Here, there and Everywhere

Man, it's been a while, sorry...I literally have been running from point A to point B for the last couple of weeks.

Let's start with Barcelona.

If you ever get a chance to go, then go. It was absolutley one of my favorite places thus far. Well, except for when the taxi driver yelled at me. Bitter old man. Lesson learned do not put your foot on the seat in a taxi cab. They don't like that.

We went to the beach, the Adele concert (which was AWESOME!!!), Gaudi Park, Sagrada Familia, Monteserrat to see the oldest boys choir and the black virgin and enjoy the great outdoors, took a boat tour, the Picasso museum, shopped on la Ramba, ate A LOT of gelato, and delicious seafood.

I honestly cannot tell you what my favorite part of the trip was. The hour trip to Monteserrat is definitely up at the top of the list (mostly because I got to climb around and be outside hiking up a mountain).

Seana came back to Madrid with us. It was so nice to see her. For those of you who do not know Seane, we use to work together at Texas Roadhouse and now we are both in Europe doing our thing. We ran into a large group of drunken english men on Wednesday here in Madrid. It was Tottenham's first time to be this far in the Champions league, so they uhh...were quite roudy.

Now to the fun stuff....
As all, or most, of you know... My little brother's wedding was coming up. So I made the journey home for the weekend.
Friday morning at 7 am Spain time, I left Madrid.

Made it to London...no problem.

London to Chicago...let the fun begin.

By the time I made it to Chicago I had been in route to America for about 12 hours. I was exhausted, but amped on adrenaline because I was almost home. This is where I messed up. Getting excited about anything usually means something is going to go wrong.

Land in Chicago and check-in for my next boarding pass to OKC.

We're sorry ma'am it's been cancelled due to weather. (cancelation number one)

WHAT? Uh. I couldn't tell if I was nauseous from the long flight, airplane food, or because I was so close to home I could almost smell the sweet aroma of wheat fields mixed with cow pies and good ole red clay. HOME is where the heart is.

Luckly she found a seat on a flight that had been delayed earlier.

YAY! I'm going to make it, and sooner than my original fight time.

So I hurried through security and ran down to the gate to find that it had been delayed a little longer. Ok, ok I'll take it. I'm almost home. As I waited I made friends with two lawyers, Jim and Joy, headed to OKC for a conference. They were really nice and pretty funny. We all sat and waited in anticipation for this plane. A few hours went by and finally it arrived! YAY!

We all boarded the plane. Smiles were across the whole cabin because some had been waiting since 2:30 for it's original flight time. I think the happy emotions must of smothered the pilot or something because right as we were at our peak of blissfulness, we were shot down.

The pilot announced, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen we are sorry for the inconvience, but we need to make a repair to our windsheild. If you will kindly unboard we will patch it up and get you in the air shortly."

They lied. Flight was cancelled. (cancelation number two)

Jim, Joy, and I took off running to get a seat for the 9:45 flight. Jim and Joy got the last two tickets. UHHH! I was first on stand-by but there was no guarantee that I would have a seat for that flight.

I lost it. I couldn't hold back the tears. I was so close to home, but so far away. In a frantic frenzy I started checking out my options. I called home and they were trying their best to help too. They found a flight with 6 seats available on another airline. I found a counter to try and exchange my flight, but she was too busy. Doing what? I don't know. Looked like to me she was just standing there.

Ran to another counter and finally made it to the front of the line and that flight was booked. But she assured me that since I was first on stand-by that I would be on that 9:45 flight.

I wasn't convinced.

After numerous calls back an forth to home, I decided to call in the friend cards. I was calling anyone that lived in a surrounding state or town to OKC. Luckly I have some pretty amazing friends and everyone was willing to help. So at this point I thought it would be wise to reserve a seat to Fort Worth, Dallas. The issue was OKC was scheduled for 9:45 and DFW at 10:15...and of course they had to be in seperate terminals.

Now it was time to wait.

I grabbed two venti lattes, yes I was double fisting, from Starbucks to keep my spirit alive. In the mean time I also clocked how long it took to get from terminal G to terminal K (just to be on the safe side). I had now obtained a couple more friends on the OKC flight. Jacob happened to be on stand-by too. He ran up to the counter and the lady gave him a boarding pass. (I thought) "Sweet! They're handing out boarding passes to the stand-by!"  Eager to get home, I ran up there to get mine too. "Ma'am you'll have to be patient. Your name will be called 15 minutes before boarding if there is room."

WHAT THE FRECK.

I started to panic again and Jim could tell. He went up to the counter to talk to them. Apparently the girl at the counter messed up. (I think she liked Jacob.) But they reassured Jim I would be on this flight. I called home to give them the update. I told them, "I'm still on stand-by for this flight or I could go ahead and take the DFW flight. It leaves at 10:15..."My family, just as eager as I was to get home, was screaming in the background "take the sure thing! Take the DFW!!!" But I was stubborn and secretly hoping I could fly directly into OKC. Oh, but that would make my life too easy and less exciting.

Right as I got off the phone at 9:40 I heard, "We're sorry but flight 6208 to Oklahoma City has been cancelled." (cancelation number three)

I booked it! I was weaving in and out of people, pullin along my bag as quick as I possibly could. I got a few whistles from some young adolescent teenage boys who thought they were "oh so cooool", dirty looks from slow walkers that I passed, and a security guard screaming to slow down. Did any of that slow me down. Nope. I was determined to make this flight! No way was I going to miss this wedding. Especially not after I had made it all this way.

Made it to the terminal and ran up to the desk. I started spouting off my story and asking for a boarding pass all at the same time. (Perhaps two venti lattes wasn't a good idea). Nevertheless, the gentleman who happened to be behind the desk was a pilot and not a fligh agent. So I had to wait for one after I made myself look like a complete fool by not noticing that this man was clearly wearing his pilot costume and not a flight attendant outfit. Finally an agent showed up and I recieved a boarding pass to DFW! I was so happy.

Called home to tell them I was flying to Dallas and to sort out how I was getting to OKC from there. Luckly for me I have some amazing friends who were more then willing to help AND my brothers new soon to be grandparent-in-laws ALSO lived in dallas! Lucky me!

Alright it's all arranged. The soon to be grandparents were going to pick me up at 1 am in Dallas and then the following morning I was going to ride up to OKC with them for the wedding. Awesome! Looks like everything was panning out nicely.

Ha ha.

DFW flight finally boards and my heart is a peace. I battled through the Chicago airport and managed to triumph! Yeeeaaaah put that in your juice box and suck it Chicago O'hare Airport!!!

But then just as I was at peace with the madness, I heard...

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you that the left engine will not accelerate. Sorry for the inconvience but you will have to unboard at this time. We are looking for another plane and will inform you shortly with new details" (cancelation number four)

Seriously, I wish I was making this up. At this point I was too exhausted to be upset and was preparing my "you will pay for this trip if I miss this wedding" speech for American Airlines.

Fortunately for American Airlines and the Chicago O'hare Aiport they did, in fact, find a new plane. I arrived in DFW a little before 3 AM to be greeted by the nicest people I had never met.

Made it to the wedding the next morning. It was absolutley lovely. I got to see my family and my best friends and my goddaughter. Even though it was a long and stressful struggle to get to home, it was more then worth it because I got to see the faces of everyone I love. I wish I could of spent more time with my brother, but Chicago O'Hare and American airlines thought it was more important to toy with my heart for 12 hours.

So what have we learned today...1. My life is never dull. 2. Do not double fist two venti lattes and 3. If at all costs avoid flying through Chicago O'hare and/or flying with American Airlines (they'll have a missing flight attendant, cracked windshield, or a faulty left engine).

Still fighting off jet lag,

Kimee Paige

P.S. This week is Semana Santa. The roommate and I are headed off to Turkey! YAY! I know you're looking forward to reading about it.

"Calling O'Hare an airport is like calling the Queen Elizabeth II a boat"

-Andrew H. Malcolm