MIssed Planes and Just Plain Misery

Sooo, I missed my flight back to Seattle on Sunday night. I was going from memory because Christie's printer didn't work, and I didn't have my itinerary with me. I had Laura drop me off at the terminal I thought I needed, which actually turned out to be the terminal farthest away from the one I needed. By the time I figured out my mistake (almost immediately after Laura drove off) and the shuttle got me to the correct terminal, it was too late to check my bag, so they scheduled me on the next flight to Seattle, which was 4 hours from then. Dumbass Extraordinaire, at your service!

It actually worked out pretty well for me. I managed to get a hold of Laura before she had driven too far away, and she swung around and picked me up again. We ended up at a sports bar, watching baseball, feasting on a variety of appetizers, and eating a few Vicodin from her stash as dessert. This, coupled with great conversation about boys, movies and traveling made for a very relaxing afternoon. It made me even sadder to say goodbye to my new friend the second time around, but I was very grateful for the extra time I was able to spend with her.

The first part of the flight, from Dallas to Las Vegas was heavenly. I had a window seat, the whole row to myself, and no one in front or behind me. I was delighted that I had missed my earlier flight, and settled in to enjoy this peaceful haven that is so rarely found on cross country flights. The segment from Las Vegas to Seattle was a completely different story... A special hell reserved for particularly bad sinners in need of horribly creative punishments. I'm still trying to figure out what I did to merit such a horrible experience. There was guy in front of me that kept bouncing in his chair and causing his seat to hit my knees, screaming baby next to him, and screaming baby's uncaring mom who would only try to quiet down screaming baby after he had made shrill, prolonged noises for more than a minute. To complement bouncing guy and screaming baby was kicking toddler behind me...Fantastic. The best though, was unable to stop coughing lady who sat right next to me, and couldn't figure out how to cough without making the whole row of seats shake. During the brief moments when she did manage to find a moment of peace from coughing, she shattered our respite by whining about how much she was coughing...Oh, and the window was placed juuuuuust so I couldn't lean my head up against the wall because it had that little ledge that dug into my face. To top it all off, the head flight attendant liked to hear himself talk, so he kept getting on the speaker and babbling on about NOTHING! So basically, any time I would start to drift off to sleep, any one of these lovely traveling companions, or a combination of any of them would launch into a torturous, cacophonous ballet of bouncing, screaming, coughing, kicking, whining, shaking, well, you get the picture.

This was all going on from midnight until 3 am. I had to be to class at 8 am the next morning. No problem! Seasoned travelers understand that these minor pitfalls come with the territory of vacationing, and only add to the wonderful stories you're able to tell upon your return. Ha.