More Lindsay and Rowan. Also Alex White’s legs.

So today was 6 hours longer than it should have been. I made it to Buffalo just fine (thanks to Alex), and the flight went to Chicago, then to Houston Hobby, then… nada. I got off the plane, ready for my 2-hour layover. I went to get some sesame chicken at the food court. Then I moseyed by those departure/arrival screens, and saw that my 3:50 pm flight was canceled! I asked a Southwest lady about it veryquicklike, and she said, “Too bad. You could have gone to Harlingen early if you’d come by fifteen minutes ago.” AGH!

I got put on a 6:00 flight, which was delayed until 6:20, then 7:00, then 7:10, then 7:35, then… well, we finally took off at 8:40 or so. Harlingen at 9:30. Home at 10:40. Ugh. Instead of, um, 4:00.

Sesame Chicken of regret.

But the day wasn’t a total waste. I got my lecture done for class tomorrow (though please don’t think this means I’m caught up). I also heard many entertaining things on the in-cabin speakers on my Southwest Airlines flights:

CAPTAIN: We, uh, seem to have sucked some sort of large bird into the engine, so that would be the burning meat smell you are experiencing.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: If you’re catching a connecting Southwest flight, please check the monitors in the terminal. If you’re catching a flight with another airline, well, we don’t care about that, now do we?

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: …place the oxygen mask over your own mouth and nose first, then attend to anyone traveling with you, such as a child or someone acting like a child. If you are traveling with more than one child, I’m very, very sorry. I don’t know what to tell you about the oxygen mask… just pick the child with the most potential.

Life at the moment sort of feels annoying and flavorless. I believe it is related to the lack of Alex. :(

This is Alex, kissing an 8-foot-tall, chrome-plated, anatomically-correct¹ moose right in front of the very tall and impressive NBC building on Michigan Avenue. I think it’s safe to say that we like Chicago. Even Alex likes it². And I still like my footnotes plugin³.
I’ve been crappy use-up-all-my-hankies sick, but otherwise it’s been a great trip. Oh, except for being stranded for a day in Buffalo after our plane’s steering was broken. Alex has run into lots of fun people at the conference, and I’ve enjoyed wandering around the city⁴.

1. I dared her to grab its, you know, for a picture, but she was shy [↩]
2. She hated Manhattan [↩]
3. As you probably gathered from the considerable empirical evidence [↩]
4. Coming soon: Lots of Pictures of Tall Buildings [↩]

So here I am. I don’t know if I’ll make it out of here today or not. I am hopeful, however. I think the noon flight is going out on schedule (hafta check the boards and see). Everyone is being pretty nice, despite the early signs of potentially huge problems. Maybe they’re saving their strength for the real nastiness next week.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an awesome front-page headline today:

Plan. Fail. Repeat.

It’s in reference to the very scary water crisis here, but it seemed sort of hopeful to me, or at least profound. I want to get a paper just so I can cut that out and put it on my office door at school.

Well, if all goes very well, Alex and I will be all snuggled into a warm, convenient hotel in Buffalo tonight, waiting out the storm, and then back in her apartment tomorrow.

With no hot water.

Hm. Maybe we can spend Christmas in the hotel.