Day 250

Actually this is written day 248, but I didn’t feel like paying $8 for internet access in the MSP airport since I will be home relatively soon – then I got distracted by sleeping and getting caught up on things.

First off – sorry for not posting. But in all actuality, me not posting means things are good. The urge to write erupts out of feelings of boredom, anger, sadness, angst, worry, fear… More or less, the desire to write for me often is a way to express bad feelings. Work has kept me busy, not happy, but busy – which is ok. Hopefully my project will reach an end point soon and I can go back to a normal work environment – I say hopefully, but I know it’s not likely. I’ll finish up the project I am working on and politely tell the people around me I will keep working but not to the devotion level that I have been. I feel like I have put in one too many nights without my key stakeholders be gracious or understanding (or even caring) - I’ll finish off my commitment at this level, but I’m going to reshape expectations and start enjoying my spring evenings (once spring decides to come to Duluth).

Hubby is doing well. We haven’t had the chance to talk like we used to, but we still email and chat when we can. We’re both looking forward to the day when we can be together again.

Now on to my exciting weekend. I’m on my way home from the annual soft ware conference that I’ve now attended for the 5th year. I spent the last four days in Palm Springs, CA. Nice place to visit and I hope I get the chance to go back, but it’s certainly not a place I want to live. Way too many golf courses and old people and heat. That and I have a tough time reconciling the amount of water they consume from northern CA and the Colorado river in order to keep their green grass and golf courses in the middle of the desert – especially when that means that real agriculture suffers so that some retiree can play 18 holes on a PGA course.
I’ve been up since 4AM. Yesterday was a busy day and I didn’t get a chance to pack until after our meal and casino night – so I didn’t make it to bed until well after midnight. While I realize that Delta and NWA are still working on merging their services together – I am a frustrated customer. My flights to Palm Springs were both still NWA and everything was perfect and on time and happy. My return flight has not gone so smoothly. My flight from Palm Springs left pretty close to on time – I felt bad for the 3 guys they kicked off the flight right before take off. Apparently it had just started snowing in Salt Lake and they wanted to load the plan with more fuel just in case we needed to land else where so we had to get rid of some weight. So I guess this caused us to land in Salt Lake 10 minutes late – and I rushed from one end of the airport to the other to catch my connector – I got there a good 7 min before the scheduled take off, but there was no ticketing agent at the booth and I didn’t know if I should get on. In retro spec I should have just walked down the jet way and tried to get on. But I didn’t and by the time the ticketing agent came back to the desk she told me they had just pushed off :(
SO then came the rebooking. She was bitchy and was no help and sent me off down to the rebooking center. The lady there did her best to help me. She got me standby on the next flight to MSP and told me I was on standby for the 4PM flight to DLH. Fortunately for me, other planes were late getting to Salt Lake and I got a seat on the plan to MSP. However when I got to MSP, I learned I wasn’t on the 4PM flight to DLH. I was nowhere on the list to DLH and the flight was overbooked and they were kicking people off the flight. That ticket agent was one of the old NWA partner flights and she couldn’t help me since my originating flight this morning was Delta and they can’t see into each other’s systems. At this point I was getting pissed – it hadn’t helped that I was hungry and I stopped to grab a sandwich on my way to catch the DLH flight and the idiot at the counter keyed it in as no onions instead of no ranch (yes I know this is dumb, but I was I was working hard to be nice and understanding as my day got screwed up and I got a @#!$ for a server who cared more about the sexcapades of his coworker than paying attention to the customer) So yeah, by the time I called the NWA phone number to try and get a flight from MSP to DLH I was pretty pissed. The lady was nice and I already knew the next flight wasn’t until 11PM – so here I sit waiting for my flight.

But my mood is not all foul. After I got rebooked, I headed to the main terminal to the one place in MSP I do like to sit back and have a beer and burger while I wait. The conversation was good. I spent a good hour plus talking to a fellow traveler. He was on his way back to Boston. And the conversation went all over the place - we talked sports, travel, 9-11, jobs – I was thoroughly entertained by him and as he left he gave me a business card in case I felt like changing careers anytime in the future :)

150 days to go.