Delirium
January 2, 2001
How I Spent the Holidays
by stacy <pfftnet@stacy.pfft.net>
Everybody experiences a little delirium during the holiday season. I was so tired last night when I finally got home, and it definitely qualified as a delirious state (or is that a delusional state?) It was good to be home.
For Christmas, I went to my In-laws' house way up north where the only neighbors are Santa and 8 reindeer. Seriously, they plug in the cars up there, it's so freaking cold. The things would never start without a little home electricity kick-start. I rode a snowmobile for the first time, that was kind of fun. I wore snowshoes for the first time. Try that the next time you want an alternative to the stairmaster. It was cold, but nice and toasty inside the house, and there was lots of food. I met new relatives and new friends and played cards and generally had a very pleasant vacation.
Let me stress generally. I should qualify that. The vacation itself was rather nice. Getting there was hell-on-a-stick.
To get to where we were going, it took 3 separate flights. We were supposed to leave on the first one at 10:30 AM. Because of mechanical difficulties, it didn't leave until nearly 2 hours later. The next flight was supposed to depart at 1:40 PM after a layover. We arrived at the airport right at 1:40. A quick check of the departures screen showed our flight was boarding about 10 terminals away. Run run run run run. Get to the terminal. No plane there. Damn. But wait, there's a Canadian Airlines plane sitting at the next terminal, maybe that's it? Dare we hope? I ran to the gate attendant and asked if it was headed to our destination, and indeed it was. I told her that was our flight, and gave her our boarding passes. It turned out we weren't the only late ones.
So we're sitting on the plane, thankful it hadn't left yet, and notice our luggage dropped off outside the plane on a cart. Just resting there. Then the plane starts to back up. And our luggage is on the runway. We interrupted the flight attendant during the oxygen mask speech to tell her about it. The plane stopped. It paused for maybe 10 minutes, and then she came back to tell us there was no more room in the plane's cargo hold. Sorry, nothing can be done, but they'll get the luggage on the next flight, no doubt about it. The plane takes off. The luggage is probably still just resting there.
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