Flying and Waiting

My past experiences with airports have contributed significantly to my love for them. Everything has gone smoothly, connecting flights were made, luggage was present at the end of the trip, people were friendly and helpful. It made the traveling experience worthwhile. But now, my view has been tainted, marred by unfortunate circumstances and long hours of nothingness and waiting. I'm desperately trying not to let it influence my general love for flying and the hubbub of traveling. (I think hubbub is such a ridiculous word, who uses that in real life? It's fun to say though)

My journey from intern training back to Norman was, to say the least very long. My flight originally was to leave Atlanta at 6:50pm. We boarded the plane, as usual, half an hour before departure time and then we waited. Taxied out to the runway. And waited. Buckled our seat belts, put our tray tables and seats in the upright secure position. And waited. Went through the put on your own oxygen mask first and your seat can be used as a flotation device. And waited. Then they turned the engine off. And waited. Finally, the captain announced to us that there was bad weather in Houston and we were delayed 30 minutes. No big deal, I had a two hour layover in Houston. 30 minutes past, the Captain came back over the speaker and told us that in 50 minutes Air Traffic Control would let him know what was going on. 50 minutes past. We waited. The Captain announced we would be delayed another one to two hours, but we were going to wait on the runway so when we were clear to go we would. So we waited. At the beginning of the third hour, the plane people decided to take us back to the terminal and let us see if there were other flights to our final destinations. I missed the last fight out of Atlanta to OKC by 15 minutes. I got back on the plane and waited. An hour later we took off, putting us in Houston sometime after midnight.

Houston brought no good news. I stood in line and the people told me the next flight to Oklahoma City left at 7:35am and they would probably put me on standby for that, but I had to go to a different concourse. So, some other passengers flying to various places and I made our way to Concourse B. But to get to the particular place this late at night you have to go out of the secure zone, get on a trainesque like vehicle and ride over to it. So, obviously we did. We arrived and were quickly told that the security gate to get back in doesn't open until 5am and the ticket counters run on that same schedule. So, we waited in the entrance of the airport. Most people slept. I watched a movie on my computer, paid $7.95 for 24 hours of Free Internet as the company put it, and waited for 5am to roll around. It rolled very slowly.

5am- I went to the ticket place to get on standby and get a seat on the next flight if the standby thing didn't work out. The lady helping the people that spent the night at the airport was probably the rudest person I've ever met in my life. It could have had to do with that I didn't sleep at all, but she was very mean and I was seconds away from crying right in front of her, but she probably would have laughed at me and said some mean remark. So, I did not. I found another person to help me. I was put on standby, got some very much needed coffee once the places in the airport opened and went and waited to hopefully board the place leaving at 7:35.

7:25am- I got on the plane!! Yeah, that sounds awesome right! Well, the plane started up it's engine and sat there for a second. I was giddy with excitement to be almost back. And they shut the engine off. I laughed when they said that the maintenance light was on in the plane and they were going to unload us all and move us to a different plane. I laughed, probably because I was so close to crying, the emotion had to get out someway. So, 45 minutes later we boarded another plane and after about an hour of taxiing we took off.

We landed in Oklahoma City at about 10:45 (twelve hours later than my originally arrival time) and I bolted down to baggage claim. I was really ready to get out of the airport. And, surprise surprise, my bag was not there. I talked to the luggage people and the said it will probably be on the next flight, which was coming in in 30 minutes. So, yep, I waited. My bag was not on that plane, either. So, I filed my claim, and came to find out that the person that gave me my ticket for the standby plane gave me someone else's boarding pass. They didn't even have me registered as being on any plane. Interesting. Good thing I wasn't a terroist. I thought those things were pretty tight. I finally left the airport and arrived at home around 12:30pm.

It was a long day. The good news is I made it back and 8 hours later they brought my bag to my house. So, now, I have that story. How exciting? So, I'm off to Dallas for the weekend. Not on a plane.

Peaces.