Country Roads, Take Me Home

This week has been very trying.

I'm currently in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina for a training class with Jack Morton (formerly Right Source) called "Linux Jumpstart for UNIX System Administrators".

Not much new stuff for me so far. Went over Kickstart and RPM building, though - those are new to me. Now we're talking about X Windows.

Now, here's what happened to me earlier this week.

I had a flight at 5:00 PM on Sunday to get to Raleigh on American Airlines. When I got there to check in, I heard rumors the flight was cancelled. The line was long and there were only 3 people working the line. When I finally got up to be taken care of it was confirmed that yes, indeed, my flight had been cancelled due to inclement weather.

Fine, okay. When's the next flight?

7:00 is the next flight, but it's already full. I can go on standby for it. The next one after that is 6:10 AM.

They printed me a ticket for the 6:10 AM and put me on the standby list for the 7:00. I was #3 on the list.

At 6:30, they moved the flight to 7:20.

At 7:20 I'm standing there waiting with all these other hopeful people. Unfortunately, there are NO standby seats available. The flight is completely full.

Son of a BITCH.

I called S. to come back to get me. In the meantime, I verified my ticket for the next morning, then sat back down to continue reading my book. Then I thought I had better make a few calls.

I called the hotel. They have a message system which states that their office is closed for the day. It has a menu option to "Press 2 to speak to the manager if this is an emergency." So, I press 2.

I get the same damn menu.

I press 2 again.

I get the same damn menu.

I press another number to leave a message for the front desk.

SAME DAMN MENU!!!

I listen throughout the message and make a note of their national reservations line (1-800-CANDLEWOOD).

When I call them, the operator tells me they have no record of my reservation.

"I have a confirmation number!!"
"Sir, that number doesn't match any of our confirmation numbers. Let me forward you to guest relations. They may be able to find the reservation by your credit card."
"Okay."

Sat on hold for 10 minutes, then a guy picks up. He tells me he can't look up a reservation by credit card. He is able to, however, log into the hotel and check their system. He finally determines that yes, I do have a reservation, but it was made with the local hotel but not with the national system.

Huh? How can a national reservation system and a local reservation system work together? You might have 50 rooms in the hotel and the local system books 20 rooms and the national system is used by a tourist group or something who books 35 rooms because they don't know what the local system has done! That's stupid.

Anyway, I talk to the guy and tell him my plight. He tells me he put it in the system that I will arrive in the morning.

Whew. Fine.

Unfortunately, the car rental place doesn't have a number printed on my itinerary. That'll have to wait until I get home.

Which is 10 PM.

I wolf down some soup (I hadn't eaten since 4:00, and that was all I'd had all day), then look up the phone number for Hertz. I get someone in the office and straighten it all out.

In the meantime, I'm in a panic because I can't find my tickets. I thought I had dropped them. I finally find them in my laptop bag. Threw me off because there is an ad printed on the back of the ticket envelope. I thought it was one of my credit card bills or something. (Yes, Citibank puts adverts to buy stuff with their bills.)

I finally get to sleep around midnight.

Three hours later, the alarm goes off for me to go back to the airport. This time I'm driving myself. I'm pissed and I'm tired.

I get to the airport around 5:00 (I made a couple of stops on the way - first to the office to look for a mouse [couldn't find one] and the second at McDonald's for some breakfast), park in the "short term parking" ($30 max a day), then go in.

I get through security no problem (only thing that's gone right), then discover that my flight is being delayed until 6:30.

Greeeat.

When it's finally time for me to board, I discover that, YES, I HAVE LOST MY BOARDING PASS AGAIN!

I search my bags.

Nope.

I search my seat.

Nope.

I search my pockets (again).

Nope.

I go to the woman checking passes (she just finished) and tell her I can't find it. I give her my ID and she kindly prints a new one for me. Then she notes my carry on bag and asks if she gave me a bag check. Apparently the flight has very little carry on capacity. So, I put on the bag check thing, leave my carry on and board.

I need to stoop to get into the plane.

I'm in the front seat against the window on the right side of the plane. This thing is so small there are three seats per row with the aisle between seat 1 and 2, so, I'm in seat 3. The curve of the fuselage of the plane cuts underneath the window seats, so I need to sit kind of diagonal as I can't put my feet directly below me. The flight was only 1.5 hours long though.

Oh, and the 30 minutes we were sitting on the tarmac waiting for our bags to be loaded.

I finally get out at Raleigh.

I head immediately to baggage claim. It takes forever until the belt starts running.

A bag that looks just like mine rolls out.

But it's not mine.

It has a curling iron in it.

I have no hair.

My bag never appears.

SHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

I talk to the bag check lady. She asks me for my bag check ticket.

"What ticket? She gave me the bag check thing and told me to put it on my bag, so I did."
"You were supposed to rip off the bottom of the ticket."
"..."
"We'll see what we can do for you."

I left my information for my hotel with her, got my car (painfree), then went to my hotel.

By this time it's after 9:00. My class started at 9:00.

I got to the hotel and went to check in.

"I'm sorry, but we have no rooms ready right now."
"I have a confirmation number."
"Yes sir, but all our rooms are dirty and need to be cleaned."
"I called last night and they said I could check in early."
"I see nothing about that. If you come back at 3:00, you can check in then."
"..."

Back to the car and off to class. I walk in at 10:00.

I sit down, open the book, then my cell rings.

FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS!

The baggage clerk dug through the woman's bag and found an old boarding pass. They were able to contact her, she was bringing the bag back to the airport, then they would send it to the hotel.

HALLALUJIA!

After class I went to the hotel. I was able to check in. My bag was there. I got to my room. I wept for joy.

It's now Wednesday.

I have a cold. S. gave it to me. Sore throat. Congested chest. Runny nose.

I get to go home tomorrow. I hope. Storms are called for in New York.

Pray for me.

Light a candle.

Kill a goat.

Summon Cthulhu.

Whatever.

Just get me home...