So I recently took a little trip to Tulsa to interview for a potential job…I know…moving home to work in Bartlesville, Oklahoma…hardly something anyone would guess I would consider, but there I was. And the trip was so classically Katie that I had to share what I wrote while on my trip:
June 19
My day began at 5am…I closed the restaurant last night and came home and packed and crawled into bed at 1am. So four hours later, only about 20 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, the phone began ringing.
Groggy…I answered to an automated system telling me that I need to call the reservation system as my flight information has changed. So I call…another automated system. I’m pressing #s to navigate the menu and then their computer wants me to answer questions…the problem is that the computer can’t understand anything I’m saying and I’m getting angrier and angrier. After you scream AGENT into the phone about 4 times it seems to finally decide to go ahead and transfer you…
to Pakistan.
So now I’m talking to someone who has trouble hearing me and I’m having trouble understanding him and its 5:15am and I’m just loopy and pissed.
-My flight was cancelled.
-There is another flight that leaves at 2:30pm and will get me to Tulsa at 10:45pm….four and a half hours after my originally scheduled flight…would I like to book?
Do I have other options? No.
Yes, I’d like to book.
So I’m disappointed and frustrated--any loss of control over travel will do that to a person and this particular trip is only two nights anyway, so my time with the fam is getting cut short. However, this does afford me about 4 more hours of much needed sleep so I take a deep breath and snooze on.
Now, time has passed, I’m more rested, I drive to the airport and check in in plenty of time for my flight, which is now delayed.
Yup…delayed. Another hour, which means more waiting in Oakland, but I will still make my connection in Denver, so I’m okay…
3:30pm
We take off for Denver. Fairly normal flight…a few highlights include:
-TURBULENCE..not like I’ve felt before, it was as if the plane was sliding into a roll and then over-correcting to roll the other way. The passengers were gasping and my heart was racing. The captain explained that what had happened was that we were flying behind another plane (a safe distance, I assume) and our plane got caught in that plane’s gust.
-The flight went by fairly quickly. I befriended Karla, who was sitting next to me and had just had a girlfriend’s weekend in Calistoga with her longtime friends Bonnie and Barbara. They ate dinner at the CIA last night, and had a wonderful time.
Karla has a cocker spaniel named Morgen that she adores and walks on a leash that is more like a vest instead of a collar. “This way I am walking Morgen and Morgen isn’t walking me,” she explains. And Morgen is spelled with an “e” instead of an “a” because it is German, the word for ‘morning.’
And Karla’s father was in WWII and serviced the plane that carried the atomic bomb to Hiroshima.
Her daughter lives in Phoenix and her grandchildren are named Katelyn Morgen (Karla got to name her) and Ronnie, who is named after his dad. They have 2 pitbulls named Dino and Pebbles.
She is an artist-dabbles in oil painting since she retired.
Karla was cool.
Once we landed in Denver, I treated myself to 2 scoops of Dulce de Leche ice cream and waited to board the on time flight to Tulsa.
Once on, I found myself sitting next to a very sharp 6th grader who was on her way back from her first trip to Disneyland. Next to her was a woman who played piano for a singing group who performed for a rotary group in Salt Lake City, Utah.
If my first flight was turbulent, this flight was freakin’ rocking and rolling. Scary. We were flying on the outskirts of a massive thunderstorm and the captain apologized but said that it would likely be this way for the rest of the flight.
I was sipping Sprite and my stomach was turning but finally the ride smoothed out.
The captain came on again to inform us that the thunderstorm was parked over Tulsa and it’s a slow moving storm so we’ve been diverted to Springfield, Missouri.
Springfield, of course, wasn’t expecting us so as I write this we’re sitting on the tarmac with no place to park. This is how the last hour and a half has gone:
*Once on the ground, I call my parents to give them the update so far-we’re in Springfield. My Dad is currently driving in the bad weather towards the airport to come get me.
*I’ve relocated my seat to the row behind me where there are no passengers so I have a row to myself.
*I pick up a text message from Leah: “Umm. Did you 4get to tell me that j-lo is engaged?”
*I text her back that I totally forgot. Then, I use the airplane restroom. Consequently, this is my very first time in an airplane bathroom-and I cannot imagine two people fitting there, let alone having sex in one. My hat’s off to those nimble souls.
*Leah calls me,
“How could you forget something like that?!?!”
“Leah, I have a few other things on my mind at the moment…I’m in Springfield”
“Oh my God!” she screams and then bursts into laughter.
There really isn’t anything else to do. The captain comes on during this fit to update us. He explains that the storm is still hovering and the airport has no place to put us so we’re going to remain parked here, “we could end up sitting here for awhile…” he explains.
Leah can hear him on the speaker and begins a new fit of laughter all over again.
I talk with her awhile and then let her go to save battery juice.
*The sixth grader, who has been collected by her mother to sit up front somewhere has returned to show me photographs of her family on Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. In both shots, this girl has ducked in fear during the ride so that only the top of her head is visible in the photos.
*New update from the captain…there seems to be a hole in the storm over Tulsa, so we are refueling and are going to attempt to fly in. They are making sure that there is plenty of fuel so that if we need to hover over the storm for a bit before it opens up we can do so. Also, this surplus of fuel will allow us to return to Denver in the event that the storm doesn’t open up.
*I decide to write.
We’ve now taken off and are in flight to Tulsa. The captain, who’s now good buddies with the Tulsa flight tower is very optimistic that we’ll be able to get in there.
Obviously, I’ll be typing this as a blog entry and will be able to report on the final outcome by the time I’m plugged in.
Will Katie get in to Tulsa?
Is this chaotic flight some sort of cosmic note that she should or shouldn’t be contemplating a move home?
Will she be fresh and on time for her 11am job interview?
Here comes the turbulence…
I’m putting the pen and paper away now…stay tuned.
~ ~ ~
We landed safe and sound in T-town around 1:30am.
1 comment:
Thanks for writing this.
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