Saturday, January 05, 2008

I Made Lemonade

A few years ago my family and friends decided no one wanted to travel with me. Every single flight I took had something go wrong. Mechanical breakdowns, missed/ cancelled connections, busted or missing luggage, weather delays. But that only lasted for 2 years. Then things got better...or so I thought.

You may or may not recall my 23 hour adventure getting to Dublin last summer (June 10th, to be exact). Then I had some issues when I flew back from RI at the end of the summer. I don't think I had any problems on the way to my cousin's wedding in October (or maybe I blocked out the memory!). But the Lexi Connor Travel Curse is back with a vengeance.

I got to the airport yesterday to come back to Austin and immediately they told me my flight had been cancelled. They rebooked me on a different one that would get me into Austin earlier. Cool, I thought. When I got to that gate, they were already boarding. We stopped in Baltimore to drop off some and pick up other passengers. While waiting for people to find their seats and get settled, I heard, "Would passengers Connor and Richards please come to the front of the cabin." I walked up front and the airline guy said, "I have to pull you off this flight. We're over the weight limit."

I said, "I know I gained some weight over the holidays but not enough to crash a plane."

He smiled, but he still took me off the plane. I figured it had to be because we were the last passengers added to that flight. They still had to ask for 2 other volunteers. My luggage went on to Austin. Passenger Richards was shoved off to another flight. The volunteers got their travel vouchers and connections. I got, "I can't get you into Austin until tomorrow." This is at about 5:30 last night. Instead, I received a voucher for a room at a nearby hotel and boarding passes for a 7 am flight to Houston and a 10 am flight to Austin.

Keep in mind, I wasn't really bothered about the inconvenience. I mean, really. What would be the point of getting worked up about it?

So, I got to the hotel, wandered around a bit and decided to have some dinner. While eating at the bar, I found out they had live music on Fridays and a band with quite a local following. So I stayed. I started talking to people, laughing, drinking and dancing until the bar closed! It was AWESOME!!!

I went to bed about 1, 1:30, got the alarm to go off at 4:30, got a wake-up call at 5 and the shuttle came for me at 5:30. At the airport, I went straight to security since I didn't have bags to check (they went to Austin yesterday, remember?) and I already had my boarding passes, I ate breakfast and slept on the plane. When I walked in the house at 11:45 this morning, it was 25 hours since I walked out of my mom's condo.

So now I'm home, a little richer (emotionally, not financially) for the experience and ready to get back to work. Well, okay. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight I might relax, read and watch TV. (I got all 3 Bourne movies for Christmas!) What've you got planned for the rest of this weekend?

8 comments:

TJ Brown said...

I've heard that travel was really bad this holiday. And they want to cancel flights to make it better? What???
Teri

Crystal said...

Glad your back girl! Sounds like you've had quite an adventure. It's never boring when you fly, is it...Have a good rest of the weekend, I plan to finish a book i'm reading and harass kids;)

Lexi said...

Teri, it makes no sense, does it?

Lexi said...

Crystal, what book are you reading? Enjoy harassing kids. I get to do that for a living starting again on Tuesday!

Crystal said...

Hey sweet! I just finished a book called Thunder Moon by Lori Handeland. It wasn't really one of the paranormal books that she writes but it had a lot to do with the Cherokee Indians and the old ways of spirits, messenger wolves, and the old ways. The sherriff of the town has a bunch of unexplained deaths and finds out that an old evil indian spirit is to blame. I don't know if you would be in to that but the solving of "who did it" was VERY good!

Have FUN harassing those kids tomorrow!!

Unknown said...

Wow! You are so nice. Did they ever tell you why they kicked you off and didn't give you all the good benefits?

You are soooo much more social than I am. I would have stayed in my hotel room and read a book all night. I admire your outgoingness.

Have you watched the Bourne's yet? Gosh, I really like those movies. It's too bad I don't have them on DVD......

Lexi said...

Crystal, thanks for the book suggestion. And yes, I look forward to harassing the kids!

Lexi said...

Monika, they didn't tell us why we got pulled other than the plane being overweight. Rest assured, I have a perfectly succinct letter forming in my head to the airline.

As for the Bourne movies, I'm sure we can come to some kind of compromise. Say a Dark Angel for a Jason Bourne?