The Voyage Between
Last time I was going through O'Hare, I had about a 3 hour layover that got stretched out. I was aiming for a bit more pleasant trip this time. So I only booked an hour and a half layover. Oops. Apparently, the windy city couldn't handle a little bit of wind. Chicago got delayed by exactly 1.5 hours, making it absolutely impossible for me to make the connection. This would have actually been really cool, if I'd had Amanda's american phone number. But I explicitly thinking, "I'll never need that. I have her Irish number." Well, for the record, Verizon won't allow me to even try an international call. So I opted to go out a bit earlier on the next day since my brother had to be at the airport. I had them rebook me and pull my bags from the plane.
I show up the next day to the airport in a good mood to greet the ticket agent, whom I have to again convince that I cannot use the teller machines (international flight and all). Then, I learn that flight 92 out of Chicago doesn't fly that day. So basically, I'm not booked on a flight. Wonderful... The lady was good though; she booked me on a flight and sent me on my way.
And then I show up in Chicago. I have an hour until the gate opens, so I sit down with my computer and start some programming (the previously mentioned gnomad2 fixes). I'll tell you right now that if you're on a computer, people just expect you to be on the internet nowadays. I was asked about my signal SO many times. 100% of them were dumbfounded (amazing faces) to find out that I wasn't online.
I finally get to check-in... to find out I'm not booked on the plane. I really think my saving grace was the fact that US Air booked my luggage all the way through to Dublin. After a small debate with the ticket lady, she took my itinerary, luggage tag, and passport to her manager. A few keystrokes later and I was booked and on my way home (to Dublin).
Somehow, I ended up on the edge of a center row completely to myself. 4 seats! So I spread out. I had my laptop and mp3 player on 1 (finishing my fixes), and my dinner on the other. Even had the headphones in and was listening to movie. I do it up real big-style. The end of the flight was pretty rough, though. A good many people on the plane were "sick" -- including the poor girl across the aisle from me. The real tragedy was that she was about to start at UCD from DePaul (Chicago area), but hadn't been able to get on-campus housing.
The pilot finally put the plane down and we got the news that we wouldn't be using a jet-way... we were going old-school. Stairs and walking across the tarmac. And when I got near the door, I realized I might need a coat. It was so rainy and windy that water was pummeling me 1/2 across the jet from the door. Welcome home.
I got through immigration quickly enough (~5 seconds ... thank you Guarda card). Got my bags and ended up on the bus back to campus with Mikey. And all with 5 hours to spare before I needed to get on the bus back to the airport again!
I show up the next day to the airport in a good mood to greet the ticket agent, whom I have to again convince that I cannot use the teller machines (international flight and all). Then, I learn that flight 92 out of Chicago doesn't fly that day. So basically, I'm not booked on a flight. Wonderful... The lady was good though; she booked me on a flight and sent me on my way.
And then I show up in Chicago. I have an hour until the gate opens, so I sit down with my computer and start some programming (the previously mentioned gnomad2 fixes). I'll tell you right now that if you're on a computer, people just expect you to be on the internet nowadays. I was asked about my signal SO many times. 100% of them were dumbfounded (amazing faces) to find out that I wasn't online.
I finally get to check-in... to find out I'm not booked on the plane. I really think my saving grace was the fact that US Air booked my luggage all the way through to Dublin. After a small debate with the ticket lady, she took my itinerary, luggage tag, and passport to her manager. A few keystrokes later and I was booked and on my way home (to Dublin).
Somehow, I ended up on the edge of a center row completely to myself. 4 seats! So I spread out. I had my laptop and mp3 player on 1 (finishing my fixes), and my dinner on the other. Even had the headphones in and was listening to movie. I do it up real big-style. The end of the flight was pretty rough, though. A good many people on the plane were "sick" -- including the poor girl across the aisle from me. The real tragedy was that she was about to start at UCD from DePaul (Chicago area), but hadn't been able to get on-campus housing.
The pilot finally put the plane down and we got the news that we wouldn't be using a jet-way... we were going old-school. Stairs and walking across the tarmac. And when I got near the door, I realized I might need a coat. It was so rainy and windy that water was pummeling me 1/2 across the jet from the door. Welcome home.
I got through immigration quickly enough (~5 seconds ... thank you Guarda card). Got my bags and ended up on the bus back to campus with Mikey. And all with 5 hours to spare before I needed to get on the bus back to the airport again!
