The horrible transportation ordeal: Day 1
I must have done something really awful in a past life; I cannot think of a better explanation for the eighty kinds of pain United Airlines and/or LGA air traffic control decided to inflict on me yesterday[1]. I was trying to get to Chicago to go to a meeting at Fermilab in which I would observe depressing politics and take notes for a professor. This is not what happened.
12:00 noon - A final check of my flight status reveals no delays. Consultation with weather.com indicates reasonable weather in Chicago and only light rain in the NY area. I leave campus on the m60.
1:30 - 2:00 pm - I arrive at LGA and get myself to the correct terminal. I get in line to check bag[2] (hereafter to be refered to as my bag, but see note). I wait.
2:15 pm - Head for gates, at security the woman in front of me has a belt that sets off the metal detector and whines about having to remove her shoes, holding up everyone else by several minutes. The woman behind me apparently had something suspicious in her bag, so while the security gorillas try to use the scanner to figure out where it is my bag/shoes/belt/hoodie sit just inside the area labeled "Do not put hands in x-ray machine." I wait.
2:30ish - Reach gate, find excellent seat where I have a view of the podium. I set about doing my reading for Latin American Humanities. At some point in the next fifteen minutes I become aware that Flight 683 LGA to ORD, scheduled to depart at 2pm, has not arrived at the gate, to say nothing of boarding and taking off. I cannot see the board from where I'm sitting, and there are enough angry looking people milling around that I will surely lose my seat if I stand up. I plan to get up after the flight begins boarding and some people clear out. In the meantime, I wait.
3:00 pm - Boarding for Flight 683 begins[3]. I give up my seat and wander off in search of a snack and bottle of water. On my way back to the gate I check the status of my flight (687, scheduled to depart at 4pm), it has an estimated departure time of 5:57. I'm sick of doing Latin American Humanities reading, so I find a seat with a view of the tv and watch CNN. Increasingly unhappy at the thought of having my boredom extended by two hours, I wait.
4:00 - 5:00 pm - Sick of watching the news and beginning to get sleeply I try not to doze off because sleeping with my contacts in will make my eyes unhappy and my saline is in my checked bag. Sustained by the thought that boarding should begin in the next hour and offer a change of scene at the very least, I wait.
5:00 pm - Excited at the thought of getting to board in half an hour I glance at the board with departing flights. Flight 687 has something next to it that looks more like "CANCELED" than "5:57." I enter denial[4].
5:05 pm - An announcement is made confirming the cancelation. I am no longer in denial. I get stuck somewhere between anger and despair. I am inclined to scrap the whole endeavor and go back to school to take a long shower and go to sleep. I call a friend to see if she can find my advisor and find out what she wants me to do. I stand in line to deal with the airline representatives and wait.
5:30 - 5:50 pm - I reach the front of the line, and am given a spot on an 8am flight. The United guy says I need to talk to Travelocity to find out if I can get a refund since that's where I got the tickets. With no instructions to do otherwise, I call Travelcity and spend half an hour attempting to get an actual person and explaining the situation and waiting for the actual person to verify the situation and canceling my trip. This is difficult, because the terminal is very loud and the actual person is not so loud and speaks quickly.
-- Intermission --
5:45 - 6:00 pm - My friend has been unable to locate our advisor and I've already given up anyway. I head for the baggage claim area to retrieve my bag.
6:00 pm - I look through the pile of luggage from my flight. Nothing. I look at the piles from the other canceled flights. Nothing. I check again. Twice. I'm in denial again.
6:15 pm - I talk to the United agent who informs me that my bag was sent ahead on flight 683. I'm somewhere between denial and anger. While I'm filling out a form to get my bag back, my Dad calls to see what's up - he says something which reminds me that my contact lens solution is now in Chicago. My sense of the absurd kicks in and I skip the remain stages of coping and arrive at acceptance, somewhat worse for the wear. I resolve to be pleasant to the United agent[5] who tells a coworker that it's his second consecutive day of working late to deal with canceled flights.
6:20 pm - I leave my boss voicemail saying that I won't be at the meeting after all and that he will not need to pick me up at the BooNE house in the morning. I call the limo company to cancel my reservations.
6:30 pm - I go outside to get an m60 back to Manhattan. I'm standing next to a family with a small child on a leash[6]. The kid looks at me, so I smile because she's cute (and the idea of a child on a leash is funny) which makes her smile back and laugh. This is the high point of my day.
6:45 pm - I get on a bus. I get a seat. In traffic on the way back to campus, I wait.
8:00 pm - I arrive back on campus. I want a few things - food, a hot shower, to lie on the couch and watch a movie, to not see another human being for several hours, sleep, etc. I find my common room *filled* with people. Oh right... it's Friday, there's a prayer group. Oh well.
I need to do a few things - email my advisor an explanation/apology, email my boss an explanation/apology, to go to Duane Reade to get contact lens solution and toothpaste. I set about doing these.
10:00 pm - Physically and emotionally exhausted, I shut myself in my room with my dinner and watch some Pinky and the Brain episodes. One of them involves Pinky and the Brain being stolen from the lab by activists and flown to some remote jungle where they are dropped. I fixate on the airplane. I don't feel better.
11:30 pm - Feeling guilty for turning down the 8am flight and kicking myself for a number of other decisions I might have made differently, I go to bed.
-- End of Day 1 --
[1] Actually, they're still inflicting pain today. But that will be explained in a later post, which I hope to title "The horrible transportation ordeal: Day 2 - a happy conclusion"
[2] After much debate, I decided it would be easiest to check a bag. The deciding factors were a) desire not to have to find shampoo/toothpaste/contact lens solution in Chicago to use for two days and then toss and b) to have room for books so I could do homework. This bag was borrowed from a friend as my bags are all squishy and would probably be inadequate for protecting my shampoo from baggage gorillas.
[3] An a side note, Flight 683 pulled away from the gate at about 3:15, by all of ten feet. From my new seat, I could watch as it sat just shy of the gate for a very long time (I don't remember when I noticed that it had finally left, but it wasn't before 4.) Out of curiosity I checked the flight status this morning and United reports that it departed at 3:11 (Ha! There's a half-truth) and arrived at ORD at 6:25 (it should have arrived at ORD at 3:29).
[4] At this point, the fact that I haven't eaten an actual meal since 11 and have had only a brownie since then begins to affect my logical reasoning/coping ability.
[5] This was because I got yelled at by a stupid person at work on Wednesday, and while it didn't help the person yelling, it did make me feel bad. Anyway, I smiled and asked the United guy if he every got to deal with people when they weren't grumpy about things going wrong. I learned that he has apparently been working in his job for 34 years and had dealt with pretty much everything. Then he asked me about whst my plans for the weekend had been and wished me luck with getting back to school and getting my bag.
[6] The leash was on a little backpack/harness thing that looked like a monkey. And this kid was tiny and well-behaved. It was adorable.
12:00 noon - A final check of my flight status reveals no delays. Consultation with weather.com indicates reasonable weather in Chicago and only light rain in the NY area. I leave campus on the m60.
1:30 - 2:00 pm - I arrive at LGA and get myself to the correct terminal. I get in line to check bag[2] (hereafter to be refered to as my bag, but see note). I wait.
2:15 pm - Head for gates, at security the woman in front of me has a belt that sets off the metal detector and whines about having to remove her shoes, holding up everyone else by several minutes. The woman behind me apparently had something suspicious in her bag, so while the security gorillas try to use the scanner to figure out where it is my bag/shoes/belt/hoodie sit just inside the area labeled "Do not put hands in x-ray machine." I wait.
2:30ish - Reach gate, find excellent seat where I have a view of the podium. I set about doing my reading for Latin American Humanities. At some point in the next fifteen minutes I become aware that Flight 683 LGA to ORD, scheduled to depart at 2pm, has not arrived at the gate, to say nothing of boarding and taking off. I cannot see the board from where I'm sitting, and there are enough angry looking people milling around that I will surely lose my seat if I stand up. I plan to get up after the flight begins boarding and some people clear out. In the meantime, I wait.
3:00 pm - Boarding for Flight 683 begins[3]. I give up my seat and wander off in search of a snack and bottle of water. On my way back to the gate I check the status of my flight (687, scheduled to depart at 4pm), it has an estimated departure time of 5:57. I'm sick of doing Latin American Humanities reading, so I find a seat with a view of the tv and watch CNN. Increasingly unhappy at the thought of having my boredom extended by two hours, I wait.
4:00 - 5:00 pm - Sick of watching the news and beginning to get sleeply I try not to doze off because sleeping with my contacts in will make my eyes unhappy and my saline is in my checked bag. Sustained by the thought that boarding should begin in the next hour and offer a change of scene at the very least, I wait.
5:00 pm - Excited at the thought of getting to board in half an hour I glance at the board with departing flights. Flight 687 has something next to it that looks more like "CANCELED" than "5:57." I enter denial[4].
5:05 pm - An announcement is made confirming the cancelation. I am no longer in denial. I get stuck somewhere between anger and despair. I am inclined to scrap the whole endeavor and go back to school to take a long shower and go to sleep. I call a friend to see if she can find my advisor and find out what she wants me to do. I stand in line to deal with the airline representatives and wait.
5:30 - 5:50 pm - I reach the front of the line, and am given a spot on an 8am flight. The United guy says I need to talk to Travelocity to find out if I can get a refund since that's where I got the tickets. With no instructions to do otherwise, I call Travelcity and spend half an hour attempting to get an actual person and explaining the situation and waiting for the actual person to verify the situation and canceling my trip. This is difficult, because the terminal is very loud and the actual person is not so loud and speaks quickly.
-- Intermission --
5:45 - 6:00 pm - My friend has been unable to locate our advisor and I've already given up anyway. I head for the baggage claim area to retrieve my bag.
6:00 pm - I look through the pile of luggage from my flight. Nothing. I look at the piles from the other canceled flights. Nothing. I check again. Twice. I'm in denial again.
6:15 pm - I talk to the United agent who informs me that my bag was sent ahead on flight 683. I'm somewhere between denial and anger. While I'm filling out a form to get my bag back, my Dad calls to see what's up - he says something which reminds me that my contact lens solution is now in Chicago. My sense of the absurd kicks in and I skip the remain stages of coping and arrive at acceptance, somewhat worse for the wear. I resolve to be pleasant to the United agent[5] who tells a coworker that it's his second consecutive day of working late to deal with canceled flights.
6:20 pm - I leave my boss voicemail saying that I won't be at the meeting after all and that he will not need to pick me up at the BooNE house in the morning. I call the limo company to cancel my reservations.
6:30 pm - I go outside to get an m60 back to Manhattan. I'm standing next to a family with a small child on a leash[6]. The kid looks at me, so I smile because she's cute (and the idea of a child on a leash is funny) which makes her smile back and laugh. This is the high point of my day.
6:45 pm - I get on a bus. I get a seat. In traffic on the way back to campus, I wait.
8:00 pm - I arrive back on campus. I want a few things - food, a hot shower, to lie on the couch and watch a movie, to not see another human being for several hours, sleep, etc. I find my common room *filled* with people. Oh right... it's Friday, there's a prayer group. Oh well.
I need to do a few things - email my advisor an explanation/apology, email my boss an explanation/apology, to go to Duane Reade to get contact lens solution and toothpaste. I set about doing these.
10:00 pm - Physically and emotionally exhausted, I shut myself in my room with my dinner and watch some Pinky and the Brain episodes. One of them involves Pinky and the Brain being stolen from the lab by activists and flown to some remote jungle where they are dropped. I fixate on the airplane. I don't feel better.
11:30 pm - Feeling guilty for turning down the 8am flight and kicking myself for a number of other decisions I might have made differently, I go to bed.
-- End of Day 1 --
[1] Actually, they're still inflicting pain today. But that will be explained in a later post, which I hope to title "The horrible transportation ordeal: Day 2 - a happy conclusion"
[2] After much debate, I decided it would be easiest to check a bag. The deciding factors were a) desire not to have to find shampoo/toothpaste/contact lens solution in Chicago to use for two days and then toss and b) to have room for books so I could do homework. This bag was borrowed from a friend as my bags are all squishy and would probably be inadequate for protecting my shampoo from baggage gorillas.
[3] An a side note, Flight 683 pulled away from the gate at about 3:15, by all of ten feet. From my new seat, I could watch as it sat just shy of the gate for a very long time (I don't remember when I noticed that it had finally left, but it wasn't before 4.) Out of curiosity I checked the flight status this morning and United reports that it departed at 3:11 (Ha! There's a half-truth) and arrived at ORD at 6:25 (it should have arrived at ORD at 3:29).
[4] At this point, the fact that I haven't eaten an actual meal since 11 and have had only a brownie since then begins to affect my logical reasoning/coping ability.
[5] This was because I got yelled at by a stupid person at work on Wednesday, and while it didn't help the person yelling, it did make me feel bad. Anyway, I smiled and asked the United guy if he every got to deal with people when they weren't grumpy about things going wrong. I learned that he has apparently been working in his job for 34 years and had dealt with pretty much everything. Then he asked me about whst my plans for the weekend had been and wished me luck with getting back to school and getting my bag.
[6] The leash was on a little backpack/harness thing that looked like a monkey. And this kid was tiny and well-behaved. It was adorable.
posted by Christine at 9:12 AM
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