A Warm Welcome Home

I am currently in Ohio, at home for Christmas, but it was not a smooth journey getting here. First, the cab that I called to take me to the airport never showed (what jerks), so I had to frantically hail a cab on my street where they are not often available, with my very large bag in tow. I ended up leaving about 45 minutes later than originally planned, and was completely stressed that I was going to miss my flight. But all said and done I made it to my gate with time to spare. I flew Continental, and their procedure for seat assignment for this flight was to assign them as the people checked in, unbeknownst to me. I didn't check in until the morning of my flight, so I got a lovely middle seat. For a nine hour flight. Groan. But fortunately I wasn't sitting next to an overly large person (well one of them was slightly spilling into my seat - she was American, of course) or a screaming child, so I guess it could have been worse. Oh, and the in-flight tv/movie service stopped working about three hours into the flight, that was another nice bit. When we finally reached Newark, about six inches of snow had just fallen, thus we were forced to wait for another 50 minutes while they cleared the snow from our gate area. I've never been closterphobic, but those 50 minutes seemed like they were about 3 hours. We couldn't leave our seats since we were technically "taxiing" although we were in reality in no motion at all for almost the entire 50 minutes. There were several times when I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be able to stop myself from leaping out of my seat and screaming like a maniac. This is very rude and I know that they wanted to get there as badly as I did, but when we finally were deplaning and the crew was thanking us while leaving the plane, the only response that was going through my head was, "go f.. yourself". Awful I know. I had read a few articles about how this holiday season was going to include some of the worst weather in years, so I was slightly prepared, but not for what I was about to walk into.


Customs was easy enough - my entire carry on was filled with tea that I didn't want to be demolished in my checked luggage, but fortunately border patrol didn't have a problem. It took about an hour to get my checked bag, most likely due to something having to do with the snow, but in the mean time I learned that my flight to Columbus had been cancelled, along with almost every other flight out of Newark, La Guardia, and JFK. Doing my best to maintain my composure, I called my mom (thank goodness I still have my Sprint phone!), to tell her the news, and proceeded to a monstrous line of people waiting to find the next way out of NY. Whilst in line, I heard people saying that they had no more hotel rooms to give, and they were giving pillows and blankets out and telling people to scout out a comfy patch of airport floor. Sweet. Somehow, even after standing in line for 30 minutes, I was still last in line (typical), but it turned out to be a blessing b/c a very kindly lady took the last few of us in line to another desk where there were other agents waiting to help us right away. Brilliant. On of these other passengers happened to be a fellow Buckeye that was supposed to be on the same flight as I was! Unfortunately, he was in front of me and took the last possible option out of any airport in NY to Columbus. He looked at me with an 'I'm sorry' look, and once again, all I wanted to say was, "go f.. yourself". I had the rotten luck of choosing the most incompetent airline agent imaginable - she couldn't find anything to get me even close to home, and this is after I told her that I could fly into Columbus, Cinncinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Toledo, Philidelphia, or Pittsburgh. So by the time they found me something, the entire staff at this particular desk was working on my itinerary, and I ended up flying US Airways to DC, then Delta to Cinncinnati. One of the agents made the comment that she had no idea Ohio was such a popular destination this time of year, and I said, "It's all the Buckeyes going home - they sent out the homing device!"


I knew that the hotel rooms were taken, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, and lucky I did - b/c I was an international passenger, I got one! Glorious, glorious hotel room. Ended up being a smoking room so felt rather more like an ashtray, but still glorious to sleep in a bed and not the airport floor. The airline also gave me a voucher for food and a taxi to La Guardia (where my flight the next morning was to depart), so I ate some lovely trail mix for dinner and dry cereal for breakfast. Yummy.


By the time I arrived at the hotel it was around midnight and my flight was to leave at 8 am. To get to La Guardia using the taxi voucher, I had to return to Newark and take the taxi from there, and not knowing how long this round about journey would take, I decided to play it safe and awoke at the unmentionable hour of 3:30 am. Nothing like 3.5 hours of sleep in two days to get rid of jet lag. The flight to DC was only about an hour gate to gate, and I slept for almost the entirety. You know how kids can fall asleep in the darndest positions, and you wonder how tired they must be to sleep like that? This was me on this flight, I fell asleep with my head flopped forward, not leaning against the headrest like a normal human being, and stayed this way until I awoke with about fifteen minutes left. My recollection of take off was only a slight joustling and felt a bit like a dream. Honestly it was like I had been drugged. Thank goodness I didn't drool, b/c when I awoke from my coma I realized there was a very cute boy sitting next to me. I was still a bit mortified by how I must have looked whilst sleeping so didn't say anything, but he struck up a convo with me anyway. When he learned that I was headed to Ohio, he told me, rather apologetically, that he had attended LSU (b/c of the football nat. championship last year), but I told him it was cool, that it was a good thing he wasn't from Michigan, then I would have to stop talking to him immediately.


Because I was flying US Air to DC then Delta to Cinnci, I had to collect my bag at the baggage claim and re-check it with Delta in DC. I only had about 50 minutes between the flights, so I was a bit nervous, but my bag was the second one off of the plane so I was optimistic. Until I got to the check in desk and saw yet another enormous line. By the time I made it to the gate they were just beginning to board. I think I may die of a heart attack if I continue to travel this much, and have this terrible luck. On this second flight I was in the very first row, so loads of leg room, and I sat next to another pilot who was on his way to start his workday. He was telling me all about flying, for example, all flights from east to west fly at even altitudes (e.g. 28,000 feet), and all flights W-E fly at odd altitudes. Interesting stuff. He was also originally from Zimbabwe and we had a little talk about the mayhem that's going on there. He asked me if I knew of an assassin to kill the president there.


Finally made it to Cinncinnati around 1 pm on Saturday, after missing the wedding of a friend of the family that had started at noon in a town in northern Ohio. In fact, my family was at this wedding as they were supposed to have picked me up from the airport on the way to the town, so we had to scramble and have my Grandma come get me in Cinnci. Hooray for Grandma! On the way home, we stopped at a Chipotle to eat lunch - it was like heaven. Nothing says welcome home like a Chipotle burrito. Mmm, wanting another one now.


Another thing I noted: I was struck by the glaring commercialism of an American Christmas. They definitely celebrate with decorations, song, lights, etc. in the UK, but nothing like the excess of America. The holiday music was blaring at a surprising pitch from every airport speaker in Newark (and La Guardia), and poinsettas, Christmas trees, and lights were overtaking the hotel lobby. I could only smile and feel that warm fuzzy feeling that one only feels when they're home.


And it is so lovely to be home. I love being surrounded by so many American accents, knowing when I see the word football that it means the sport that I'm actually thinking of, and seeing the sun. And I totally forgot about the insane Midwest weather, but was quickly reminded. The Monday after I arrived it was below 20F, was almost 50 the next day, and then by the evening it was cold enough for freezing rain. Which made for another fun travel experience. Mom, Megan (sister), and I had gone to a town about an hour away for a little last minute shopping and the trip back took a little over 6 hours. Yes, 6 hours after trying two of three possible routes home and both were blocked with accidents. We heard on the radio that there had been an accident on the third route as well. So we sat. And sat. Very luckily, we had a portable DVD player in the car and had just purchased Arrested Development for one of my brothers. We felt a bit guilty for opening a Christmas present, but it was the only thing that kept us sane.


Other than the unlucky travel experiences, home has been amazing. Loads of relaxing, loads of family and friends, and more Mexican food! My family also celebrated my birthday again, since I told them not to spend the money to ship presents to me, but I had completely forgotten and was totally surprised! Christmas was great as well, the best present was a computer so that I can finally Skype my family (and anyone else who has Skype!) from London - yay!

Well, must be off, and this novel of an entry is long enough. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and other happy holidays, and also has a happy new year! Oh, and I hope anyone traveling has better luck than I did - I'm crossing my fingers for a better flight back to London than the flight here!

Cheers,
Heather