I SHOULD be...

Right before leaving my house for the airport. Before the chaos began.

See my smiling face?

What I should be doing while writing this post.

I SHOULD be...in Utah with my friend Liz.

I SHOULD be...recaping with my friend over dinner after a long day of seeing old friends and sightseeing Utah.

I SHOULD be...thinking how lucky I am to get to see Sayuri and Melanie for lunch.

I SHOULD be...getting tired, due to jet lag.

I SHOULD...loving the fact that I do NOT have to go to work tomorrow.

I SHOULD be...excited about all the fun we would have tomorrow.

I SHOULD be...missing my husband like crazy, but loving being with my friend.

I SHOULD be...living out of a suitcase.

I SHOULD be...laughing and joking and staying up way to late with my best friend.

Instead, I am...

...sitting here at work.

...completely unpacked from my trip that did not happen.

...tired (but from being emotionally drained from dealing with idiots at the airport.)

...eating snacks that were packed for my long plane trip...that never happened.

If you don't want to read the rant that will come next, feel free to skip the rest of this post. As many of you know, I had planned a trip to Utah to visit my friend who teaches there. She (so ridiculously graciously) had bought me a ticket to fly out to see her. I was supposed to fly out in april (which didn't happen, for different reasons) but it was rescheduled for this week. Which seemed to work out best for both us seeing that she was still teaching, and I couldn't have planned that I was going to be having morning sickness all month.

I was soo excited to go(and nervous). It would be my first flight by myself, and that made me a little nervous in and of itself, and then add the fact that i'm 5 months pregnant, and I became a little more nervous. But, despite the nerves, I was soo excited to go have an adventure with my friend and get a much needed break from work.

I was due to fly out on Tuesday at 7pm. I spent the day packing, running errands, etc to get ready for my trip. at around 3:30, Stephen and I left our house to drive to the Charlotte airport. After stopping for dinner and potty breaks (yes, i'm pregnant), we get there to check in around 5:30.

While we are waiting in line, I start to wonder what is going on, because check-in has NEVER taken this long before. I hear someone mention bad weather in Minneapolis and delayed flights and immediately feel my stomach lurch. MY connecting flight was in Minneapolis.

We finally get to the front of the line right as.....the attendant goes to the back room. So we are waiting again...we were next in line. And then we see the attendant come back out with a purse on her arm and just LEAVE. So we are just left standing there at an empty desk, so we have to start to waiting game again. (luckily not at the back of the line, which by this point, was LONG...)

After what seemed like forever and a day, a representative finally got to us. By this point, i'm kinda freaking out, b/c we've been in line forever, and it is ridiculously hot in there, and I left my water in the car, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to get it past security in the first place. So i'm tired, thirsty, hot, and did I mention that i'm incredibly hormonal because i'm PREGNANT?!?!

I'm just so glad Stephen was there, because by this point, i'm starting to get emotional. My flight has been delayed until 9:30, which should have been fine...I can wait a couple of hours. BUT, I only had a 40 min layover, so my connecting flight would be LONG gone by the time I got there. Of course, the attendant reassured me, "we can get you on a flight tomorrow from Minneapolis though...you can just stay in the airport hotel tonight and wait out the storm and then get a flight the next day."

Yeah, that sounds great to a pregnant lady who's never flied by herself before. First off, I don't want to have to pay for a pricey hotel room when its not my fault in the first place that my flight has been delayed. Secondly, I don't want to have to sleep in the airport with all my bags worrying that someone was going to steal something from me. Oh, and did I mention that the only flight they could get me on was at 9pm the NEXT NIGHT?

So, not only would I be there all night, but I would also be waiting all day. And I would have to take red-eye flights to Utah, which would cut down my 'vacation' to 1 and 1/2 days before I had to fly back. We tried looking for flights ANYWHERE around it, so I could get to Utah. But everyplace we looked was another delay and no outgoing flights until late the next night.

I even tried to find a flight that would go to Las Vegas, or Boise airports, and just have my friend drive HOURS to pick me up. We tried flying out of different airports (Atlanta, Raliegh, Columbia, etc), but no such luck. Even though the rep told us that she had even checked with other airlines, we decided that we were going to go check all the different Kiosks of the different airlines. Once again, NOTHING. Seriously? No flights at all?

The airport was a madhouse. By this time, of course, people are realizing what's going on, and that all flights are full and they are getting stranded. So, I call Travelocity to see if there was anyway my friend could be refunded if I just didn't go since the flights were so messed up. Once again, I waited, and waited and waited, while they supposedly got Delta on the phone to confirm how I could get a refund. The guy finally comes back on the line and was like, " I spoke with Delta and they cannot give you a refund, but can give you credit." so far, i'm ok with that " and you have to use this credit before May 15th of next year, and the ticket has to be in your name".

Hold up. I was with you when you said I could get credit. But let's be honest, I'm prob not going to be cleared to travel much longer, and I highly doubt that i'm going to be able/or want to fly with a newborn baby in the next year.

Oh, and it gets better...the phone rep says, "and there will be a $180 connection fee because your flight wasn't cancelled, it was just delayed"

So really what your saying is, i'm only getting less than half of my friends money back and i'll prob never even get to use it (or she'll never get to use it).

I just said, "ok, well i'm going to go talk to someone again at the desk because I thought they explained it differently to me."

The rep just persisisted saying, "I spoke with someone at Delta and this is what they told me. I can go ahead and cancel your flight now, and set you up with the credit."

As nicely as I could by this point, I said, "I understand what you said, but what I am saying, is that someone here told me something different, so before you go and cancel my ticket leaving me $350 short, I'M GOING to talk to someone HERE....but thanks for you help, BYE"

So we went back to stand in line again. (by this point its around 7:20 ish?)

When we get back to the front of the line, we were able to talk to the same lady we had spent quite a lot of time with before...

I asked her about the credit, and explained that my friend had bought the ticket, and that a credit in my name was going to be pointless.

She searched around for a bit, and finally said, "I'm just going to credit your friend's credit card in the full amount of the plane ticket".

hmmm...that's odd...no 'connection fees'?? I'm glad I chose to wait and deal directly with the Delta representative.

So, the good news is, Liz has her money back (or will in a couple of days).

The bad news is obvious: I'm not in Utah.

I'm not going to lie, I was/am upset about not getting to go, but I just keep telling myself that there was some reason that maybe i'm just not aware of that I was not supposed to go at this time. I may not understand why, but maybe it just wasn't good for me to go. I'm hoping that maybe Liz can come out to visit me when I have the baby. And someday, I still hope to visit Utah and Liz. Maybe i'll be able to take my baby and husband next time.

Liz, I'm joining your club of hating flying/airports. But I hope you still fly to see me....haha

My not so smiley face after having to get back in the car to go home.

My 'consolation food' from going through all that crap. Hibachi Steak and a McFlurry. Don't judge me.