The trip
So I'm back from Florida. As a quick aside, I once again have a new cell number, 562-313-5816, this one with unlimited talk and text so feel free to give me a buzz.
Getting to Florida wasn't so bad. An aisle seat to JFK next to a mother who drank 5 bottles of wine and kept leaning all over me to talk to her husband in the row behind her so she could complain about their screaming child whom she would alternately tell "I love you" and then to "SHUT UP!". Once that headache was over, it was a short wait to get my window seat down to Tampa where my cousin and her girlfriend picked me up, got some McDonalds and made the hour drive back to their apartment to crash.
Over the next couple of days I played a round of miniature golf with them, two rounds of pool with my grandfather and discovered how terrible Applebee's is with Aunt. Outside of that, I mostly laid around and read or played cards with Grandmother. Boring, uneventful, unexciting. Exactly what I needed.
So Thursday I left in my cousin's car headed for the airport. Once again we stopped for McDonalds, but this time in a torrential rain that had slowed the highway down to 20-30 mph. Afraid to eat and drive, my cousin challenged me to.. so I went "California" on them. Weaved through traffic to pass cars in the rain, tailgated and otherwise was a nuisance all while scarfing down a pair of breakfast sandwiches. Got myself a nice exit row window seat up to NY and was on my way.
I knew NY was going to be a problem. The Long Beach flights were all sold out. Wandered around to the Vegas flights and was turned away, wandered back to the Long Beach gate, got denied a jumpseat because of my beat up brown converse being labled as "sneakers" by the uppity gay gate agent who 2 minutes later begrudgingly handed me a window seat ticket due to a "last minute cancellation". Got in my seat next to a sweet little old lady from Alabama, sat their as the plane pushed back from the gate 10 minutes early.. and then the waiting began.
JFK decided to switch runways so we had to wait until they figured things out before we could start taxiing. They finally figured it out, we taxi out and join the line (the "JFK meatgrinder" as our pilot lovingly called it) to take off.. and then the second thunderstorm of the day hits. Planes don't take off or land in thunderstorms barring extreme necessity. So we turned off our engines and sat on the runway.. for 4 and a half hours, an hour short of our scheduled flight time.
Suffice it to say I watched a LOT of the Olympics yesterday, landed in Long Beach at almost exactly midnight and what do I see? Lightning somewhere near Redondo. Three thunderstorms, two flights, one sore ass.
Getting to Florida wasn't so bad. An aisle seat to JFK next to a mother who drank 5 bottles of wine and kept leaning all over me to talk to her husband in the row behind her so she could complain about their screaming child whom she would alternately tell "I love you" and then to "SHUT UP!". Once that headache was over, it was a short wait to get my window seat down to Tampa where my cousin and her girlfriend picked me up, got some McDonalds and made the hour drive back to their apartment to crash.
Over the next couple of days I played a round of miniature golf with them, two rounds of pool with my grandfather and discovered how terrible Applebee's is with Aunt. Outside of that, I mostly laid around and read or played cards with Grandmother. Boring, uneventful, unexciting. Exactly what I needed.
So Thursday I left in my cousin's car headed for the airport. Once again we stopped for McDonalds, but this time in a torrential rain that had slowed the highway down to 20-30 mph. Afraid to eat and drive, my cousin challenged me to.. so I went "California" on them. Weaved through traffic to pass cars in the rain, tailgated and otherwise was a nuisance all while scarfing down a pair of breakfast sandwiches. Got myself a nice exit row window seat up to NY and was on my way.
I knew NY was going to be a problem. The Long Beach flights were all sold out. Wandered around to the Vegas flights and was turned away, wandered back to the Long Beach gate, got denied a jumpseat because of my beat up brown converse being labled as "sneakers" by the uppity gay gate agent who 2 minutes later begrudgingly handed me a window seat ticket due to a "last minute cancellation". Got in my seat next to a sweet little old lady from Alabama, sat their as the plane pushed back from the gate 10 minutes early.. and then the waiting began.
JFK decided to switch runways so we had to wait until they figured things out before we could start taxiing. They finally figured it out, we taxi out and join the line (the "JFK meatgrinder" as our pilot lovingly called it) to take off.. and then the second thunderstorm of the day hits. Planes don't take off or land in thunderstorms barring extreme necessity. So we turned off our engines and sat on the runway.. for 4 and a half hours, an hour short of our scheduled flight time.
Suffice it to say I watched a LOT of the Olympics yesterday, landed in Long Beach at almost exactly midnight and what do I see? Lightning somewhere near Redondo. Three thunderstorms, two flights, one sore ass.