Updatery
Home again from Springfield, MO! It was fun. We went shopping a few times, but didn't buy much, ate at some great restaurants, watched Devil Wears Prada (better than I expected!) and I watched MEgan play the first 4 or 5 hours of the new PS2 port of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (lesson: cards are terrible). In all it was an excellent time XD Once I got there...
[horror story] So avatar1983 and I left the same day - consolidating trips to the airport seemed reasonable, right? Fine. BUT before we even leave, we find out his flight is cancelled. Awesome. We get to the airport in time anyway, and they have no problem getting him onto another flight (slightly earlier, even!) back to Manchester, which I assume went off without too many hitches. Unfortunately, this flight is in a different terminal than mine, which means we can't go through security together and spend the waiting time pleasantly. Oh, well, right? SO. With only an hour before his flight is supposed to go, avatar1983 goes through his security. I go from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2, where the flight is supposed to be, and it's not on the monitors. So I go to Terminal 1, where it is also not on the board, and I just go through security because there's not a gate yet, so whatever. It's another 40 minutes before a gate is announced. Fine. I sit in the gate for an hour or so, then it moves. And again - after SIX gate changes, my flight, listed as on time until an hour before it was supposed to leave, boards an hour and a half after it was scheduled to depart. Not too bad on a day when O'Hare is averaging 2 hour delays. HOWEVER.
First, we had to sit around getting de-iced etc. That's normal. Then, we hang around because no one knows why. Then we get into the taxi queue and sit for an hour and a half. The de-icer lasts an hour and a quarter. So we have to go back to the gate. This takes another hour, we get de-iced, wait 45 minutes for the fuel to arrive, get fueled, sit around some MORE, get de-iced AGAIN because we need it again, and finally, at two o'clock in the morning, my 8pm flight takes off for Springfield, arriving at 3:05am. The guy behind me on this plane spent the first hour and a half of the sitting around snoring so loudly I almost throttled him, and they never fed us in this time (of course not - with what? Still, though. I'd eaten at 6 and was super-hungry!), and the lone stewardess went around with little cups of water for us once in this entire ordeal. It was basically hellish. Megan and her brother had arrived to wait for me at the airport at 10:30pm, so they were involved, too, which was entirely unfair. We finally got back to their house at 3:45am. Completely ridiculous. [/horror story]
In other news, my trip back was HUGELY less eventful - I got bumped to an earlier flight than I was booked for, but because of its delays, ended up taking off only 40 minutes before I would have anyway, which is still an improvement. Traffic was horrendous coming back, and the weather was worse, but it all worked out because I'm home and it's not 4am.
Thanksgiving was really good, I've enjoyed seeing family and friends again after such a long time, and I'm reasonably confident that avatar1983 both made a good impression and managed to escape being traumatized, so that's good :D My sister's dog has eaten my comb, which is kind of annoying, and I forgot my US phone charger at Megan's house, but it's been an excellent trip so far. I'm looking forward to the last few days of it, and even to getting back to England.
[horror story] So avatar1983 and I left the same day - consolidating trips to the airport seemed reasonable, right? Fine. BUT before we even leave, we find out his flight is cancelled. Awesome. We get to the airport in time anyway, and they have no problem getting him onto another flight (slightly earlier, even!) back to Manchester, which I assume went off without too many hitches. Unfortunately, this flight is in a different terminal than mine, which means we can't go through security together and spend the waiting time pleasantly. Oh, well, right? SO. With only an hour before his flight is supposed to go, avatar1983 goes through his security. I go from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2, where the flight is supposed to be, and it's not on the monitors. So I go to Terminal 1, where it is also not on the board, and I just go through security because there's not a gate yet, so whatever. It's another 40 minutes before a gate is announced. Fine. I sit in the gate for an hour or so, then it moves. And again - after SIX gate changes, my flight, listed as on time until an hour before it was supposed to leave, boards an hour and a half after it was scheduled to depart. Not too bad on a day when O'Hare is averaging 2 hour delays. HOWEVER.
First, we had to sit around getting de-iced etc. That's normal. Then, we hang around because no one knows why. Then we get into the taxi queue and sit for an hour and a half. The de-icer lasts an hour and a quarter. So we have to go back to the gate. This takes another hour, we get de-iced, wait 45 minutes for the fuel to arrive, get fueled, sit around some MORE, get de-iced AGAIN because we need it again, and finally, at two o'clock in the morning, my 8pm flight takes off for Springfield, arriving at 3:05am. The guy behind me on this plane spent the first hour and a half of the sitting around snoring so loudly I almost throttled him, and they never fed us in this time (of course not - with what? Still, though. I'd eaten at 6 and was super-hungry!), and the lone stewardess went around with little cups of water for us once in this entire ordeal. It was basically hellish. Megan and her brother had arrived to wait for me at the airport at 10:30pm, so they were involved, too, which was entirely unfair. We finally got back to their house at 3:45am. Completely ridiculous. [/horror story]
In other news, my trip back was HUGELY less eventful - I got bumped to an earlier flight than I was booked for, but because of its delays, ended up taking off only 40 minutes before I would have anyway, which is still an improvement. Traffic was horrendous coming back, and the weather was worse, but it all worked out because I'm home and it's not 4am.
Thanksgiving was really good, I've enjoyed seeing family and friends again after such a long time, and I'm reasonably confident that avatar1983 both made a good impression and managed to escape being traumatized, so that's good :D My sister's dog has eaten my comb, which is kind of annoying, and I forgot my US phone charger at Megan's house, but it's been an excellent trip so far. I'm looking forward to the last few days of it, and even to getting back to England.