a long weekend
since my cousin came up from california to my wedding, i thought it only considerate to return the gesture and head out to hers. a quick flight out on a saturday, wedding on sunday and then jet home on monday, right? only one missed day of work, only one full day away from wil, and a chance to see family that i hadn’t in a while.
well, it all started out great. i had all morning on saturday to get ready…i rolled out of bed, placed the finishing touches on my thesis (for wil to drop off on it’s due date, monday), and threw some things in a carryon for the trip. the two flights went smoothly and before i knew it, i was rolling off the plane into my mom’s welcoming embrace outside baggage claim (*skipping baggage claim for the first time, yay!).
we had a nice time together, being with dena, josh, the kids, mom and dad, nana and papa, pop, and matt. sitting in the sun, lunching at in-n-out, watching golf on tv, and grabbing some goodies at trader joes…the wedding was in the afternoon, and immediately upon sitting in our seats we were drenched in sweat as the ceremony was directly in the sun on a hot, open deck overlooking a golf course. but fortunately for us, the ceremony broke a new record in speed and we were up in the beautiful (ahem, airconditioned) dining hall in no time. we had a good time, chatting with family, dancing and munching on cake and food.
after saying our goodbyes we headed back to the hotel, where we enjoyed the pool in the evening warmth for a bit. not long after, i gave dad a lesson in owning his first ever ipod (for his birthday). i really enjoyed the whole evening, but i was already dreading the following day, which would be a full day of flying with three connections (fresno to l.a. to dallas to nashville), leaving the hotel at 7 am and not arriving in tennessee until 8:30 that night. mom piled me up with some miscellaneous wedding leftovers so i had to check my expanded bag on…no biggie- i figured that would be better than lugging it around three airports.
well, i should have taken it as a warning when my first flight was delayed into l.a., but with such long layovers i figured i would be ok…boy was i wrong. upon approaching my next gate i found out my flight to dallas was delayed. it was continually set back hour after hour….4 hours past and i was just now getting on the plane, already missing the following flight. with the reassurance that we could fix things in dallas we all boarded the plane, only to be told that the flight was now cancelled and we’d have to get off. since the entire plane full of passengers now had to be dealt with, it was another hour and a half in line until i could find out that i wasn’t going to be getting out of l.a. until 7 the next morning!
thank goodness mom and dad had plans of driving down to grams’ that morning; i immediately called them to pick me up at this airport so i could stay with them at grams’ and to give me a ride in the morning. being the wonderful family they are, and an hour later, around 4:30 (9 hours at an airport at that point) i was saying hello to them again and riding back to the house in a comfy car. as nice as it was to see them i can’t deny that i was completely exhausted and somewhat cranky from the long day of waiting with no end in sight. but i had a great night, eating japanese tempura at a place where the little lady would bang on a drum every time a guest entered, barely seeing a corner of a frank gehry concert hall through the l.a. traffic, and playing with austin’s toys with dad in an oversized chair in grams’ cozy family room.
the alarm at 4:30 in the morning was definitely that last thing i wanted to hear, as i was curled under the down comforter in the window seat. but i was on a mission to get home! even if i had absolutely no control over the timing and navigation of my flights, i was determined to make it home. another day up and down in the air, and i finally landed in nashville, to see my sweetie ready to pick me up. it felt so good to see him…even though i was only gone an extra day, i feel like the airport sucked away a week of time. seeing the pup was great too (she looked so big!), even if she didn’t remember me at first…but it only took 15 seconds or so for her to realize that it was just her ‘mom’ she was hiding from, and then i couldn’t keep her off me for the next 10 minutes.
of course, as i would have expected, i did not, in fact, get my luggage. even though the agent who transferred my flights claimed he transferred the bags as well, it was not there in nashville. at that point, i didn’t really care. i did start to care though, when they called at about 11:30 pm, saying they would be delivering it that night. and i cared even more when they dropped it off at our house at 3:00 AM. who knows why they felt like they couldn’t just wait till the morning when normal people are awake to deliver it.
airlines…
-k
