Sunday (7/25/2010) was supposed to be an easy day. I would sleep in, then drive to the airport to catch my flight to LaGuardia, drive up to Westchester, have dinner and enjoy the season's premiere of Mad Men. Well, that didn't happen....Enjoy!
9:00 AM: Finish packing. Take nap.
11:15 AM: Wake up to the sound of the cell phone. Delta is calling me to tell me that my "3:15 pm flight to New York--LaGuardia has been delayed to 4:30PM. We regret any inconvenience this may cause . . ." I smile and roll over to continue my nap.
2:15 PM: Leave the house to head to Tampa. I need to return some items to IKEA and this is the most time-efficient way to do it without using extra gas.
2:40 PM: Phone rings. Delta is calling me to tell me that my "4:30 PM flight to New York--LaGuardia has been cancelled. We regret any inconvenience this may cause . . ." SERIOUSLY!!! You mean I just wasted my gas on a cancelled flight? Nah, dude, you are getting me to NYC today.
I think now would be a good time to explain why (1) I'm traveling on a Sunday and (2) I'm ticked about the flight being cancelled.
So now I'm about 5 minutes away from IKEA and I'm on the phone with World Travel, trying to get another flight. All the flights leave at 5:30 PM or 7PM and they all have a connection, so now matter what, I'm not getting to NYC until late. I finally decide to take the 6:59 to NYC-JFK on JetBlue, so the agent books the ticket and reroutes my car pickup so I can relax.
- I'm always irritated when my flight is delayed. Even when it is delayed for a good reason, I'm irritated.
- Being delayed in Tampa is wonderful. Since the airport is new, they built all kinds of workstations and power strips into the design and the airport has free Wi-Fi. This can make all the difference in the world. When I'm stuck at LaGuardia, I'm usually praying that someone buys me a Delta SkyClub membership for Christmas. Seriously. The airport is THAT bad.
- If I'm stuck in Tampa, home is 45 minutes away If I get stuck in NYC I have to find a hotel room.
- The last time I went to this particular client, it was a disaster (partially chronicled in blog posts Weekday Vignette and This SHIT would happen to me), partially attributed to the fact that I arrived at 2PM on a Monday (not my fault. Thanks Delta!). This time I wasn't taking any chances; I was arriving with plenty of time to spare.
2:15 PM - 4:00 PM: Killing time in the Tampa IKEA
5:00 PM. Well, obviously since I'm not leaving until 7PM, I can get something to eat while in Tampa, but I'm not hungry. I grab a slice of pizza at Whole Foods and try to decide what else I can do to kill time. I finally decide not to push my luck and head to the airport.
5:30 PM: I've dropped off my bags and now I'm headed to ...OMG!!! How many people are in the security lines? It's Sunday??? Where are you people going?
6:00 PM: I'm now through security and I walk over to the departures screen to figure out which gate we are leaving from and . . .My flight has been delayed to 7:59 PM. Tonight is the Mad Men Season 4 premiere episode. Obviously, I'm going to miss that and True Blood. This sucks.
7:20 PM: Hmm . . . we aren't boarding the plane.
7:30 PM: We still aren't boarding the plane.
7:45 PM: We will begin boarding in 10 minutes.
8:15 PM: We're on the plane but we're 21st in line for takeoff. We aren't going anywhere any time soon. On a positive note, JetBlue planes have TVs in the headrest. On the other hand, no HBO, no AMC, no Comedy Central. In other words, really nothing I want to watch. I guess I'm watching Family Guy reruns until I fall asleep.
11:30 PM: We land at JFK. I've never been at JFK, so now I need to figure out where ground transportation is.
12:00 AM (Monday): I found National Car Rental and I'm trying to decide on a car. I need to make a choice fast; it's pitch black out here.
1:00 AM: I realize I haven't eaten since that one slice of pizza 8 hours ago. No wonder my stomach is talking to me. I stop at McDonald's for a quick meal.
1:45 AM: I'm at the hotel. I can't sleep. This isn't fair.
There you have it. Another travel story for you. Since I'm home for the next two weeks (thank you Jesus), I won't have any travel updates, but I might have some knitting updates to share.
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