Moving with internal changes
This morning I woke up at dawn’s cranky old crack to prepare for the first leg of my flight to the land of the Queen. 4am – dressed and wide awake, I decide to check online for the flight status 5 minutes before my favourite cab driver plans to collect me – and discover the entire flight, from stripping to the essentials at the gates to the part where you squeeze between new intimate friends… has been “CANCELLED”!!! No reason given. No alternatives mentioned. PANIC!!!!
A few fanny-flapping calls and some long waits later I find out that United Airlines has already booked me on a later flight late this evening to Heathrow via Chicago and pushing my arrival into the next am. Boo. I anticipate the jetlag and go back to bed, grumpy and already hating the journey ahead.
A good hour after I’d woken up for the second time this morning, with the idea that I would treat myself to some hot chocolate with whipped cream a bit later and with some homemade scrambled eggs in my belly, the boys return home, frozen and despondent because no school bus came for them. Again. At first I scoffed to myself about how this was a sign that this day was only going to get more complicated and annoying… but later began to dawn on me how fantastic it was that I’d get to spend one more day with my babies (the oldest was feeling very sorry for himself as he had planned a day’s work over steamy coffees at Crazy Mocha, but he lay back on the couch with his laptop while I enclosed his icy wet feet in lambskin slippers and those feelings soon melted away. The youngest built himself a fort out of blankets and our clothes drying rack, and spent the day giving us grand tours of the different styles of forts he could fashion out of 4 blankets. I tried my best to notice the differences between each style. And I get back to the point…) I check the website again and NOOOO – the flight to Chicago this evening is “in flight control”! I quickly Google the phrase to find out what it means and discover that the flight will amost definitely be delayed, which almost definitely guarantees I will miss my main connecting flight to Heathrow. Gahhhh! More annoyance. I quickly shower and repack the bags that have bloated themselves across the livingroom floor, and catch the cab to Pittsburgh International in a hurry.
Half an hour or so in the queue I finally get to the desk where I explain my sorry situation and how I would like to be put on a waiting list for the next flight into Chicago. A Scottish guy behind me talks loudly on his cellphone about how he is going to try to find another route because he is always getting stuck in Chicago overnight when it snows, and how the last time, the plane turned around and took them all back to Pittsburgh because it was so icy they couldnt even land. My heart sank. Even if I manage to get on this packed flight at the last minute, if they take me back to Pittsburgh I will definitely miss the one flight I’m guaranteed a seat on for later this evening. I stopped and considered my options. I eventually realised that as much as I was trying to control the situation, I was so misguided to believe I could change anything at all. No amount of bitching or ranting was going to help the situation. My baggage was already booked through to London on this standby flight I may never get on. I took a deep breath and for the first time completely embraced a notion that I have always wanted to believe in but could never quite succumb to — whatever happens, I am going to go along with it and I’m going to enjoy the journey… maybe even as much as the destination. If that means sleeping over at Ohare Airport with my coat for a blanket and my laptop bag as a pillow, that would be part of the adventure.
So here I am, with a miraculous standby flight behind me, an hour before departing for the main leg of this solo adventure across the ocean, and I’m already hearing the doubters speaking of ice on the ramp and overnight delays… and the dreaded CANCELLED flights. But I’m feeling positive. I know that if the flight doesn’t leave tonight I have a scratchy thick woolen coat to keep me warm, a cell phone with 3 bars of juice, a tummy full of one large frozen margherita and the distant memory of nabbing that window seat earlier, the one everyone else looked longingly at but didnt dare to ask for… the one right next to two other empty seats… the only empty seats on the whole flight. A whole row of watch the sunset and laid back glory. Yep. I was the one who got it! All I did was ask.
Ms. Wakame
They did arrive – completely safely and unopened but a little wiser. I’m thrilled to bits!!
Cait
I hope your bags are having a nice trip somewhere and come back to you soon rested and refreshed. Sounds as if your go with the flow philosophy is working. I hope you have a fabulous time in the UK.
Ms. Wakame
Awe Nykki! I’ve been thinking so much of you too! I hope you’re having the best time in Chicago and the time is going by nice and slowly!! Hope to catch you online soon. I should be available all next week for pestering :@)
Al, I’ll DEFINITELY let you know when I’m coming to Brighton – I’ve missed you loads! Also I’ll try to organise a pay-as-you-go phone soon and give you the number. See you soon!
albear
Hi Liv,
Please tell me you are coming down to brigvhton on your trip back to the UK would be great to see you again!
Woot!
Nykki
I’m so happy that you’ve arrived safely and that your whole experience has been just that! I can’t wait to talk to you and I miss and love you very much. XOXOXO
Ms. Wakame
Thanks guys! And yep – I arrived safely. It took 1.5 hours to get through passport control, and then I couldnt find my baggage. Apparently there was no record in the system that I had checked in any baggage at all. So I did a quick search for my baggage stubs and realised I’d left a plastic bag with my ticket stubs and wallet (containing all my credit cards and my US permanent resident card) ON THE PLANE. Thankfully it hadn’t flown off yet and I waited another hour before someone kind found it around my seat and brought it to me. A quick scan of the baggage tickets and they discovered my baggage had been booked in under someone else’s name and was going on its own adventure around the world. Her baggage had arrived safely at my destination.
For about an hour I was absolutely panic stricken, worrying that they would never find my wallet, resigning all my favourite clothes and comfort stuffs forever lost, I’d be stuck here for at least a week without access to money AND most importantly, I wouldn’t be able to return home until I had a new permanent resident card…
I felt sick, like I’d lost everything in the world, and then I told myself to calm down and I wondered why on earth this was happening to me. Am I sitting here (isolated from my mom who has now been waiting 3 hours for me outside – definitely worrying they’ve bound me in chains and put me on a bus to some asylum somewhere) because my baggage is destined to go missing and I’m doomed for all eternity? Or… maybe the universe conspired to let my baggage go temporarily astray so that I would check and notice that my wallet was missing – something I may have only discovered after 3 days or so. From that second onwards I suddenly felt positive and decided to believe that that was the purpose of this whole fiasco, and that someone would definitely be honest and find my wallet for me.
I was so excited when the little man in an orange tarmac vest arrived with my packet that I blurted out, “Excuse me for being so forward, but you’ve just saved my life and I HAVE to hug you.” a sea of people queuing in front of him immediately parted to avoid the onslaught of affection and I squeezed him nearly to death. He spluttered a bit, “Oh well, its no problem! Please come with me and we can check through your bag and make sure that nothing is missing.”
Everything was there. A bit later he came over to brag that the guys behind the counter were jealous that they’d been helping me for the last hour but he got the hug. He admitted to telling them that he could probably get another hug from me, but they didn’t believe he could… would I mind giving him another hug? I laughed and gave him another one and caused an unexpected burst of suppressed outrage behind the counter – one guy even threw up his hands in disbelief. So I assured them that if they could just come out from behind the counter where I could reach them, they’d each get a hug too for their help. They were satisfied with my assurances, which was a relief because I didnt think I could recapture the original exuberance I felt with the first hug, so they would have definitely felt cheated.
Right now Im not sure whether I should bother taking a shower… its been 2 days I know… but I dont have any clean clothes to change into. I hope my bags arrive some time today :@)
Niqkita
I’m a big fan of going with the flow myself, grand adventures in reality are to be had. This story reminds me of two things: I never plan trips in winter if possible & I finally purchased an itty bitty MP3 player with something like 28 hours of play time because I sat in a plane inexplicably queued for take off for nearly two hours last May coming home from NYC and a couple of hours in Calgary due to a thunderstorm a few years ago and have come to realize I must be better prepared for potential boredom without resources in the future.
hope your safely on the ground and with family by now…
xoxox
Cait
I discovered the “go with the flow” trick years ago, and it quite simplified my life. If it bugs you and you can change it, then do. If it bugs you and there’s nothing you can do about the situation, then let it go. Talk to people around you. Find out about their lives. You’d be amazed what people will tell you if you ask. As we are taught in VS, “Everyone has a story, and they want to tell it to you.” It’s true. If you don’t want to do that, read a book. Or just watch people. That’s always fun. Make up careers or stories for them or something.
Hope you have a wonderful time in England.
There’s been a big flap here about an Austin-bound JetBlue flight that sat on the the tarmac for something like 11 hours at Kennedy. It was because of so much traffic and weather conditions. But the people were not allowed to get off the plane for all that time. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
nathan
That’s such great news, babe! I’m glad your flight plan ended up working out…so can I assume that you’re in the greatest of all Motherlands?