God, I Hate the Airlines..

Turns out my first flight was on an indefinite delay,  as it still sat on the ground in Wisconsin with a "mechanical". I was given a number of options, and none of them were without sacrifice and possible aggrevation. Option one was to just sit around the airport for a few hours, in hope that my plane (now in Wisconsin), would miraculously arrive "just a little late". My second option was to take another flight later in the day, but there was no guarantee that this flight would be on time either, as today the East Coast seems burdened with thousands of delays and cancellations originated from Atlanta. I did consider this option, but didn't want to tie up Wendy's entire day with picking me up, taking me home, and then bringing me back to the airport for a flight with NO guarantees.

The third option, and the one I chose, was to get on an earlier flight, getting the journey started, connecting in DC instead of Chicago, and then connecting again in Denver. I hate more than one connecrtion as it only exponentially increases the chance of delays, missed flights, and disappointment, and even anger and rage. I think I managed to pick the WORST of the three options in hindsight. So my first flight was on time, and we headed to Washington DC. There I was supposed to wait for more than 3 hours before making my connection to Denver. The departure time approached and passed, and we were still on the ground. I began to panic about my tight connection in Denver, and after speaking with three different "help" counters, somebody finally agreed that this schedule was too tight, reserving me a back-up seat on a later flight out of Denver. Finally that plane took off from DC, and there was NO WAY I would make my connection, unless it was on a delay like every other flight today.

Well my luck didn't allow for that, and when we finally did arrive in Denver, I had missed my flight to Salt Lake by only 5 minutes. Can you believe ONE flight is on time today, and it's my final connection. With a bit of sadness I accepted that this was not to be an easy day of travel. I took my back-up plan to a counter to confirm a seat for the later flight from Denver. I had another two hours of waiting. And to add insult to injury, as a planeload of people sat at the gate waiting for boarding, the airline delayed the flight, but never made an announcement making us aware of any delays. So we all sat awhile longer, and then, miracle of miracles, we boarded and soon departed.

I was finally on the last leg of this journey, and just couldn't wait to see the tarmac in Salt Lake, my friends awaiting my arrival, and the familiar sights I've come to enjoy here in Utah over the past 4 years. We finally arrived in Salt Lake sometime after 11pm, I grabbed my rental car, and drowsily drove to Mel and Deb's in Emigration Canyon. I was greeted with tired hello's and a warm house, with all its familiarity. It was comforting to be in Utah, but fourteen hours of planes and airports certainly knocked my spirit down a bit.

Monday would be a new day, filled with adventure, discovery, and possibly 2 feet of snow. I was happy that I had no films scheduled for the day, and could roll with the weather, whatever it might bring. I'l tell you more later of my day of leisure and am certainly looking forward to screening my first 3 films on Tuesday. Later, all.

But in the meantime... butter up that popcorn, turn down the lights, and crank up that projector. The evening's show is about to begin.