Another day in the life

I'm home.

Getting here was not an easy task.

At 4:30pm yesterday, we left for the airport. Mom, dad and I said our good-byes without tears (good job mom) and I headed inside while they headed into North KC to shop. Once inside however, I discovered that my 6pm flight to Austin had been cancelled.

"Crap."

So i got a piece of paper telling me who to call and reschedule my flight with, and I did this. My next flight wouldn't leave for another 2 hours and 25 minutes, so I called mom and asked politely if she would come pick me up at the airport so I could hang out with them for another 2 hours instead of strangers at the airport. She said sure, came and got me, and we returned to Stein Mart where my dad was shopping.

As our watches began to approach 7:15, we checked out at the store and headed to the car.

"I can never find anything in this purse. It's so unorganized," my mother was muttering and sputtering to herself. "I have to take everything out to find the keys." She began unloading things on the trunk of the car. Wallet. Glasses case. Checkbook. "Pitt, they're not in here!" she practically screamed at my dad who took the purse and began to search himself.

No luck of course, so my dad opened the back door of the car (the door doesn't lock unless one is intentional about locking it and sitting back there earlier, I hadn't been). He peered into the front seat to check the ignition. No keys, but there was a car alarm. And it was going off. Cars are only supposed to be opened with keys.

Panic ensues as my father rushes back into the store to begin looking for my mother's lost keys. Mother drops her purse on the ground, squats down and begins throwing things out of her purse and into the street. Literally. Address book, receipts, other important keys, make-up.

"Mom, you lost your keys, don't lose your mind," I said. She ran back into the store to begin looking at well. I took the purse, perused it, found no keys, did find some lip gloss though and applied that to my lips. I also unlocked the rest of the car via the back seat and climbed into the still alarming car to sit and wait. This was nothing unusual.

Dad returned to check the purse again. By now the car alarm had given up and quit ringing and I was packing my life back into my backpack waiting to be driven to my second flight attempt.

Mom came running out of the store with keys in the air. Victory.

My second drop off at the airport was easy because I had already checked my bags. So I went straight to security. Mom called, "Do you think we should wait to make sure this flight isn't delayed?"

"I don't know mom, I'm sure it's fine. I can't check right now cause I'm in the security line." I was taking off the necessary clothing items to be more fully humiliated by airport personnel. We hung up.

But then I notice through the security window that the flight indeed has been delayed until 9:33.

"Damn."

I grabbed my computer, stuff it back into my backpack, grabbed my shoes, sweater, ticket and phone.

"Mom, turn around, it's delayed."

She and Dad thankfully hadn't made it far, so they returned to the airport where they proceeded to wait for almost half an hour while I waited to talk to an agent about whether I would miss my flight to Austin now that my flight to Dallas was delayed.

"Oh no. Everything's backed up at least two hours in Dallas, so you should be fine. You'll arrive in Austin at 12:40am," assured the lady at the desk. That sucks, but okay. If I'm not gonna miss my flight, I'm not gonna worry about it.

Mom had called me three times by now asking for an update as they circled the airport, parked illegally in the blue bus zone, circled some more for, as i said earlier, almost a half an hour. "Mom, you guys can leave. The lady said I'm fine. I'm sorry you had to wait so long. I love you."

"Okay, call us back if you need us."

I settled down in front of a TV to hear the interview with the Kevorkian guy.

Twenty minutes passed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, The flight to Dallas leaving at 9:33 has been cancelled. I cannot help you. There are tornadoes in Dallas. All I can do is give you a number to call to get a new flight. You need to go pick up your luggage from baggage claim and recheck it when you get your next flight arrangements."

"Shit."

And yes grandma, I said it outloud in the airport. I'm sorry. Surely you understand.

I called the number for the second time. Next flight 6am. I called mom.

"I really really love you. Turn around."

So last night I got to go home and spend another night with the fam. This morning at 4:30am, mom dad and I made our final trip to the airport and I arrived safely in Austin at 12:45pm.

Only 32 hours late.