Weekend Warrior

Wow. What a weekend I had. If you're the sort of person that is irritated easily by complaining, then I suggest you stop reading now...unless you really want to hear about the horrors of my weekend travels and how they almost ruined my interview!

So first of all, thank you to all of you who sent me messages, or even just thoughts and prayers of good luck for my interview. Content wise, I believe it went really well. Good feedback from the guy, with the necessary "try not to take anything I say as a yes, no or maybe since I just send in my comments - the admissions committee holds the key to the final decision". That being said, I barely made it to the interview, I looked like I had been mugged and had my shoes stolen, and I smelled of smoke. Here goes...

So I was scheduled to fly from Calgary to Denver, through Salt Lake City, on Thursday night, and my sweet brother was going to pick me up at 9:45pm. Well naturally, my first flight was delayed due to weather, and I landed at 8:30pm...I thought my connecting flight departed at 8:45p so I sprinted off the plane, half way through the airport, where a cart guy picked me up and raced me down to the gate (this was like 10 minutes...a VERY long way and I was VERY out of breath) only to arrive and discover that my plane actually left at 8:25pm. And there were no more flights with availability for Frontier to put me on until late the next night. Mind you, my interview was scheduled for 11:30am in Fort Collins the next morning, so this obviously wouldn't do. So I jumped on my phone with travel, and booked a ticket on the first flight out in the morning with Delta. Then I tried to book a hotel since I was stuck for the night. She found me a room at the Embassy Suites, which she confirmed...in DENVER! Hello? Why would I need a room in Denver when I'm stuck in Salt Lake??? So then she had to go through cancelling and trying to get my money back since it was within the cancellation policy range. finally got that sorted out, but meanwhile I called my brother from a payphone to tell him to turnaround since there was no way I was going to arrive that night. We agreed I would call to wake him up in the morning as I was boarding the plane since that would be just about the right timing for him to arrive to pick me up for my flight, now landing at 8:15am.

where was I...oh, travel...so we get the room cancelled and get my money refunded...but then it turns out there is a convention in Salt Lake, and the nearest hotel with availability is 30 minutes away and only has smoking rooms left. At this point it's 9:15, I'm exhausted after averaging about 3 hours of sleep each night during the week, and my bags are missing. I tell her to book it while I wait in the baggage services line. I finally get to the counter, I'm told they'll send a runner to get the bags from Frontier and that they should come out on the baggage carousel within 30 minutes. So I go to get dinner, but only a little cafe is open on the non-secure side, and they're pretty much sold out of everything. Airport chile it is! After 30 minutes, no bags, and I've now calculated that I have to get up at 4:30am to return to the airport, so I start stressing about trying to get to bed so I'm not a walking zombie for my interview. I decide I can live without my bags for the night and have them make a note to put my bags on the flight I'm on in the morning. MISTAKE! but more on that later.

So I take a cab to the hotel...$50 and 30 minutes later I arrive, only to realize that I promised certain documents to my manger, which I had planned to complete on the 2nd flight, that I obviously hadn't had time to do. So I stayed up til midnight finishing that stuff with the windows open and my door cracked to try to get some of the smoke smell out of the room. After my 4 hours of sleep I woke up feeling like a smoker.

Another $50 cab ride and I was back at the airport, but baggage services was closed so I couldn't get answers if my bags were onboard. As we were boarding I called my brother, but no answer. So then I text-messaged him. Then I had my boyfriend call him after I was in the air. But when I landed I called to find out where he was...and he was still in bed! It takes over an hour to get to the airport, so there went my time to shower and get dressed with my own stuff (since I didn't have my bags the night before).

Not that it mattered. Went to get my bags but they weren't there. Possibility that they were coming in on a Frontier flight that was landing right about when my brother finally arrived, but Frontier doesn't scan their bags, so they could neither confirm nor deny this rumor. Grrr. As time ticked by my brother parked, we got some breakfast in the airport, I gave Delta my info, and then finally had to just give up and go, or risk being late for my interview.

So then I did my makeup and hair in the car, changed at a Kinko's (I was cautious enough to pah, then went in for my interview...in my brown suit with my black loafers, wearing the same turtleneck I had been wearing the past 2 days, smelling vaguely of cigarette smoke with static-y hotel shampooed hair. Man, I was hot.

Bags didn't arrive until yesterday morning, about 2 hours before I had to turn around and head BACK to the airport. Sweet. Gave me an excuse to buy some new jeans and a couple new work shirts, so that was good. And you can bet I'm going to go after Delta on this one. I'm good at writing letters (I get that trait from my mom) :) Oh, and they arrived with somebody else's sleeping bag. Nice.

Crazy weekend. Couldn't help but feel like maybe I just wasn't meant to go to LBS. But like I said, the interview went really well. So we'll just have to wait and see. Other than all of those horrors, I did enjoy the time with my brother. We bonded and watched movies, and I got to go shopping with a friend (everybody loves panties!) and I ate at the Rio and PF Changs. So it wasn't a total bust, even if I did look like a moron and smell like your dirty laundry.

Here's hoping your weekend was better than mine!