worse 24 hours

It's spring break and I'm off to visit the husband for the week along with moving most of our stuff in to our new apartment that Clayton picked out. I've been looking forward to this trip to view my new home city, get a break from school and work, and of course to see Clayton. I was at the airport at about 1:00pm for my 2:40 flight to Dallas. Boarding time comes around and the flight gets delayed an hour because of tornado warnings in Dallas. Then it gets delayed another hour, then another, then another hour. Finally the plane takes off at 7pm. The captain of the plane comes on the intercom to warn us of some turbulence we will encounter when landing in Texas. The turbulence lasted for about 45 minutes and it felt like being in one of those teacup rides at Disneyland. I was doing everything within my physical means to not vomit on the teenager sitting next to me. I had the fan on me full blast, was dry heaving, and trying desperately to find a bag or something. We finally landed with four people passing out on the plane and I successfully was able to control my weak stomach.

I got off the plane in Dallas at about 11pm to find hundreds of people waiting in lines and many people sleeping on cots. I hurried to a line stood there for about an hour and was able to get my connecting flight to Fort Lauderdale at 1am. I was thinking, "well, I'll get to Clayton really late tonight, but at least I get to leave this airport." 1 am comes around and our flight is canceled. I waited in line again, this time the next flight was at 615am. I didn't want to spend money on a hotel and taxi just to come back in three hours so I stayed the night at the airport by myself. All the cots were taken so I slept on the hard floor that smelled like stinky feet with the fluorescent lights all around. I felt it was truly a tender mercy that I had happen to bring a blanket with me on the flight. I actually felt safe, just uncomfortable. The people "sleeping" next to me had just gotten married earlier that day and were off to their honeymoon. I felt bad that they spent their first night together at the airport, but then I thought of all the jokes they could tell people and I felt much better. I got about an hour of sleep and was ready for my 615am flight. It was canceled. While standing in line again they announced the 850am flight was full and the next available time was 300pm. I was starting to get desperate and saw the flight to Miami boarding. I ran over to their line and asked if there was anymore seats."We have two more seats available," she said. So I got on the plane and after sitting on the plane for an hour they made everyone get off because the airport delayed a maintenance checkup the night before that requires everyone to be off the plane. So we all got off the plane, re-boarded after a two hour maintenance check and FINALLY took off!

I had to find a shuttle to my hotel and they said it would take about 30-45 minutes to get me to Fort Lauderdale. With every person the driver dropped-off I would jump out of the van because I was getting so car sick. The driver was from Cuba and probably the worse driver I have ever beheld. We were in Miami traffic and when there was three feet between the van and the car in front he would push the gas then hurry and put on the brakes creating a jerking movement every quarter block. It took three hours to get me to my hotel. As we were turning into the hotel he asked, "are you awake young lady?" I had my head between my knees so he thought I was sleeping, but I looked up to say "no" and that did it for me. I lifted my head up way to fast just as we were turning and I threw up all over myself three times.

.........And this is my airport woe. I hope to not experience anything like this ever again. My vision of jumping into Clayton's arms as he picked me up at the airport after a long separation didn't quite happen the way I pictured it. ;-) Luckily I was able to at least take a shower before the husband came back from work.