Well, here we are again, or rather, there you are and here I was, for longer than I expected to be.
not just once or twice, i mean. really longer than anyone should have been expected to be.
You see I am in the Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport, which for some reason uses the letters msy as it's call sign, weird, anywho, here I am after arriving at about 6:30 or so for a 7:40 flight. It is now 1:30 or so and I am still in the airport lobby. or rather back and forth from the lobby to the gate and bathroom.
Well, it all started innocently enough when I woke up this morning to rillo, the cat, mewing outside the window for a good twenty minutes. It went downhill from there.
The taxi ride from the house I was staying at to the airport was thrilling if for nothing else the stimulating conversation about mold and Bush and where the two come into play in New Orleans. More on that later if I can coherently remember. there were lots of near-hits on the road. I say near-hits because I think if you call something a near-miss that sort of implies a hit, right? You didn't quite miss. Well, check-in was fast and quick due to the vending machine like contraption that you use to scan your barcode confirmation thingy. However if I had checked in like in the olden days I might have found out that my flight "may be delayed"
the usual worry about the contents of my baggage and whether they will notice the liquid I brought, (they didn't) and me forgetting to take off my belt when I went through the metal detector, (and it didn't go off!! cheap belt or cheap detector?!?) they usually ask me to run my bag through again and since I have numerous hidden pockets and things stuffed in them it is usually justified. But everything clears. The man out front of the security checkpoint is yelling about what you can and can't take in and one of the things you can't take, of course, is sharp metal objects. So you get through the checkpoint and head for the bathroom and in next to the sink is a container for disposing of "razor blades and needles!!) If you can't get them through the checkpoint...what good is this receptacle? And if I had brought along my hash pipe or crack needle, do you think I would get rid of it if it somehow made it through the security checkpoint. Then again, think back at the person who is looking at the video monitor of the x-ray machine. This paragon of safety is usually stuffed into someone else's pants, wearing glasses and a bad complexion and their job is to stare at the tv all day. And they are not watching anything good. Catch a glimpse of what they are watching and you don't know what to look for anyway, I saw a poodle slip by without a second glance from the "technician" but she triple checked something that looked like a shampoo bottle for a barbie. "is that really only 2.8 ounces, ma'am?"
Well, back to my gate checking ability.
sit down at the gate and the sign reads "flight 110, 7:40 am departure, on time."
Great, I'll sit here and read my thoughts out loud to myself.
6:50 rolls around and a group of people are gathering at the desk in front. I wake up enough to listen in and it seems that some people are concerned about when the flight will take off. The desk clerk is not in yet and the crew that is assembled by the door, presumably to fly the plane, doesn't know anything yet.
7:05 and the crowd has grown larger and some of them are getting rather loud making it difficult to catch any make-up sleep. I overhear the word slight delay and hear a grown go through the crowd. I'm in no real hurry so I drift off.
I'm woken up by this lovely tid-bit of news.
"Ladies and Gentleman of flight 110 I have some news for you, your plane is here and is waiting to take off, however it is waiting for a part to arrive on the incoming flight 118 so that we can fix it. We hope to have you board at about....well...I don't want to give you the wrong expectation...let's say about 12:30...at the earliest. Thank you."
Immediately people rush for the desk to inquire ab out how to get on an earlier flight. Like I said, I'm in no rush, so I hang back and watch. People start getting irate about their situations. One fellow had a final exam scheduled that day and stayed in from Bourbon street to study. One lady had an eight year old who would be waiting at school to be picked up by her. One Chinaman had a connnecting flight to China waiting for him. One fellow was on the later flight already but was waiting for his luggage to arrive on a later flight so he could take it with him on the earlier flight to arrive later that day, it just got more confusing as I listened. Most of these people were under the impression that if they shouted long enough and loud enough at the poor sod working the desk, that same poor sod could either fix the plane themselves in mere minutes, or conjure up another completely empty flight for them to travel on. I sat next to a wonderful pianist named Jonathon Baptiste whom I had heard the previous evening and along with a jovial business woman and a long island couple we just shook our heads and silently made our arrangements to be late for whatever we had to do later that day. It amazed us that they were holding our flight because the had to fix it, and that they were taking that part off another plane.
8:40 and the next announcement.
"Ladies and gentleman of flight 110, sorry to inform you that we had two choices to make about your flight. We could either cancel your flight or reschedule your flight for 9:40 pm this evening. You'll be happy to learn we decided to schedule it for later this evening. If you have any questions feel free to speak to me at the desk, thank you."
Well, everyone had questions. More shouting and curses in five languages. Some people were already on the standby line for the next flight at 10:40 so they chose to wait it out. some of us were put on the next available flight at 6:10 that evening. Some gave up and went home.
The ones who didn't make it on the 10:40 flight and were unfortunate enough not to be put on the 6:10 had to go on the waiting list for that flight as it booked up with those of us who missed the stand by line for the 10:40. Some of the yellers ended up in the latter category I am happy to report. Not that they didn't have very good reasons for being angry, it's just not the right way to go about solving anything.
So here I sit in the airport falling asleep amidst crying babies and cell phones, waiting for the world to start again.
Think of me if you have a moment to travel this year.
Much love and thanks for listening.
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