Day Without End...

It's almost 1:30 AM here in Asheville. We just got back from the airport in Charlotte. Let me just say that today has been a very taxing day and I'm worn out. If you happened to be traveling today by plane, you might have noticed that there were a few extra people standing around. Some of these people were travelers stranded due to weather delays and others had big guns. But I'm jumping ahead.

Let's first start with the car situation. Since I was going to be traveling with the Green Girl Studios tub from the Long Island show, I wanted to make sure that I got to the airport plenty early. So, I called ahead for a car with extra time to get to the airport and check the baggage and be set to go. They send a car and it was of course late (even though the car service is literally 1.5 blocks away). When it finally came, I loaded up the tubs and my suitcase and got in. The driver discovered he was out of gas. So, I unloaded the car and waited for the next car. The quoted five minutes turned into 20 minutes. I was dripping wet with sweat. It was a hot and humid day and running up and down five flights of stairs with huge bins full of pewter didn't help.

One of the things that I love about my neighborhood is that everyone is so close-knit. However, when the goal is speed, this isn't exactly the optimal condition. My driver kept stopping in the middle of the road to chat with other drivers and neighborhood regulars. I could feel the blood beginning to boil in my veins. Since I deal in a customer service oriented profession, I try to be patient and keep my cool. I dislike greatly the uppity customers who get all bent out of shape. Eventually though, I had to say straight-up, "I'm going to miss my flight."

He responded by saying, "Oh, the traffic on the highway should be quick." I didn't know what to say. I felt that this perhaps was not the right response to my comment. If the traffic on the highway was slow, does that mean he would have stopped less? Or did he mean that we would make up time by driving on the highway? I did not know. I just sat quietly in the back, feeling my jaw clench a bit and my eyes searching for a point outside the car to fix on.

It just so happened that the traffic on the highway was not quick. It was, in fact, quite slow. In the back of my mind, I was planning out all the things I would have to do to try and change flights or make arrangements to expedite the situation.

When I finally got to the airport, much later, I had a scant few minutes to run and catch my flight. The curb-side check-in guy refused to check me in. I asked why. He said, "Your flight has been delayed. I can't help you." I wanted to ask for my tip back. Instead, I waited in line where very naughty people were cutting in line. I could feel the fire-starter power rise up in me, but I kept saying to myself, "Be calm. Be cool. Be collected."

So, the airport was crowded. With the stranded passengers marooned from weather conditions and the people with big guns. Tomorrow, or rather, today, is the anniversary of 9/11. When I finally made arrangements to get into Charlotte, I was "randomly selected" to participate in special screenings. Which basically meant that I was put through a ring of fire of searches. They emptied the entire contents of my travel bag, felt me up, and made me pass through metal detectors and felt me up again. At one point, one of the searches said, "There's something hard under your sweater." And I said, "My ribcage?" I had to lift up my sweater to prove that the hard protrusions were actually my bones and not explosives taped to my body. It's a good thing I put on plenty of deodorant.

For the next five hours, insert: weather delays, refueling delays, mechanical difficulty delays, repair delays (apparently a bird struck the plane), runway traffic, air traffic, and very angry people. Seeing just how upset people were getting and how loud they were getting made me calm down and try to set an example of grace. Though it required much will power.

When I finally got to Charlotte, I got in actually 3 hours earlier than I was supposed to be. I was put on a direct flight instead of taking all the connecting flights my original ticket was scheduled for. Though, there was no way to let Greg and Cynthia know with enough time to drive up. Anyway, Tony Blackwell was supposed to be coming into Charlotte around the same time as my original flight was supposed to and we were all just going to ride together back instead of making multiple trips.

I went to pick up my bags from baggage claim. I had to put the heavy tub full of pewter and I only checked my regular small rolling cart since the ticketing agent suggested that it would be quicker to get through the lines at the security station if I didn't have too many additional pieces of luggage. This was true. However, my suitcase full of my clothes went missing. Only the tub came around on the carousel.

Hopefully my bag turns up and they ship it to me as they said they would. I packed all of my clothes in there for the month that I'll be down here for and really can't afford to replace pretty much my entire wardrobe.

While waiting outside of the claims department, I sat with my back against the wall. I didn't think anything of it. I was tired and wasn't in the mood to stand in line more. Then I started feeling something crawling on me. At first I thought it was my imagination, but realized that it wasn't when those little crawly things began to bite me! Apparently I put my back to the wall where there were ants. So I have bites all over my back and arms.

I am tired and more than a little disgruntled with how everything went down today. I try to make a concentrated effort not to complain too much on my blog and stay positive since I am so fortunate in so many different ways, but today was just miserable. It seemed like the day would never end.

Fortunately the day did end and no one was hurt and everyone was safe and I got a big hug from a little girl when I walked through the door. That was one good thing today. Now it's time for bed!