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?