AmazonBabe
Jul 20th, 2004, 04:35:46 PM
So no one would have really noticed my absence this past weekend... but...
I made it back in one piece from Indiana. :)
Went to South Bend, IN, for Joe's cousin's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, but what was even more fun was watching all the guys from Joe's household from collage get together. They're a bunch of coocs. We had lots of fun though. And since I married Joe, I essentially married into the household... so in recognition of this, they gave me a bowling pin with little notes and signatures written on it from all the household guys. I was also given a nick name, and of all things, they nick named me Queen Amidala. Needless to say, I thought that was funny.
Aside from that, finally got to visit the Notre Dame campus and it's beautiful chapel (that's where the marraige was held). It's a miracle Joe's cousin was able to even book the Notre Dame chapel. They have like one day out of the year where you can call the office to book the chapel for weddings, and it's only for alumni, AND it's exceedingly difficult to get anything booked there cause everyone is trying to book it. So they were VERY lucky to have been able to use the chapel for their marraige.
As to the plane trips going and coming... going we were threatened with a 2 hour delay cause we had to fly to Chicago first, and then take a connector to South bend. But the delay only ended up being 30 min, so we were on time to get our connector (and rental car when we got into South Bend... the rental place closed at 11pm, and we arrived at about 10:30).
Coming back though was the flight from hell. We get to the airport to check in and find we don't have assigned seating for the flight from Chicago to Orange County. Somehow, Joe and I are sitting on opposite ends of the plane even though we booked together. One point down for United. We did have assigned seats for the flight from South Bend to Chicago, so I guess I'll give United a wee bit of leeway.
Get on the plane at South Bend to go to Chicago. Sit in plane and find out we have an hour delay. The pilot is reluctant to let us off because it would take 20 min to deboard the plane and then another 20 to reboard. So it really doesn't make sense. It was at this point I was getting a wee bit miffed with Chicago's weather (thunder storms were holding us up). An hour passes and we move a lil, and then we stop. The pilot again says we have another delay... an hour delay. I want to tear the headrest off the seat in front of me and eat it. This basically means we'll be REALLY late and barely make it to our connecting flight, if at all.
We finally take off and the pilot really steps on it. We make it to Chicago in less time than it usually takes. Even the landing was a bit rough as he came in really steep and really fast. Kudos to the pilot for her flying skills. We get off the plane as fast as we can and look at the screens. Holy crap our connector flight is already boarding!!! And it's in the other freakin terminal!!!!! @!%#@%$%@ Needless to say, we hightail it to the other terminal. Breathless and unable to say much in any sort of language, we give our boarding passes to the lady at the ticketing thingy and we're in the plane.
Unfortunately, we're still seperated because of the whole seating thing. I really dislike United at this point for making the seating all weird. Well, without too much trouuble, we're able to switch seats with some nice ppl, and Joe and I are sitting together, albiet in the very last row of the plane, but oh well. Can't have your cake and eat it too. Yeah, I should have shut my mind up at this point. Three rows in front of us, there is this screaming 2-3 year old, and she won't shut-up. AND we have another 30 min delay because of all the backed up planes that were waiting for their take-off times. I feel a twitch coming on. And to make matters worse, the old geezer next to me keeps swearing up a storm because the kid won't shut-up.
So now I have to listen to a kid scream and an old guy swearing. Think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts. And then it dawns on me I can put my headset on and listen to the planes recycled radio crap and blow my ears out with that cause gawd only knows that's better than listening to the racket around me. I put the headset on. It's broken. I'm just about to snap and break something myself when I decide to dive into Joe's magazine pocket and take his headset (he brought his own). It works. Halleluia, my sanity is saved. For the moment.
The screaming kid gets louder. I push my volume up. I hear the old guy next to me huffing and puffing and rattling his newspaper. More volume up. I see a woman on the other side of the aisle turn around, give the old guy the nastiest look I have ever seen, she says something, and the old guy blessedly shuts up. Now if only we can get the kid to do the same. Oh, and did I mention the plane we were on was one of those that somehow missed the leg-room fixings, so we're slammed in like sardines? Think happy thoughts... listen to recycled music.
Finally we take off and the roar of the engine shuts the kid up... not because the noised drowned the kid out, but because the kid just goes silent. Maybe the parents had a hankerchief and chloriform at hand. Who knows. Well, time to sit back (well, back as in whatever you can do with the blukhead behind you) and relax and hope to gawd it's not a long flight. Wait... why won't my seat stay back??? Because it BROKEN. Joy. Fine, sitting up straight is good for me anyways.
Oh look, in-flight movie. Lets watch movie. *watches movie... movie goes black and white* HEY!It was color before! They try to reset the TVs but they're busted, so it's b&w for the in-flight movie. And to top it off, the old guy beside me keeps having bottle after bottle of whiskey! Dear lord, I have stepped into the twlight zone flight from hell! Well, into the guys fourth bottle of whiskey, he spills it all over his pants (and misses me by some miracle). Well, no more whiskey for him.
And then 20 minutes after that we land into Orange County. Home sweet CA home. Albiet about 2 hours late. But such is life.
The moral of this story: Never fly through Chicago if it can be avoided; never fly United if it can be avoided; and try to stay of old unretrofitted no-leg-room planes.
And yet, my weekend was still very fun. :)
(Sorry for the loooooong story... I was in a writing must-tell-all mood ^_^; )
I made it back in one piece from Indiana. :)
Went to South Bend, IN, for Joe's cousin's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, but what was even more fun was watching all the guys from Joe's household from collage get together. They're a bunch of coocs. We had lots of fun though. And since I married Joe, I essentially married into the household... so in recognition of this, they gave me a bowling pin with little notes and signatures written on it from all the household guys. I was also given a nick name, and of all things, they nick named me Queen Amidala. Needless to say, I thought that was funny.
Aside from that, finally got to visit the Notre Dame campus and it's beautiful chapel (that's where the marraige was held). It's a miracle Joe's cousin was able to even book the Notre Dame chapel. They have like one day out of the year where you can call the office to book the chapel for weddings, and it's only for alumni, AND it's exceedingly difficult to get anything booked there cause everyone is trying to book it. So they were VERY lucky to have been able to use the chapel for their marraige.
As to the plane trips going and coming... going we were threatened with a 2 hour delay cause we had to fly to Chicago first, and then take a connector to South bend. But the delay only ended up being 30 min, so we were on time to get our connector (and rental car when we got into South Bend... the rental place closed at 11pm, and we arrived at about 10:30).
Coming back though was the flight from hell. We get to the airport to check in and find we don't have assigned seating for the flight from Chicago to Orange County. Somehow, Joe and I are sitting on opposite ends of the plane even though we booked together. One point down for United. We did have assigned seats for the flight from South Bend to Chicago, so I guess I'll give United a wee bit of leeway.
Get on the plane at South Bend to go to Chicago. Sit in plane and find out we have an hour delay. The pilot is reluctant to let us off because it would take 20 min to deboard the plane and then another 20 to reboard. So it really doesn't make sense. It was at this point I was getting a wee bit miffed with Chicago's weather (thunder storms were holding us up). An hour passes and we move a lil, and then we stop. The pilot again says we have another delay... an hour delay. I want to tear the headrest off the seat in front of me and eat it. This basically means we'll be REALLY late and barely make it to our connecting flight, if at all.
We finally take off and the pilot really steps on it. We make it to Chicago in less time than it usually takes. Even the landing was a bit rough as he came in really steep and really fast. Kudos to the pilot for her flying skills. We get off the plane as fast as we can and look at the screens. Holy crap our connector flight is already boarding!!! And it's in the other freakin terminal!!!!! @!%#@%$%@ Needless to say, we hightail it to the other terminal. Breathless and unable to say much in any sort of language, we give our boarding passes to the lady at the ticketing thingy and we're in the plane.
Unfortunately, we're still seperated because of the whole seating thing. I really dislike United at this point for making the seating all weird. Well, without too much trouuble, we're able to switch seats with some nice ppl, and Joe and I are sitting together, albiet in the very last row of the plane, but oh well. Can't have your cake and eat it too. Yeah, I should have shut my mind up at this point. Three rows in front of us, there is this screaming 2-3 year old, and she won't shut-up. AND we have another 30 min delay because of all the backed up planes that were waiting for their take-off times. I feel a twitch coming on. And to make matters worse, the old geezer next to me keeps swearing up a storm because the kid won't shut-up.
So now I have to listen to a kid scream and an old guy swearing. Think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts. And then it dawns on me I can put my headset on and listen to the planes recycled radio crap and blow my ears out with that cause gawd only knows that's better than listening to the racket around me. I put the headset on. It's broken. I'm just about to snap and break something myself when I decide to dive into Joe's magazine pocket and take his headset (he brought his own). It works. Halleluia, my sanity is saved. For the moment.
The screaming kid gets louder. I push my volume up. I hear the old guy next to me huffing and puffing and rattling his newspaper. More volume up. I see a woman on the other side of the aisle turn around, give the old guy the nastiest look I have ever seen, she says something, and the old guy blessedly shuts up. Now if only we can get the kid to do the same. Oh, and did I mention the plane we were on was one of those that somehow missed the leg-room fixings, so we're slammed in like sardines? Think happy thoughts... listen to recycled music.
Finally we take off and the roar of the engine shuts the kid up... not because the noised drowned the kid out, but because the kid just goes silent. Maybe the parents had a hankerchief and chloriform at hand. Who knows. Well, time to sit back (well, back as in whatever you can do with the blukhead behind you) and relax and hope to gawd it's not a long flight. Wait... why won't my seat stay back??? Because it BROKEN. Joy. Fine, sitting up straight is good for me anyways.
Oh look, in-flight movie. Lets watch movie. *watches movie... movie goes black and white* HEY!It was color before! They try to reset the TVs but they're busted, so it's b&w for the in-flight movie. And to top it off, the old guy beside me keeps having bottle after bottle of whiskey! Dear lord, I have stepped into the twlight zone flight from hell! Well, into the guys fourth bottle of whiskey, he spills it all over his pants (and misses me by some miracle). Well, no more whiskey for him.
And then 20 minutes after that we land into Orange County. Home sweet CA home. Albiet about 2 hours late. But such is life.
The moral of this story: Never fly through Chicago if it can be avoided; never fly United if it can be avoided; and try to stay of old unretrofitted no-leg-room planes.
And yet, my weekend was still very fun. :)
(Sorry for the loooooong story... I was in a writing must-tell-all mood ^_^; )