So, where do I begin? Tuesday I flew to Tulsa. I arrived at 10:45AM just in time for an 11AM meeting. And I mean wheels hit the runway at 10:45AM - still had to get off the plane, meet up with my ride, get to the base, get a visitor's badge, and up to the Engineering conference room. The windows Engineer was picking me up so I assumed if I had the subject matter expert with me, I could keep the meeting attendees waiting before we could start. Good strategy I thought. By time we were running in, the meeting ended. So begins my next two days...

After meetings in Tulsa all day, I flew straight to Chicago for a safety roadshow at the hangar on Wednesday. I arrived at 8:30PM, did some chatting with my co-worker and finally got to sleep about 11PM. Not bad right? Well, I had to be AWAKE at 3AM to be in the hotel lobby at 4AM so we could catch the first shift folks getting off at 5AM. Brutal. So I helped out at the roadshow all day and met with some facilities maintenance folks. I was finished early afternoon so I headed over to the terminal to try for an earlier flight. I had a confirmed flight at 8PM, but I didn't want to sit at the airport for 5 hours. Well, the 1AM flight was cancelled due to weather so all those passengers were rolled over to the flights I was attempting to get on. No way - there was 100 people on the standby list. Crap. So I decide to take a layover in Kansas City which would still allow me to be home at 8PM.

I get from ORD (Chicago) to MCI (Kansas City) no problem and in First Class. Well the MCI-DFW flight before mine had also cancelled while I was in route to MCI so my hopes for First were shattered when it when from open by 6 to Jen is 14th on the list. Yikes. My MCI to DFW flight however, had an unexpected aircraft change so we were 1 hour late departing as well.

So, I'm in 30F headed to Dallas. Not the best seat, but the flight is only 1 hour 15 minutes so no big deal. Welllll, some crazy weather came though Dallas just as we reached the airport keeping us from landing. We circled for 45 minutes then had to divert to Tulsa. Ugh. At this point, I am miserable and unpleasant. We land and park on the tarmac for what seemed like forever. There were no drinks on the plane because MCI didn't have enough catering to stock the new plane we received. Ugh. We sit for about an hour and the pilot informs us if we want to get off the plane and stay in Tulsa, air stairs are coming. So about 6 people out of 165 get off the plane. They turned out to be the smart ones...I stay seated in 30F.

Finally airport control lifts the shutdown and there's hope we will make it to Dallas. It's about midnight at this point and we've been waiting forever. We were 7th in line to get more fuel. Plane finally fuels up and they do one last check before we try and head back. Uh oh. They find out the hydraulic system is no longer functioning. How it failed in that short time we were sitting, who knows. They turn on the engines on to test the system - broken. So the captain informs up delivery of parts will take 20 minutes and labor 45 minutes. Ugh. This means we will not be taking off until 1AM-ish. Well, 15 minutes into our wait, we find out there's another 757 at the terminal we can take. So, we are instructed to deplane our aircraft and we will take the other plane. I start thinking...."We've been at this for awhile, we're going to lose our crew soon due to FAA work hour laws..." No sooner does the pilot get on the intercom with, "Uhhh ladies and gentlemen. I have some good news. We're going to take all you guys and luggage to the waiting aircraft and get you to Dallas. However, we only have 25 minutes to get you guys off and on to the next plane - luggage and all. Well fuck. No way that's going to happen. We're not even going to get off the plane in 25 minutes. Never have I seen people de-plane so quickly and at 1AM!

We're all RUNNING to the next gate to get on our new plane and make it just in time. Whew. And I got a better seat out of the deal because people where frantically trying to just sit down. So we landed in DFW at 2:15AM.

As I'm leaving the airport, the weirdest thing happened. I'm waiting in line at the toll plaza and this car in front of me rolls down the window and throws out a burning Startbuck cup - literally engulfed in flames. My mind says, "oh hell, is that going to blow up?' Remember we are in the airport so there's a heightened sense of fear when things like this happen. I skirt around it just in case and some guy comes running from the toll booth trying to figure out what happened. I roll down my window and tell him it was the guy in front of me. That car pays its toll and bolts off. I pay and head towards home. So, who knows what happened. I assume the guy was smoking, threw his cig in the cup and it didn't go out. But it made for some 230AM excitement.

I make it home about 3AM and the thought crosses my mind to email my boss and tell her I will be in late. The more I think about it though, I knew I would still wake up as usual and not be able to sleep in. So, I go in on time with the intention of leaving around 2PM because at this point, I have only had 7 hours of sleep in 2 days. However, I get busy and have a couple meetings so I don't leave until 515PM. What a day!

Ironic thing is the 8PM flight I was avoiding was only one hour late and arrived just after the storm at 1130PM. Bad gamble on my part....

I did go shopping tonight though. DSW Shoes is heaven on earth. I left with 4 pairs of shoes and a smile.

Nick left for jolly ole England today. He got upgraded to Business Class so I'm sure he's 5 hours into his flight an feeling very relaxed from a few drinks!