Hijinx Ensues

I got to the airport an hour before my flight this morning. 

But the pilot scheduled to fly the plane did not show up for work.  (The gate agent's words, not mine.)  So the flight was cancelled.

This was to be a quick jaunt up to Denver, from which everyone sitting in the Colorado Springs was continuing on to somewhere else.  This kind of thing. . .what's the right phrase for this?. . .this kind of thing activates personalities.

The middle-aged woman who is leading a mother and a few sisters turns into "I Will Manage This Situation!"  Nothing she did helped her own cause.  Not the interrupting of the agents at the desk to 'get answers.'  Not the loud-enough-for-all-passengers-to-hear-but-still-in-a-controlled-voice-so-that-she--among all these other crazies--would-not-look-crazy, "These two agents are incompetent."

She and her companions ended up on the bus up to Denver.

I knew from the first I wouldn't be on that bus.  Buses make me want to throw up.

Another family was very upset as well.  On their way to some kind of reunion, and due to meet up with grandkids in Denver--I heard all about it.  The father in this group was reasonable enough.  He kept telling his son--maybe 19 years old, the lilt of a brat about him--that "It is not OK to get upset about this."

The son responded very calmly that he could, indeed, get upset.  It was what he was experiencing in his reality and he had a right to it.  I felt uncomfortably as though I were sitting in on the family's counseling session.

Eventually, this same son announced to his father as they sat in the terminal that if such and such didn't happen in time he would, "Rip somebody's f***ing head off."  (His words, not mine.)

This ripping, though I did not mention this to the guy, is against Federal Regulations.  Someone with latex gloves and ill-fitting trousers would be after him in no time.

The trousers of TSA employees!  None of them fit anyone!  They are either too tight, or too baggy in at least a few places.  Check for yourself next time you are in an airport.

I did not have my new iPod with me.  Didn't want it.  Being plugged in is a sign to everyone else that you don't want to talk, whereas I like to be available to my fellow travellers.  I got to chat with one man who's considering relocating to the Springs, for instance.  Another whose family just opened an Italian Bistro in Pueblo where he is the head chef.  And, no, he neither saw Ratatouille nor planned to.

His parents are from Palermo, however, and everything he makes is his mother's recipe.  The Superheroes will plan to eat there this summer.  Let's hope the restaurant stays open that long. 

Clarity, though: I used to be more upset about this kind of thing.  I paid good money!  They owe me a plane ride now, not later!  What is that pilot's name?!  I will never fly on this airline again. . .  

A while ago, though, I realized that if I were to stick by my various vows to avoid certain airlines, there would be no one left to fly.  This is just what air travel is like.  Stuff happens.  Kind of often, it feels like. 

I remember Sister #1, who flies a lot, telling me this a few years ago.  I see her point now.  What can you do?  And, in my case, I did not even absolutely, positively, have to be in DC today.  I am going to visit a dear friend, and it looks like I might get to see and extra two friends in the bargain.  Whoopee! 

But the trip can start tomorrow.

Because my other option was to spend an entire day in airports and arrive around midnight.  Folks, I have a lot to do here at home that I was already dreading coming home to on Sunday night and then finishing up so I could leave Monday morning.

I re-booked for Friday morning, 6:00 AM, which will get me there in plenty of time to enjoy my friends.  And voila!  I therefore had a whole afternoon to get everything else in order for my road trip--and got to do so without Gemma and Joshua around.  I'd say it's working out perfectly.

Final bonus: I can go to the National Day of Prayer gathering at our church this evening, which I had been bummed to miss out on.  Now, Bryan and I can go together.

Tomorrow starts early, then.  I'll have about 2 hours to use between my landing and Suzanne being off work.  I'll navigate the Metro to her stop and we've planned a ren-des-vous at a certain coffee shop.  She added that there's wifi there, if I had my laptop with me.

I first thought, "Hmm, I do have a lot of work I could do on the plane, and then at the shop as I wait for her."  But then I thought, "No, being on a laptop tells the world that you do not want to talk.  And, frankly, I want to hear what the guy who plans to rip someone's f***ing head off has to say. . ."