Subtitle: Why I will never again fly American Airlines, American Connection, or some schtonky subsidiary airline called Chautauqua.
This post. At least in part, is being written from the glorious locale of the St. Louis Airport. So please excuse any typos, ramblings or other digressions. "I'm a reasonable mean but--this heat, it's making me crazy."
Let's start, where everything all should begin, with thursday. The beginning, of course.
Thursday morning I went to the doctor and was told that my blood pressure is too high for my age. The resolution is for now I am going to quit caffeine and go back in 2 months to see what happens.
However, this weekend was no time to embark on that feat (she says as she sits outside a Starbucks, by the grace of God by my gate). So, I then headed off to AUS, known to many as ABIA. Thankfully, I got there about 1.5 hours early, and naturally was told that my plane was going to be about 3.5 hours late, if it made it there at all.
So, they put me on a flight to DFW that got me in about 15 minutes later, subsequently eating up the already tight Expedia-planned connection time.
So I waited for about 2 hours and was on my 45 minute flight to DFW. I was ready-I studied the map of the DFW terminal in the back of the magazine (so
that's what that's for) and planned my assault on the DFW skylink tramline.
---Note: The above I wrote in its entirety using only my thumbs on my Sidekick while stuck at the airport. Including the HTML. Now, I bring you back to our regularly scheduled programming.---
Well, I didn't do too well. Since the Skylink only goes one way around the airport, I had to take the train counter clockwise from Termial E to Terminal B. This took about 5 minutes. My mad-dash down Terminal B to Gate B-5 took about 3 minutes.
I actually got to my gate 10 minutes before the lfight was set to take off but apparently that doesn't mean anything anymore. They told me (in so many words) I was SOL and that I would have to take the 5:30 PM flight--on standby.
At this point it was 2:15 PM so I had a 3 hour wait ahead of me. Keep in mind--I was set to arrive in MSP at 5:20 PM originally. I waited and waited until 5:30 and then SURPRISE! I did not get a seat on the flight. Nor did the other 7 people on standby. In fact, they had overbooked it and were paying people to get off. So I was then told I could (along with everyone else) get an actual seat on the last flight out of DFW to MSP at 7:30 PM.
Then I had to do what is known as "make the best of it," which naturally meant making friends with Wayne from Wisconsin. He was also stranded, on his way back from Arkansas to Osseo, WI. Wayne works for a company called Global Finishing Solutions, which basically sells painting rooms. Or something. At any rate, he was good company and bought me a couple of drinks and dinner at the Chili's in the airport. He and his wife were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and were going to go to Alaska for 2 weeks. He had traveled quite extensively for work as well as pleasure, and had a kind of "Whatever, I do what I want" type of attitude toward life. A good person to get stuck at the airport with. I was finishing up dinner with him when I suddenly said "Wayne! Can I take a picture of you for my blog?" And he was more than happy to raise a glass to all of you out there in cyberspace.
When I finally arrived at MSP, it was 10:45 PM. Not exactly the early-evening appearance I had hoped to make. I arrived at IS2's Roseville, MN residence some time after 11 PM. I was concerned that this was not going to be very ideal--but naturally I was concerned about the entire experience.
After a brief freak-out in the car outside IS2's house, I finally decided to go in, only because IS2 was headed inside with or without me. So really at that point I was pretty much out of options. Evidently, all of my fears were not worthwhile. The family could not have been nicer to me.
AmyGangsta' wanted me to edit this so here goes:
Before I went to MSP, AmyGangsta sat me down and had a very frank discussion with me regarding several things. I won't get in to all that was discussed -- but I will say I had to get a pedicure before I left as well as several new pairs of shoes. At one point AmyGangsta said to me: "Do you have any other watches?" I was sitting there, post-dance class wearing my $9.99 digital watch from Target that was probably a little beat up looking.
Me: "No, why?"
AG: "Well, you might want to get a different watch..."
Me: "What?!" "You don't like my watch?"
AG: "It's just a little...young for you. You need something nicer, something that makes you look mature, something...with hands...so they know you can tell time."
At which point, I realized she was right. Later, IS2 said "Do you need to buy a shirt with writing on it so they know you can read too?" but in actuality, AG was correct--my watch was a little high school track-ish.
So I went out and bought a new watch, one that screamed simple, mature innocence. Well, I was sitting to IS2's mom's right at the kitchen table and all of a sudden she touched my wrist by my watch and said "Why, that's a beautiful watch..." Of course, it took IS2 and I everything we had not to burst into laughter.
Gangsta just wanted me to add that. Go on...Friday was Mall of America day. My sentiments on the MOA were: 1) It's a big mall 2) Its got a huge parking system 3) There were a lot of Lids stores and 4) I need a dress for the elusive "brigade ball." A new thing to worry about and spend money on. Wonderful.
En serio, the MOA was all that the BSC had made it out to be and more. I found myself wishing I was 10 years old and still dragging around the newest book of the series (well, the second newest, as my sister would be reading the current one). We stopped and had mojitos at some Treasure Island spin-off inside the MOA. No sugar cane sticks, but they were good. The menu said they had a splash of Sierra Mist--perhaps helped make them sweeter.
A bit buzzed off the mojitos, we headed back to the house and introduced dominoes to IS2's stepfather. The best part was the large pile of cash placed in the middle of the table which made it look like we were actually betting or, as IS2's mother asked when she walked in after coming home from work, "Is this a money game?"
Then it was off to an Indian food restaurant to meet up with IS2's dad and stepmother for some curry. Conversation was good and I tried not to seem too envious of his parents' recent trip to Banf, Canada (number 2 on the "Places Rachel Wants To Go" list).
A round of dominoes awaited us back in Roseville that night--of course IS2 won, only because of his strategic spot at the table (following up the 2 beginners). I think his parents thought that I had introduced dominoes to him--funny since I had never played "Bones" or even heard of it before IS2.
Yesterday, as per IS2's sister's recommendation, we went on a
Human On A Stick Segway tour. We stopped in Nicolette Mall in downtown Minneapolis at a pub called "The Local Pub." We got assorted sandwiches and drinks. I decided to try my hand at the special of the day called "Big Ginger." Two shots of Jameson's and the rest was ginger ale, with a limon and lime twist. It was actually fairly decent. I then moved on to my first bloody mary, and much talk was made about the salt with seasoning on the rim of the glass (seasoning salt). From there, it was Segways. That's right, folks, I have now cruised around 15 miles of Minneapolis on a Segway. It was interesting. First of all--if you have never tried a Segway or are apprehensive about it, it is very easy. Simple, easy, fun. However, the tour was led by teenage kids in 11th grade--not so appealing. Every story was about one of the flour mills along the Mississippi River and the story would always end with Kip, our tour guide, saying "And then everthing blew up, because flour is really explosive."
Seriously. Every time.
The best part of the Segway tours were the Segways themselves. Incredibly simple and agile, it was really amazing how responsive they were to body weight. The weather was perfect along the river, a nice breeze and sunny and cool (or--cool to my Texas standards). I could have lived without the watered-down history lessons that Kip was attepting to give, but it made for good fodder for IS2 and I to rant about later.
We stopped by, as mentioned earlier, several ruins of mills that were once flour mills. At one of them, a wedding procession was going on, which I couldn't help taking a picture of. It looks like these people are getting married in a bombed-out building. I don't know. Kind of strange. It is a interesting shot of the mill nevertheless.
"What a beautiful wedding...what a beautiful day for a wedding said the bridesmaid to the groom..."
Across the Mississippi we got to see the Stone Arch Bridge (which the Segway picture was taken on). The name says it all--it's a stone arch bridge. I zoned out during the tour when there was discussion of what exactly it is there for (Kip was a terrible storyteller) so...just use your imagination.
Then we continued along to Boom Island, which was where they used to do some sort of logging. Again--my lack of take-home knowledge is mainly because I was either too busy trying to not crash into the person in front of me on my Segway or because I had tuned out Kip the Terrible. But I did get a shot of the skyline from Boom Island, with a Minnesotan to boot.
Somehow, by that time, the clouds had rolled in, so it was rather blustery and we were worried we'd get rained on. However, we made it back from the tour without any rain and headed back to Roseville for dinner. This time, IS2's sister and 2 out of her 4 children came with her. The younger one proceeded to gnaw on my thumb as apparently he is old enough to be teething and clamp his hand on my thumb and hold it in his mouth but not old enough to clamp his hand on a teething ring and hold it in his mouth.
Dinner consisted of some excellent steaks prepared by IS2's stepdad. I helped make the rolls although that was quite a test on my cooking skills in and of itself. Dinner was followed by another round of dominoes, at which point we realized we had been playing with two 4-3 dominoes and didn't have a 3-3 domino. A faulty set was to blame. IS2's mom won and I am going to consider all of the games null and void because of the skewed set of dominoes.
This morning I got up super-early and it was off to MSP. After a last-minute panic when I showed IS2 my itinerary and said "Do you think I can check in here for Chautaqua Airlines?" I actually made it on my first flight out of MSP on time. Amazing.
However, we arrived in STL late (that's St. Louis NOT Seattle for a
certain Dunndee, which is SEA) and was stuck there for the next 3 hours. Well, first I sat there for an hour and half because my flight was late coming in. Then we all loaded on the plane. When I say "We all loaded" I mean WE ALL LOADED. After EVERYONE got on the flight, they then informed us we would all need to "deplane" because the air conditioning was broken. Um...okay. So we got off the plane (also known as deplaning) and sat for 2 hour waiting for them to fix it. Then we all boarded yet again and actually made it home, albeit 2 hours later than expected.
Despite my travel fiasco(s), I had a great time. Everyone was incredibly friendly (Maybe what they say about Minnesotans is true) and welcoming toward me. Now it is back to the grind that is pet relocations.
And then everything blew up.
