christmas, CADE STYLE!

december 24, 2004. christmas eve

4:30 am EST - woke up to head to the airport for my 6:21 flight to texas

5:15 am - arrived at logan's economy parking lot to find it closed, was re-routed to overflow lot 5 minutes back in the direction i just came from

5:40 am - did i say 5 minutes? arrive at overflow parking. board courtesy shuttle...wait for family of 11 to board behind me. realize for the first time that i might not make my flight

5:50 am - after worthless converstion with american airlines employee in ticket line, offer bribe to sky cap (literally) to check me in ahead of the 30 or so people so i will make my flight

6:12 am - clear security, run to gate

6:32 am - was last person to board, first to fall asleep. plane takes off for dallas

10:03 am CST - 2 hours of sleep. uneventful flight. all is well. land at dallas/ft worth airport with a cat in my lap

10:04 am - return cat to owner next to me. deplane

10:06 am - check monitor for gate info. see that flight to mcallen has been cancelled, as well as all remaining flights to mcallen for the day

(author's note: mcallen airport closed due to ice. that's right, an airport in the southern-most point in the continental u.s. is closed because of ICE. only in cadeland)

10:10 am - receive less than stellar advice from gate agent. leave security to try and rebook flight

10:21 am - realize the very real possibility of spending christmas day alone in a la quinta in dallas, book only flight available: 11:14 to san antonio

10:23 am - begin searching for bags that apparently were offloaded given the lack of an outbound flight. begin wild goose chase to no fewer than three different carousels in search of bags

10:43 am - abandon search for bags figuring they will end up in mcallen eventually. officially bump DFW to top of list of "worst airports in the country"

11:14 am - through security again. flight leaves for san antonio. no cats this time (although later realize owners of cats were on this flight as well)

12:30 am - arrive san antonio. realize haven't eaten since 6 pm yesterday

1:08 pm - secure rental car. take deep breath. drive south

1:15 pm - call american airlines to check on bags

1:45 pm - finally wrap call with baggage rep. double take as call ends. did she just say "happy festivus?" needless to say, bags are no where to be found

4:28 pm - still driving south. channel surf to hear "feliz navidad" for the 17th time on the radio

5:03 pm - arrive mcallen airport via 2003 pontiac grand am, not boeing 737. it's 20 degrees colder here than is was at 4:30 this morning in boston

5:42 pm - after stops at chili's and old navy, arrive at parents house. collapse on couch. cat i used to own completely ignores me

7:35 pm - just called american airlines. bags still no where to be found

merry christmas, i'm going to bed.