foiled

los angeles, ca to portland, me
the best laid plans are subject to destruction by bad time management, mother nature and inept airline staff.

i was due to fly to portland, maine on christmas day to visit with my family before the big adventure. the entire day i was a blur as i sped through one task after another, but time was slipping away faster than the items on my to-do list were being checked off. my friend g and her sister showed up to take me to the airport and instead jumped into action, helping me get items off the list. we worked frantically and i shoved everything i needed for my adventure into a box to check and my cold weather gear for maine into my backpack.

rain began to pour out of the sky with a vengeance, and our ride to the airport became a perilous one. the plane took off without me. i was stunned. i'd never missed a flight in my life. i was flying jetblue and they scored big points with me when they offered to rebook me for the following day for $40. they scored bigger points when the agent waived the fee, saying a hearty 'merry christmas'.

my little guy with a big name, ozymandias

my subletter graciously offered me the use of my home for one more night, which meant a little quality time with my little guy.

at midnight my phone rang, jetblue calling to tell me my flight had been canceled by the big storm that was due to hit new york in the morning. i began to suspect that this was why the agent had been so free and easy with the fee waiver. i was rebooked for the next flight that evening.
it was nice to have that extra day to pack a little more carefully and make a stop at the apple store to work out some last minute kinks in the precious new macbook air (seems they don't support CS2, and i had to upgrade. terrific. course the disc is packed away, along with the serial number. if anyone out there has a spare CS2 license they could lend me for an upgrade, i'll hand it back to you, plus the upgrade, in october!)
got another phone call that afternoon, evening flight was canceled. ugh.
now i was feeling well and truly stranded. everyone i could call to pick me up, put me up for the night and drive me to the airport was either otherwise occupied with holiday guests or out of town.
not having a car in los angeles is one of the 10 levels of hell, dante just forgot it.
a $50 cab ride got me to j's house - he graciously extended the use of it to me while they were in boston.
that night i got another call from jetblue, morning flight was canceled. four hours of trying to get through to their customer service netted me nothing. i decided to show up at the airport the next night and hope for the best. they gave me a boarding pass, checked my precious box and off i went to deal with TSA.
i don't give TSA points for intelligence, they had to run my package of dole peaches through the scanner four times, along with swabbing it testing for explosive agents, despite me saying i would be happy to eat them on the spot or throw them away, but they didn't make me go through any particularly humiliating poses, so yay.
i arrived at jfk exhausted from the red eye, having been cramped between two nice but abundant ladies with pointy elbows, only to find that my connecting flight to maine had been canceled. guh!
so close, yet so far!
i spent over an hour waiting to speak to an agent to get rebooked on a flight that night.

double trouble

deciding to make the best of things, i called my friend m, and asked her if she wanted to meet for lunch. i walked over to terminal four, checked my backpack and headed to the Q10 bus. two hours later i was in times square eating pizza and garlic knots (so yummy!) enjoying this spontaneous time with m. it was swell.

double empire

when m went back to work i wandered over to the international center for photography and got to see the 'cuba in revolution' exhibit. then, by beautiful happenstance, my half sister (whom i've only known about for a little over a year) was in nyc, so i headed over to brooklyn to hang out with her. right after i arrived i checked the status of my flight, trying to figure out how much time i would need, and lo and behold, another cancellation!
a leisurely dinner with my sister, then a short subway ride to astoria where i would find a nice bed.

ditmar station 5:20am

at 5am, i hoped my flight was canceled, i was too tired to move, but it was on! so off to the subway i went. i had to trudge from one station to another for time's sake, and dealt with one of the most unpleasant mta employees ever (clerk#12145 - she was satan, and i will be writing a letter, even though, as she assured me, it will have little effect), and eventually made my way back to the Q10 bus and finally the airport. made my way through the hordes of misplaced people, got my boarding pass from a diy kiosk and headed through security (completely eventless).
the plane was delayed, but it did eventually take off, so again, yay!


i got off the plane feeling tired and battered, but delighted to have arrived, only to have my spirits plummet when my checked box went missing.