it's a winter wonderland
So yesterday was a long day of flights and trips to the bathroom--I've recently begun drinking water like it's my job and it has my bladder on overdrive.
So the flight from Austin to Detroit was uneventful. We were even ahead of schedule so I got to Detroit in time to eat at Chili's TOO and have a few Amstel Lights and watch the end of the Seattle/St.Louis game. In Austin I was watching the end of Texas Tech/Oklahoma State, which was a close battle until TTU just imploded at the end.
Anyway, so after eating and leaving my cute Russian waitress Olena a tip I walked down the terminal to my gate and was passed by a kid on his skateboard. I saw two people on skateboards in two different airports yesterday. How odd is that? Well, on the way to the gate I realized they have these massive screens in the terminal and I wanted to see the start of the NY Jets/Chargers game--man was I on sports overload yesterday, or what? At any rate, I get to my gate after seeing the first half and low and behold I see my friend Len who goes to school with me. He came over to me and informed me that he was on stand by and it didn't seem likely he'd get a spot. Apparently, his travel agent (seriously, who still uses a travel agent) gave him the wrong times for his flight out of Virginia, so he missed his early flight to Detroit. He asked if I wanted a drink and I said, "sure." I felt bad for him so I bought his drink; he'd never had a Dos Equis before, which made me wonder about the quality of bars in VA.
So we leave the place after talking with a guy who goes to Western and had spent his vacation all over America and I boarded the plane. He actually got a seat, which was good. And then we started to taxi out of the gate and the plane stopped. I assumed it was something routine like our runway was taken or they had forgotten to load all the luggage (we were with the MSU women's rowing team... that was nice). But no. Our pilot got on the air and said, "I have some unfortunate news. It looks like our engine stopped running. We're going to have to be towed back to the gate and see if they can fix it or give us a new plane." Hmm. Try to fix an engine that stopped.. or get on a new plane? You be the judge. So we all left our plane and went to a new gate, only to be informed that the plane that broke down was actually the plane that was needed the following morning for a flight from Lansing to Minneapolis. So they really did have to fix it that night and get us onboard and we'd have to fly in a plane that just an hour ago had its engine stop.
Needless to say we were all just really anxious to land in one piece. But we did, and Bette picked me up and I got back at Owen sometime around 1am and today I went to mass and bought Aquaphor, which Bette assured me works like wonder on chapped lips and doesn't leave your lips tasting all mediciney.
Back to the grind.
So the flight from Austin to Detroit was uneventful. We were even ahead of schedule so I got to Detroit in time to eat at Chili's TOO and have a few Amstel Lights and watch the end of the Seattle/St.Louis game. In Austin I was watching the end of Texas Tech/Oklahoma State, which was a close battle until TTU just imploded at the end.
Anyway, so after eating and leaving my cute Russian waitress Olena a tip I walked down the terminal to my gate and was passed by a kid on his skateboard. I saw two people on skateboards in two different airports yesterday. How odd is that? Well, on the way to the gate I realized they have these massive screens in the terminal and I wanted to see the start of the NY Jets/Chargers game--man was I on sports overload yesterday, or what? At any rate, I get to my gate after seeing the first half and low and behold I see my friend Len who goes to school with me. He came over to me and informed me that he was on stand by and it didn't seem likely he'd get a spot. Apparently, his travel agent (seriously, who still uses a travel agent) gave him the wrong times for his flight out of Virginia, so he missed his early flight to Detroit. He asked if I wanted a drink and I said, "sure." I felt bad for him so I bought his drink; he'd never had a Dos Equis before, which made me wonder about the quality of bars in VA.
So we leave the place after talking with a guy who goes to Western and had spent his vacation all over America and I boarded the plane. He actually got a seat, which was good. And then we started to taxi out of the gate and the plane stopped. I assumed it was something routine like our runway was taken or they had forgotten to load all the luggage (we were with the MSU women's rowing team... that was nice). But no. Our pilot got on the air and said, "I have some unfortunate news. It looks like our engine stopped running. We're going to have to be towed back to the gate and see if they can fix it or give us a new plane." Hmm. Try to fix an engine that stopped.. or get on a new plane? You be the judge. So we all left our plane and went to a new gate, only to be informed that the plane that broke down was actually the plane that was needed the following morning for a flight from Lansing to Minneapolis. So they really did have to fix it that night and get us onboard and we'd have to fly in a plane that just an hour ago had its engine stop.
Needless to say we were all just really anxious to land in one piece. But we did, and Bette picked me up and I got back at Owen sometime around 1am and today I went to mass and bought Aquaphor, which Bette assured me works like wonder on chapped lips and doesn't leave your lips tasting all mediciney.
Back to the grind.