I zoomed out of my internship an hour and a half early to catch my flight to Portland. On my way to the interstate, I realized that I a) had to pee b) had left my razor and sunglasses behind and c) even if I got stuck in bumber-to-bumper traffic when I’d hit Albuquerque, I’d still have more than enough time to spare. And since my douchey apartment complex was on the way, I decided to stop in.
There was a message on the machine when I got there, and so I played it. “Press 1 to hear your message,” it said, in a deep, automated voice.
Fuck telemarketers, I thought. I pressed stop.
I grabbed my razor and sunglasses, gave Chelsea a liver treat, used the bathroom and then headed on my way. The ride down the interstate was fairly uneventful, other than the discovery that the reason my POS car emits a high-pitched shreik when it’s?going faster than 60?mph is because the passenger side window rolls itself down ever so slightly, and the wind passing by results in a noise that is just about as pleasant as nails on a chalkboard. The lack of car stereo due to an earlier theft didn’t help drown out the whistling; my own rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Carey” served to further the screeching damage.
But then the trip took a turn for the worse. When I arrived at the ticket counter, I discovered that, for once, I actually was on time. Problem was, my plane wasn’t. In fact, the entire flight had been cancelled for unknown reasons.
I did everything I could. I even started crying. I explained, between tears, that I had to get to Portland immediately because I just had to, it was urgent, and my friends were there and weren’t going to be there for ever and so I had to go. Now.
The woman at the United counter was very kind, but there’s only so much you can do if there aren’t any other flights leaving for the West Coast until theh? next day. She gave me a voucher for a hotel and some nasty buffet food, scheduled me on the next flight tomorrow and apologized for the inconvenience.
And so the Tracker and I whistled our way back to Santa Fe. Let’s have a round for these freaks and these soldiers, a round for these friends of mine, let’s have a round for the bright red devil who keeps me in this tourist town. Oh Carey, get out your cane. Yeah, my Joni Mitchell didn’t sound quite like hers. It was a long drive home.
When I got there, my roommate greeted me with a hug. “I’m sorry,” she said.
She already knew.
“Why didn’t they call to tell me?” I asked.
“They did. They?left you a message,” she said.
“Oh, they must have called after I left.” I’m so dumb.
I pressed play.
Press 1 to hear your message, it said, or just wait for the tone. BEEP. Mydogischelsea, your flight to Portland has been cancelled. Please call customer service for more information. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.
12 responses so far ↓
1 trcs // Aug 4, 2005 at 8:24 pm
Great blog material, but sooo shitty to have happen to ya. Here’s to hoping tomorrow’s flight takes off as planned.
2 chicagoartgirl23 // Aug 4, 2005 at 10:02 pm
Oh no! My travel plans were thwarted today too–but they were my own fault for feeling too sick to travel. It’s totally worse when it is someone elses fault when travel plans go awry. Don’t worry–your friends will love you when they see you, which will be soon. Have fun at your reunion!
3 thinlizzy17 // Aug 5, 2005 at 3:43 am
It sucks that that happened. One day, though, it will be a funny story to tell. It’s too fresh to be funny right now, but give it a few months and it’ll be good.
4 sunshineboy78 // Aug 5, 2005 at 3:55 am
are you ever going to comment on others’ sites again?
5 Gabe_Real // Aug 5, 2005 at 5:56 am
Ooooooh the power must have gone out in m’neighbourhood – as my answering machine is now flashing a red “P” (I’ll have to read the instruction manual to find out what that means… if I can find it)Positive Weekend Vibes! Have a terrific tax-free Northwest experience!Gabe
6 Jay_galk25 // Aug 6, 2005 at 5:21 am
“are you ever going to comment on others’ sites again?”
.
Lol
I know the feeling all t well of getting to somewhere, only to have it fall apart, and than find out that there was something I should have seen and yet I missed it
Jay “I Love Kat Rawr”
7 rainingheart // Aug 6, 2005 at 8:22 am
I purchased three tickets for me and my kids to fly to Seattle one year. The day before we drove up to the airport, I found out that the airline had gone bankrupt and cancelled all their flights. I was totally screwed. Luckily, my credit card company reimbursed me and went after the airline themselves. How did I find out before driving three hours to the airport? A city bus driver read an article about it and spend the day looking for me, knowing I would eventually take his bus home. He gave me the article and we never had to drive to the airport. It was one of those omens I didn’t listen to, though. I should have just stayed home, but we bought new tickets and ended up having the worst three months of our lives! UGH!
8 TimsHead // Aug 6, 2005 at 5:56 pm
Oh that sucks. I hope that by the time I post this that you are safely in Portland and having a great time.
9 Rod_Lamour // Aug 6, 2005 at 6:15 pm
Oh Doll face…sorry to hear that your flight was cancelled but happy to see you could get there on time without proding…Love You
10 StigmataMartyr42 // Aug 8, 2005 at 8:14 pm
United sucks! Once I was flying to Santa Ana, California from Grand Rapids, Michigan with a stop in Chicago. So the flight was delayed for about 6 hours for some silly reason. I think that I read most of Angels and Demons while waiting. When we finally left, the airport was closed, so we had to land in Los Angeles, which is about an hour away. We had to wait for a bus to take us to the other airport, but they lost all of our luggage! So everyone was pissed off, the workers were pissed off from being yelled at and we all left on the bus, and then the bus hit a stalled car in the carpool lane while going about 70 mph. The car’s lights were off and it was dark out. So we had to wait about another hour for a bus to arrive at our location. It was terrible, like everything went wrong. Take care!
11 sunshineboy78 // Aug 9, 2005 at 5:24 am
Finally. I just missed you, is all.
Anyway - I think people who label themselves as bisexuals are a menace to society. If you don’t believe in labels, don’ use them. And the weight loss shit is, I am almost down to my original weight. I fit into almost all of my clothes again, and that means I have a greater variety of clothing to wear. Which saves me money in the long run. Only problem, my new costume is too big now.
The entry I’d really love to get your feed back on is here
12 Jon ly // Feb 2, 2007 at 5:39 am
Jon ly…
http://www.geteing.info...