I'm baaaack ... and a Tuesday Tirade
I'm finally back from TWH. All I can say is, "%#$&#)&%)@&!!" I had an amazing time and met scads of wonderful people, but the trip back was the Trip From Hell. First off, we got out to junesrose's mini-van and discovered that the left front tire was flat :( That should have been a signal of impending disaster. Fortunately abigail89 and kp_mushu managed to change the tire in less than half an hour. Then junesrose took me, abigail89, kp_mushu, elucreh and thaliachaunacy to Logan Airport. When I got to the American Airlines terminal, I discovered that my 4:57 flight had been delayed to 8:20 p.m., supposedly due to the weather, though it wasn't particularly bad, just cool and drizzly (and really not the worst day we had while we were there -- actually that was Saturday, when it rained buckets for most of the day, but I digress...) Later on I found out the delay was mostly due to radar problems. The lovely hermorrine was waiting for the same flight to Chicago, so at least I got to spend more time chatting with her :) Our 8:20 departure was rescheduled several times, and in the end we didn't get off the ground until 9:30 p.m. Eastern time. The result was that I missed my 9:57 p.m. Central time flight back to Madison, and then missed the last bus to Madison, at 11:00 p.m., by about 5 minutes. GRRRR! I took a shuttle to National Car Rental, which wanted to charge me $118 for a one-way rental of the smallest car they had. I said, Um, no way, got back on the shuttle and went back to O'Hare. I briefly considered trying to sleep in the terminal but common sense eventually prevailed and I got a room at a Super8 motel in DesPlaines for the night; I figured $65 was better than $118 plus gas, and I got to spend 5 hours sleeping on a real bed in a nice, dark room instead of slouched in a chair in a brightly-lit airport.
This morning I took a 7:00 a.m. shuttle back to O'Hare, where things actually went pretty well. My 9:06 flight arrived in Madison about 9:45 a.m. Got off the plane, called Mr. Annearchy and asked him to pick me up at the airport, which is about 15 minutes from our house. Then I went to retrieve my weekender bag. As I reached the carousel area, I saw my black bag (recognizable by the orange Lumos2006 light stick on the handle) on the carousel - but I was too far away to grab the bag, and it went back into the bowels of the luggage handling area and didn't come out again!! I finally heard from a car rental person that "the bags go around 3 times then they're taken off as being abandoned" !!!1!!! WTF!!!111!!! I did NOT abandon it. The plane let us off at one of the airport, then we had to walk to the other end to go downstairs and then BACK to the original end to get our luggage. WTF!!??!?!!!11!!
So the upshot is that I will have to retrieve my bag from the airport later today. Maya is coming straight home from school today so I can finally spend some time with her. Meanwhile I should crash for awhile. I'm a total zombie today and decided not to try to go to work this afternoon as I'd originally planned.
My f-list is probably at skip=25780375 so I'm not going back beyond last night. While I was gone, I read email exactly twice, and briefly, so I probably have about 700 emails to read. If anything important happened in your life while I was gone, please feel free to tell me about it right now, or email me about it.
*snogs all of you* I've missed y'all and I'm really glad to be home. More on TWH later. First zzzzzzzzzz.
ETA: Tropical Depression Vince? It's October 11 and we're in the V's??? *headdesk*
This morning I took a 7:00 a.m. shuttle back to O'Hare, where things actually went pretty well. My 9:06 flight arrived in Madison about 9:45 a.m. Got off the plane, called Mr. Annearchy and asked him to pick me up at the airport, which is about 15 minutes from our house. Then I went to retrieve my weekender bag. As I reached the carousel area, I saw my black bag (recognizable by the orange Lumos2006 light stick on the handle) on the carousel - but I was too far away to grab the bag, and it went back into the bowels of the luggage handling area and didn't come out again!! I finally heard from a car rental person that "the bags go around 3 times then they're taken off as being abandoned" !!!1!!! WTF!!!111!!! I did NOT abandon it. The plane let us off at one of the airport, then we had to walk to the other end to go downstairs and then BACK to the original end to get our luggage. WTF!!??!?!!!11!!
So the upshot is that I will have to retrieve my bag from the airport later today. Maya is coming straight home from school today so I can finally spend some time with her. Meanwhile I should crash for awhile. I'm a total zombie today and decided not to try to go to work this afternoon as I'd originally planned.
My f-list is probably at skip=25780375 so I'm not going back beyond last night. While I was gone, I read email exactly twice, and briefly, so I probably have about 700 emails to read. If anything important happened in your life while I was gone, please feel free to tell me about it right now, or email me about it.
*snogs all of you* I've missed y'all and I'm really glad to be home. More on TWH later. First zzzzzzzzzz.
ETA: Tropical Depression Vince? It's October 11 and we're in the V's??? *headdesk*