I survived!

This was a trip unlike any other I have experienced. Saturday I had a lovely dinner at a corner café and walked around for a few hours before packing and heading to bed. To be safe I asked for a wake-up call Sunday morning at 6:30. Sadly as soon as the phone stopped ringing I went right back to bed and woke up 20 min before I needed to leave. A series of unfortunate occurrences resulted from this, along with the discomfort of having to sit on a plane for 10 hours after not having had a good shower that morning.

1. I got on the wrong metro – this NEVER happens and speaks to how tired I was.

2. I neglected to have breakfast

3. Totally disheveled

4. The hotel desk people held me up to say goodbye for a lengthy period

The one amazing thing was that in my groggy state I made it directly to the correct airline counter in record time, when I did not know where I was going or if I was even in the right terminal. I finally fed myself in the airport and sank into a large leather chair near my gate which smelled heavenly. Of course we boarded the plane early. Naively I thought my luck was changing. The deception continued, everyone was ecstatic about leaving early. As we boarded the flight attendant informed us that there were only 80 passengers on a plane with 214 seats. I had my choice between three seats to myself in the middle of the plane or two seats on the side next to the window. I opted for the window and settled down quite contently. It is a good thing we were all comfortable because we sat at the gate for two hours waiting for an electrical problem to be solved.

At length I arrived in Atlanta! It was wonderful to see L and B, especially since I have not had a chance to visit with them since their wedding. The weather was lovely. I wanted to kiss the ground when I landed. Monday L took me to see the Atlanta Historical Center, lovely, thought provoking, and entertaining. That evening for FHE we set off rockets. No arrests were made, though all rockets were lost. I also saw my first fireflies, which I was surprisingly enthused about. The visit was fantastic and they were great hosts.

My flight left early Tuesday morning, so I set my alarm with plenty of extra time – unfortunately the alarm gods were against me once again (why stop a trend). L kindly woke me ten min before we had planned on leaving. I threw things together and we headed out the door. The plan was for B and L to see me to the metro/subway station and set me off to the airport. Unfortunately the way was barred by an accident which blocked all lanes of traffic and the Police turned us away. Change of plans, we took L back to their apartment and B drove me directly to the airport.

He dropped me off at exactly the time I had hoped to arrive - 7:00am. We made good time. Apparently, not good enough though. When I went to the desk to get my boarding pass confusion ensued. At the bottom was printed something to the effect of – this flight is full, there are no available seats, please check in at the gate to receive a seat assignment.

There genuinely were no seats to be assigned. At least 7 potential passengers were not able to get on the plane. The woman at the gate seemed so pleased with herself when she announced that she could still get me home via Philadelphia and I would arrive in Sacramento at 9:21 that evening. My jaw dropped. California time it was around 3am and I would get there at 9:21pm that night, thus not arriving home until after 10pm. My consolation – a round-trip ticket anywhere US Airways flies (after my experience I am not sure this is even worth it). I sat in Atlanta until 1pm then headed to Philly and finally Sacramento.

When I finally landed I was ready to melt into the ground I was so relieved. One blessing is I had a great excuse to miss the department meeting Tuesday afternoon. Upon receiving the recap on Wednesday morning I am pleased I missed it.

I still have not unpacked and am suffering with a strange sense of time. Example: After dinner (probably around 7:30) I got online and started reading the paper. When I was finished I looked down at the clock on my toolbar and it said 11:30. Now it felt like 11:40, so I believed that was actually the time, I was however confused how I could have wasted the entire evening when there was so much to do. In a panic I marched into the kitchen to discover it was only 8:40, phew! My internal clock is having major issues. I guess I can be grateful to be alive, and to have had such a wonderful time in Paris.