas, and I was going to see my family come hell or high water: I called Pamela and we agreed to meet at a restaurant halfway between the house and the airport. I raced there, and spent a great hour eating and laughing and recharging my batteries - Bella and Isaac were glued to my sides, and I hugged them non-stop. Pamela had kindly packed me a "Vegas" suitcase, and we swapped my business case for it.
Here's where I need to say I have the most wonderful family in the whole world.
Ok, so I made it back to the airport on time to board my flight to Vegas, which was ON TIME and I am happily ensconced in first class. The Avengers is playing on the in-flight movie, but it's on a tiny tv coming out of the roof of the cabin three rows up, so I think I'll pass for now.
Vegas is going to be fun, but I'm a little nervous about it - it's going to be 9 guys, only two of whom I know, and there have been a series of increasingly "yeah duuude it's going to be AWESOME" emails sent, which leads me to think I'll need to approach this experience as an anthropologist, seeing these alpha males in action. I may also see some boobies. Pretty sure that's going to happen with this crowd.
I'll hydrate.
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