Friends

Okay, so I'll write more about my holidays later. For now, I'd like to share with you the best day of travel ever, by Carrie Hunt.

It started at 445 this morning. I woke up, Meagan warmed up the car and we headed out. She had directions to JFK from a friend. An hour and a half later we were in the Bronx. We ended up doing a complete circle of the city, and I made it JFK exactly one hour before my flight. On the ride, I also realized I left my cell phone at Grandmas, along with my extra set of directions.

So, I checked in and handed over my bag. The lines were pretty long, and by the time I got through that, it was 730, and my plane was boarding. I asked the Jet Blue lady if I could make it through security of I should cut. Ten minutes later, I still wasn't through, so I asked a TSA if I could go forward. He was like 'Oh no, you're fine!' So I waited five more minutes and asked again. Still nothing. I finally made it through at 750 and ran to my gate and they had closed the doors.

I trekked up to the desk and got on the next flight, at noon. AND I HAD TO PAY, even though this wasn't my fault. I wrote a nice letter to Jet Blue about that. Anyway, I bedded down with a $9 sandwich and BSG.

I kept an eye on the board, checking my flight status every now and then. What I failed to realize, though, was that my computer clock is still on central time. And so it was an hour AFTER boarding time when I went up to the gate. I had been watching a later Austin flight on the board, which is why it never turned green for boarding.

I had to sheepishly go to the desk and get standby for the 8pm flight. So, my plans to meet up with Charlotte in Paige are cancelled and poor Charlotte has to go drive to Austin to pick up Seven and take Epps home.

Sigh. I amaze myself. I'm blaming it on all the stress from the past few days. Not my lack of common sense...

So I spent Saturday afternoon/evening holed up in a cheap motel a 15-minute courtesy van ride from the airport. As there was no HBO and I didn't want to get too far in my book/Professor Layton game because I still had at least another day of travel in front of me, I spent the time largely watching Turner Classic Movies. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*, Scaramouche, and The Man Who Came To Dinner. I hadn't seen any of them before, and they're classics and were entertaining, so. Not how I wanted to spend my day, but not terrible.

*(Which starts out vaguely Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and then goes on to glorify the 'Rape Good-Natured Abduction of the Sabine Women' and Stockholm syndrome...which was a little "Er. Wait, what?" Oh, 1950s.)

My order-in dinner of middle-school-cafeteria/airplane-grade ravioli, however, left quite a lot to be desired. As expected, really, but it was the only vegetarian main dish on their menu.

Yesterday, Sunday, I spent the entire day at the airport. I woke up at 6:20 in the morning to catch the 7:00 shuttle from the hotel, hoping to get on a flight out before my (luckily) booked ticket at 4:40 in the afternoon. At 8 in the morning, I was number 36 on the standby list for D.C., which went down bit by bit every couple hours as a new flight left. But with all the flights pretty full, in the end I just took the 4:40 flight (which didn't end up leaving Dallas until 5:40 CST and got in to National at about 10 EST).

Although it was strange to spend so much time in that sort of travel purtagory that is the airport, and I was desperate for real food and a change of clothes by the time I got here, really it wasn't so bad. I had a good book to read, a fun game to play (seriously, if you have a DS and want a good travel game, I totally recommend Professor Layton), lots of interesting people to look at (at lunch, I sat across from an adorable old Chinese couple--the man sounded exactly like Uncle Iroh), the freedom to wander around the airport at my whim, and nothing to be responsible for except making it to the right gate at boarding time.

I'm glad I made it when I did, though. Some of the people who'd been there with me since the first flight that morning were still waiting after I left. I hope they eventually made it that day, too.

But now I'm here and everything's good. Dano had a brunch party here this morning with several of his friends. (Which I was invited to but Mom and Dad weren't. Haha.) Tomorrow it looks like I'll be meeting up with college friends Chicken, Monique, and Susan. (Yes, Texas Susan--she's up visiting her mom right now.) It's really nice to be home.

Well. I got on my flight in Austin, all triple-checked and good to go. Arrived in Dallas to find my flight to D.C. had been canceled in the 40 minutes I was in the air. I knew this shit was going to happen.

They wanted to fly me back to Austin and then back here tomorrow, but that seemed stupid. So I got a reduced-price hotel voucher and am spending the next 17 hours hanging out in this fairly average quality motel that doesn't even have HBO. With nothing but the clothes I'm wearing and what was in my carry-on bag--I'm glad now that I decided to carry my giant Hitchhiker's Guide tome rather than just settle for a more portable book.

So. I'm on standby for a morning flight, and am booked for sure for a 4:40 PM one. Hopefully I make it home tomorrow...

Well crap. I started an entry this morning, mostly talking about how I fail at updating (el oh el) and when I closed the window and LJ restored my entry for me, it's the old entry I'd been writing before that. And I lost everything I wrote this morning. So I'll just re-count it for you.

The gist of the first part was:
Huh, apparently I fail at updating recently.

The second part was essentially:
At least part of that is because I've had this page open for days with a half-written answer to that Writer's Block from a week or so ago asking which fictional character serves as a role model to me. The thing is, in most of what I watch and read, my favorite characters (and even characters that have aspects I'd like to emulate) aren't often people who should serve as behavioral role models. However, somewhere in the little Venn Diagram overlap of 'Characters I Love' and 'Characters That Should Overall Be Considered A Role Model In Any Sense' are Karl 'Helo' Agathon (Battlestar Galactica) and John Crichton (Farscape). Helo because he always does the right thing and sticks up for people who can't defend themselves (no matter the cost to him, his well-being, or his popularity) without being self-righteous, self-important, or conditional. Crichton because he perseveres against truly staggering odds, displays incredible patience, and always tries his best to keep people from getting hurt...and sometimes it even works. I could do with a bit more good Helo or Crichton.

And then I said:
I also have questions from joking that I keep meaning to answer. However, the first thing is 'Draw a picture representing you...' and even though I've been doodling a bit recently, I keep thinking "But none of those really represent me. I'll do that one for real later." and then, of course, don't.

Then I had to go to work.

The funny thing is, none of that is actual journaling--just a couple of poor excuses for why I hadn't written anything. Others include: I've been doing a lot of knitting, there's been all sorts of Christmas things to take care of before I go home, and I don't actually do much but work and hang out right now what do you want.

...No, seriously. What do you want to hear about? I don't even know what to write other than memes.

But. Um. Yes. Right now I'm waiting for a couple of songs to finish downloading on Carrie's computer so that I can put them on my DSi, which I will then put in its case in my messenger bag, which I will hopefully tomorrow be bringing with me to my parents' house in Virginia, provided the snowstorm which decided to hit THE DAY I'M GOING HOME doesn't muck up those plans. Obviously it is critical that I have not just most but ALL of the songs from Glee on my DSi. Because it's not like I've had the CD in my car for the past three weeks like an insane person or anything.

Sorry this entry is all over the place. Have some Kurt to make up for it. Because I can't get over how not-bad he is while singing completely out of his range.