It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What a load of crap that is. I heard that song on the radio the other day as I made my way through the snow storm to the airport and hotel, just so I could get to my early flight the next morning, after the big storm came through. I made it to the hotel, made it the airport, waited for hours with many stressed and frustrated people, and then the flight was finally canceled.

First it was delayed two hours - the airline called me at 4:00 am to tell me that, and then just as I was finally falling back asleep, Orbitz called me to tell me the same thing, but that my original check-in time still held, so I had to get up and over the airport at the same time. It turns out that I could check in from my hotel lobby, but I didn't know that at 5 AM, when Orbitz called. Then, when we were supposed to board, they said that it "would be a bit longer" because the covered walkway to the plane was frozen, and couldn't be extended to reach the side of the plane. They had to thaw it out. A little voice inside me knew right then that it was all downhill from there. Sure enough, it took 2 1/2 hours to de-ice the walkway. They finally let us on, and then we had to sit while they waited for the go ahead to leave, after which they would begin to de-ice the plane. They said that if they de-iced and then went up to the runway, we would just have to de-ice again. I think they were waiting for the weather to change or something. That never happened, so they canceled the flight, 5 1/2 hours after it was scheduled to depart. I started to get a hotel room for the night near the airport, but decided to just come home, which was an adventure in itself (not as much as it could have been, thank God). The power went out in my town just as the ferry docked, and I was seriously considering crying, since swearing out loud in public hadn't helped any. The taxi could barely get out of the ferry parking lot, and the driver was also being the dispatcher and so was on the phone constantly, it was still snowing, with 3-4 inches already on the ground, no power, and my feet were already frozen. But as we got closer to my apartment, there started to be signs of electricity. And I had power. Rarely have I been that thankful. It was off today for most of the day, but it came back on about 30 minutes ago, and again, I am super thankful.

The thing is, when I got to the airport on Sunday, and even when we were supposed to board, it was not snowing. It was cold and there was snow on the ground, but it was not snowing. By the time they let us board, it was snowing hard. If they hadn't taken so darn long thawing out the walkway to the plane, we could have left and I would be in Maryland now. Grr. As it is, the next flight I could get is on Christmas Day. Same itinerary, so I am going to stay at a hotel again Christmas Eve - isn't that the most depressing thing you've ever heard? I got one with a restaurant, but I'm too cheap to really splurge, so it's going to suck. I was able to push back my return flight also, so I will have the same length of time in Maryland, which is good. It would have been even better if the power had not gone out today, because I was planning on getting absolutely tons of work done today (and tomorrow and Wednesday). But the power went out, I lost the clever code I had just figured out, and then I spent the rest of the day with Laura, Carol, and Natalie. They have been without power since yesterday sometime. They have a nice wood-burning stove and a gas range, so they can cook and be warm (though not throughout the house), but they have no water without electricity. I had water, but no heat and no cooking. So they came over and bathed, and then we went out to lunch at the one restaurant open, and stopped off at Safeway because I had no food - I had eaten it all in honor of leaving for more than a week.

Yesterday sucked, but when I got home, I was so thankful to be in my own home, with my own bed and with power and food and heat. Lots of people were stranded at the airport. If I hadn't gotten out when I had, I might have been stranded there, too. The shuttles and taxis were swamped and were having trouble, since the roads were terrible. I have never seen the taxi line that long. Finally, the taxi drivers started shouting out the neighborhoods they were going to, so they could take multiple parties. I took the shuttle, and they were on a reduced schedule/plan/whatever - they would take people to the downtown hotels (and the ferry, yay), but not make any residential drop-offs. Got lucky there. And throughout the day, Cindy was so helpful. She had already gotten me the hotel room for the night before, and she went online and tracked the weather and news, and even offered to have her brother come out in his 4-wheel drive to pick me up. She is so sweet. And she is taking off tomorrow (with her brother, in his 4-wheel drive) to drive to Las Vegas to see their parents for Christmas. I'm worried about the roads. Las Vegas got snow last week, and it hasn't melted yet - amazing. Anyway, I am super grateful for Cindy, and for Mom, and Aunt Sally, and Marnie (my neighbor), and the shuttle driver, and Skip the Taxi Driver, and the power company (yay, Puget Sound Energy) and all their workers who are out there risking their lives to get our power back on. Yesterday could have been so much worse. I just hope that the trip on Thursday is better. But I am afraid it will not be, since we are expecting another storm tomorrow afternoon and evening and Wednesday morning, and Thursday is supposed to be cold. So I'm still not counting on getting of here.

I hope you are having a better Christmas week than I am. Be thankful for all that you have. There is a reason the Christmas story is at the darkest time of the year. Then again, as Laura said, "F**k Solstice!"