Flight Fiasco... again

So I have been on at least 20 planes in the last 10 months or so and never have I had a week (4 days) like this week. For part one of this story, stop reading now, and go read my last blog post (laughing at the lesson.) This blog post will not be nearly as funny, I am too exhausted, but here goes...
I was simply trying to fly out of DC to my hometown in order to surprise Bear for Father's Day. Simple. Right? Wrong. The morning started off frustrating enough because I couldn't get a representative to attend a meeting I thought we should attend, but that is a whole other story for a whole other time. Basically, I was just trying to get too many things done at once, as I knew I was leaving for the airport around noon and really wanted to stay in D.C. until today. Or yesterday. Friday. You get the point...
So I start hearing about flights and airports being closed due to weather around 10am. My flight was set to depart DC at 2pm. Arrive in Tallahassee at 4pm. So I call my airline in between meetings and obsessively check online. After all, if my flight is cancelled, I can stay in DC longer and attend the meetings myself. But every single person I spoke to said my flight was fine, no worries.
I head to the airport.
Shorter lines than expected. Check the screen. See nearly every flight cancelled or delayed. Except for Tallahassee! Exciting! Right? Ha. Just wait. We even board plane on time. No rain. Everything is fine. But we just keep sitting on the runway (all of 15 of us.... apparently, DC --> TLH is not very popular). And we sit. And we sit. I know enough to know that we are okay until we deplane. If we deplane, it's likely cancelled. We sit for 2 hours and 45 minutes. I am still calm at this point. I have a window seat with no passenger next to me. I read. I nap. I design workflows. I am fine. Then we get the announcement. We are reaching the limit for DOT regulations and must de-plane. We de-plane. I see THOUSANDS of people camped out. Not good. Instead of standing in line, I get on the phone (see last blog for the importance of this) Besides, I don't do lines. I get a flight leaving at 7:30 going to JAX. Meaning I need to find a ride home. No biggie.
But what about my baggage? Due to the volume of people at airport, there was no way for me to leave the terminal, go track down bags, re-check bag, and go back through security. So I get on the phone. I talk to agents at the gate. I talk to FOUR people, ALL say my bag will follow me to JAX. I finally get there at around 11:30... no bag. Long story short, I got to Tally at 3am (my poor mother) without my bag. I called the airline about 20 times (no exaggeration), was promised my bag would be in Tallahassee at 10:30 this morning. Where do they send it? JAX. Get on phone again. FINALLY am reunited with my bag at around midnight tonight. My mom retrieved it at 8pm (again, what a mom!) but I was unavailable to go with her to retrieve it... which brings me to the gratitude of this post...
I made it home in time to complete my operation... surprise my dad (Bear) for Father's Day! I had help from a friend and it was an amazing surprise! He had NO clue! I will only be home for the weekend so just seeing family, but really happy I pulled off the surprise.
I also made friends at the airport and practiced my acting skills pranking random strangers (you had to be there... but it involved a broken charging port we were sitting next to and some superb acting on my part)
Most importantly, I made it to my hometown. And had an amazing veggie sandwich from a place called Mickey's... highly recommended.
I do not get to stay long, but I just pray no more flight fiasco.
The last gratitude is my response to all of this. My mother was overhearing me on most of the calls with the airlines and was shocked at how calm I was through this all. Shocked. I have to say I am too. Feeling all zen, thanks to Reiki, Acupuncture, Landmark, friends of Bill, and of course, exhaustion.
Oh, and I can't forget to thank my awesome friend Mindy who let me raid her closet and makeup counter this morning. I got a compliment on the outfit I threw together every single place I went today :) Hippie meets rockstar meets beauty queen. Yep. That's me
Love to all, Light to all
DBear