Travel day from hell

Yesterday I took my time in the morning waking up, laying around, packing. My flight wasn't until 4:20 but I had to take the rental car back. Let me say that the Phoenix airport rental car situation is abysmal. The rental car companies are in a hub that is a 10 to 15 minute shuttle ride away from the airport. Considering that it's "shoulder season" for Phoenix I didn't think the airport would be crowded, especially on a Tuesday afternoon but nevertheless left myself plenty of time to return the car since Mike had backed into it and I had to file an accident report. And oh, it was HOT yesterday as well. It was 109 degrees outside temperature while I was driving in but once in the garage it was much hotter. I got the car turned in, paperwork done and got on a shuttle. I would have time to check in and sit down for a bite to eat before starting my journey. And then I was thinking .... hmm, isn't Mike's birthday around now? And I reached for my iPhone.

And that's when I realized I had left it in the rental car!!! A very nice woman spent the rest of the shuttle ride tracking down the phone number for that particular booth and they found my iPhone where I said it would be. Now I had to ride back to the rental car hub. Unfortunately someone had gotten on the wrong shuttle so we had to take another 10 minute detour to get him to his terminal. By now I am starting to sweat. I did not want to miss that flight. The shuttle driver was nice enough to agree to let me leave my bag on the shuttle and run down to get my phone IF there were not too many people waiting. Luck was on my side and when we pulled up there was only one guy there so I ran ... RAN ... in high heels and 109 degrees. They had my phone ready for me and back I dashed onto the shuttle which by now was pretty full. I was sitting there with sweat pouring down my face and trickling down my back. Still not out of the woods.

In retrospect I was having pretty good luck considering. There were only a couple people ahead of me at check in. I got a warning that since it was less that 45 minutes before my flight was due to take off that they couldn't guarantee my bag would make it. I had no choice ... take the bag. Then off I dashed to security and again, pretty good luck. One person in front of me. I didn't have time to get anything to eat because they started boarding as soon as I found the gate.

I was scheduled for a 25 minute turn around in San Jose. I grabbed a sandwich at a Starbucks on my way to my gate. The plane hadn't arrived so I had time to breath, wash up and try to calm down. I was so jumpy! I got on the plane and watched as the bags were being loaded. I did not see my bag. And sure enough it didn't turn up in Seattle. The woman from Southwest said it was most likely on the next flight which was due to come in at 10:30 but I wasn't going to wait at the airport. Mr. M took me home and I had a shower and fell into bed. Exhausted emotionally and physically.

There was no message on my phone this morning. It was not easy getting ready this morning either, with all of my toiletries in the bag. I have duplicates of most but not all things. Lip liner - nope. Chanel foundation - nope. I made do. I called the baggage people and oddly enough my bag had made it on the plane in Phoenix but it hadn't made the transition. So it is coming in from San Jose this morning and they will deliver it. All's well that ends well, I guess. Except I'm in a crappy mood. But what else is new, eh?

That trip was pretty hard on me but not as hard as the whole situation has been on my friend. I must say that I have totally and completely fallen in love with Flagstaff, Arizona though. That's the first time I had been there, last Saturday when we headed up north for Mike to look at a job. We spent a few hours walking around the town, shopping -- I found a necklace that I am still kicking myself for not buying -- and spent some time at a Cantina having a few drinks, watching preseason football and having dinner. We didn't get back that night until 10 and we drove through some real Arizona spectacular weather on the way home. First a lightening storm, then POURING rain. And as we got nearer to Maricopa, where Mike lives just outside of Phoenix, we ran into not one but two dust storms. Just completely swallowed everyone up. Cars slowed to a crawl, flashers going. You couldn't see a thing and had to navigate by the fog line by the side of the road. It was scary.

But now it's back to reality. Work stacked up all around my desk. I spent a good deal of time on Monday while Mike was working doing a bit of work myself. At least answering emails. But now the clock is ticking. Just a little more than two weeks and anatomy starts so I had better kick it into high gear!