12 frogs – Leaving St Louis

Posted
14 January 2006 @ 9pm

Leaving St Louis

leaving st louis
Originally uploaded by jspad.

I nearly had a Marge Simpson moment on my way home.

First, the weather was crappy. Second, the plane was smaller than expected, and as far as I was concerned, smaller than reasonable.

I’m not even going to harp on it being Friday the 13th, because the idea of that being a problem was too scary to think about.

Third, they overfueled the plane. As in, too much fuel, oopsie, now the plane is too heavy. Seriously, I was suppose to sit and wait while they sent over some truck to suck the extra fuel out the tank.

Which sounded like crappy idea to me. I wanted a do-over. A new plane.

I was so agitated it was suprising I didn’t smack my seatmate in my hurry to get my hand in the air when they asked for four volunteers to give up their seats.

Four people? A margin that small? Good God no, I was getting off that plane now. My co-worker (who does not possess an irrational fear of all things related to the aviation industry) actually asked me if I wanted her to get off the plane too.

I knew I was being neurotic, so I said no. (If I thought I was being rational, I would have been pulling her out of her seat and off the plane with me.)

Turns out, the airline was, uh, lying when they said they had a seat on the very next plane leaving in about an hour. It took some doing, but I left in less than an hour (nice plane, more spacious seating, no heart-pounding problems) to get to DC to run like a crazy person through the airport and fast track my way through security so that I could wait for an hour because the plane headed to Boston needed fuel.

No, the irony was not lost on me.

But my luggage was.

Well, maybe. I had no idea where it was when I landed after eleven last night, and I don’t have it now. The airline hasn’t called. I practically live at the airport, so I’m going to go over there tomorrow morning and hope that my fabulous blue 4-wheeled samsonite bag (perfect as a carry-on when flying on a normal-sized plane) with my favorite turtleneck in it is hanging around the American Airlines claim office.

There will be a second Friday the 13th this year, in October. I don’t know how I’ll use my travel voucher yet, but I know I won’t be flying on that day.