Airport Debacle

Aloha. :)

As of a few hours ago, I’m back in Kauai… and back to blogging.

I made two rather significant packing errors for my flight back to the island.  The first was discovered twenty minutes after my parents had left the airport—I had forgotten to shed my coat and give it to them for storage.  So I now have a heavy winter coat in Hawaii.

The second error was discovered as soon as I boarded my first plane.  I hadn’t packed a pen.  This wasn’t a problem for the first flight, since I slept like the dead for most of it, face-planted into my travel pillow on top of the tray table.  When I woke up and began preparing for descent, I decided I would have to buy a pen during my layover in Denver, because I just could not go the entire day without one.  I had crossword puzzles to do, notebooks to write in, and books to read (I can’t read a book without underlining things.) 

As we landed, I had a conversation with a nice man (in his 50s?) named Jim who was on his way to El Paso to close on a business deal.  We said goodbye and wished each other luck as we gathered our things, but I found him waiting for me as I exited the jetway.  He said, “I forgot, I wanted to give you this pen,” and handed me the coolest pen I’ve ever owned, a purple ballpoint pen with his business information printed on it.  I reacted a little more enthusiastically than was probably necessary, but he got a kick out of it when I told him the dramatic story of my penlessness.  From now on it will be my favorite pen.  It writes perfectly, is translucent purple with a twisty silver thingy, and has the word “erection” on it.  Do they even make pens better than this?

Anyway.  My first flight was wonderful, but the second flight was not.  We boarded the plane only to be told that the landing gear was broken and would take up to an hour to fix.  So we de-boarded, the plane was taken to the hanger, and we were given no information for almost 45 minutes.  Finally they had us change gates because they were bringing in a backup plane.  Half an hour after that, we had to change gates again because the backup plane had technical problems.  I realized at this point that even if the plane left soon, I was likely going to miss my connecting flight.

Finally we boarded our flight… I slept like the dead again, and when we landed in Phoenix I discovered that my next flight (from Phoenix to Lihue) was delayed 20 minutes and that I might have a chance to make it.  So I did the whole run-through-the-airport-while-trying-to-juggle-all-your-luggage-awkwardly thing, and then I got to the looooong line at the security check and realized that no, I didn’t have a chance to make it.  So I decided to take my time and quit rushing.  I’m glad I chilled out and took a look around me… if I hadn’t, I might have missed the hilarity of a short, plump, middle-aged Asian woman pulling off her shirt (the only one she was wearing) when the metal scanner beeped as she walked through it.  The security guards rushed her, yelling, “No!  Keep that on!”  So she put it back on. 

Oh, and somehow, with all of the foreigners and grumpy-looking men around me in line, I was the one who got chosen for the body-scan and pat down.  Of course. 

I went to my gate to confirm that, yes, I had missed my flight, so I then went to the U.S. Airways Customer Service desk to have them issue me a new ticket.  After three different ladies (all of them sweethearts) collaborated to get me a U.S. Airways flight to Los Angeles that night and a United Airlines flight from LA to Lihue the next day, I took the shuttle back to terminal 2 to talk to a United representative about getting a hotel in LA. (Because United was the airline that caused me to miss my flight, they were responsible for compensating me.)  The United lady was irate at U.S. Airways for reissuing a United ticket (and evidently they did it wrong), so she got everything straightened out.  Finally, I caught the shuttle back to terminal 4, ate at Pizza Hut, and sat in my terminal for three hours waiting for my flight to LAX.  Whew.

The flight to LAX was uneventful… I shared a row with a mother and son who switched back and forth between English and Spanish.  Her son was pretty cute, and I think he developed a thing for me throughout the flight.  Every time I stole a sideways glance at him, he covered his face and giggled.  Did I mention that he was a six-year-old?  Adorable. 

After arriving in LAX, I took a shuttle to the United terminal, where I waited in a loooooong line to get vouchers for a hotel and meals.  I then took a shuttle to the Westin hotel, which was pretty snazzy.  I was much too exhausted to explore the LA nightlife like I had planned.  I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.

This morning was lovely.  I woke up without my alarm, having gotten nine hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep.  After showering and putting on the same clothes from the day before (ew), I snapped a couple shots of the airport, the planes coming in, and one of the cute soap in the bathroom.

My breakfast was delivered by a jovial, fat hotel worker whose hand just happened to brush against my butt.  Twice.  I let it go… but did not tip him.  Breakfast was delicious—over-easy eggs, english muffin, bacon, orange juice, and coffee.  If it weren’t for my meal vouchers, it would have cost me $22 plus a 9.75% sales tax, a 17% service fee, and some other fee they tack on for good measure.

I took a shuttle to LAX, got the body scan again, and boarded my flight to Lihue only to find out that we were delayed half an hour due to maintenance on one of the wings.  Not too sure how I feel about United after the last couple days. 

The flight itself was fine—I had a seat on the exit row with an empty seat next to me, so there was plenty of room to stretch and sprawl.  There was quite a bit of turbulence, but for some reason I get more thrilled/excited about things like that than worried for my life.  After landing, I trekked down to Hawaiian Airlines to claim my luggage that had arrived without me the day before, got picked up by my employer, came home and worked for a few hours, and now… I’m ready to go to bed. 

I usually boycott New Years Resolutions because they’re often so mainstream and superficial.  But this year, I made one: reply to blog comments.  I’m doing so because I appreciate the sense of companionship and anti-loneliness (is there a word that means the opposite of lonely?) that comes with staying in touch with people.  So there, that’s my resolution… hold me to it!

Goodnight, loves.  Or to most of you, good morning.