Y5 D153

Only took about 15 hours but I made it home yesterday. Very long day full of ups and downs. Just when I thought something would be okay, something else happened. You know what I think that's called? Life.

Just to make sure everyone follows along, I will include timezones...

I should put in here that in addition to all this going on, I had to deal with our sales guy being a douche yet again asking me in an email if I had any 'midnight oil' to burn for the company. No. Suck my dick. Back to the adventure.

Got up around 4/4:30EST. Did my normal morning stuff, packed, double-checked everything, etc. Then around 6:20EST I headed downstairs. My ride was schedule to be there between 6:30EST and 6:45EST but you know how I get when I have to rely on someone else. I start panicking. But guess what? He showed up at 6:35EST. NICE! Someone who follows through and does what they say. How rare! So far things are going okay. I have a first class upgrade on my morning flight, I have movies to watch if I want, and I am at the airport 3 hours early. Okay. I can handle this. I saw when I checked flights in the morning that there was a sale on Admirals club day passes. $30 non-expiring good at any airport. Okay. So I headed to the Admiral's club and checked in. I also had him look to see if there was an earlier flight I could get on for standby in Chicago. There was and when I checked in, I was first on the list. My flight out of Atlanta gets delayed about 20 minutes because it's icing in Chicago. Still not a problem because I have 3 hours until my scheduled flight once I land and 90 minutes until the standby. Still feeling okay. My flight is good. My seat is a solo seat, I get three things of nuts and a soda, I watch a movie, all is well. I get to Chicago and things go downhill from there.

I find the gate for my standby flight and I have been bumped down to sixth on the list. Fuck me. Okay. I can handle. Then I look around. Packed. Sigh. Alright. I sit and watch the board. 4th. 3rd. Second on the list! Then they start asking for volunteers because now it's an oversold flight. Ugh. They start boarding and I ask the agent what my chances are. He is still missing passengers so it's 50/50. Fine I sit. Mind you, I had 90 minutes so I am sitting at this gate for 90 minutes until it gets down to door closing. One seat left. Son of a bitch. Fine. I go to the Admiral's club to settle in and charge my devices. My flight is scheduled to leave at 2CST. I head to the gate at around 1 and they actually start boarding on time. I have an aisle exit which I wanted. I sit and then in the window comes a tiny woman. Awesome. THEN in the middle seat? A fucking moose. Seriously. This guy wasn't just fat he was a moose. He was like 7 feet tall and wearing the typical midwest 53 layers of clothing. He was a fucking moose. Between the assholes slamming my shoulder on the right and moosey on the left, I ended up sitting sideways and scrunching. THEN at 2 when we are supposed to leave the pilot tells us the FAA says we have to sit on the runway until 3. Then he comes back and says ground crew says we can leave at 2:30, then they change their minds. Now note the whole time I have been texting B since she is supposed to pick me up. In the span of about 15 minutes things changed four times. I finally told her be at the airport at 6pm PST and we'll figure it out.

We take off a little after 2:30CST and I don't know what this guy did, but he got us there at 4:45PST. Damn. He sped like the wind. It was a bumpy flight so I think he took the unapproved route to shave time. Good job! Our original time was 4:25PST and he did his best. Kudos to the pilot. The whole flight sucked though because of the moose.

I get off the plane and call B. She tries to come pick me up but then calls to tell me she got on the freeway the wrong direction and was freaking out in traffic. Sigh. Okay. I will take a cab. I get in a cab and finally get home around 6:30PST. Start to finish, 15 hours. FML. I was tired and hungry and cranky. I did come home to a wonderful woman, a clean house, and a was able to decompress. Thank you B for making things welcoming when I got home. I expressed this to her. She then took me out to dinner. Nice.

We talked and spent time while I unpacked and then hit bed around 9. That was my day.

Here's where I am going to verbally vomit for a minute - for those of you who don't travel much, do you ever think about how much time a person like me loses during the week? Think about your home life. You spend a good 4 hours a night doing house stuff - cleaning, reading, organizing, bills, being with your SO, hanging out with friends, dinners, whatever. And if you watch an hour of TV a night, that's another 5 hours per week. On average you have probably about 25 hours a week to your own pursuits - aka non-work related. When I am on the road, I lose that home part. I lose the chance to move some shelves, rearrange the garage, laundry, whatever. That's an entire DAY I have lost. due to being on the road for work. And I will never get it back. THIS is why when I get home from a trip I am so pissy and don't want to be around people. I want to try and get done in 1/7th the time all the things I missed out on all week. People who don't travel don't get it. End rant.

Now today I have to try and do all the stuff I have needed to do all week as well as work stuff. Wish me luck.