Well...not exactly! You readers might be asking yourself "what the heck is she doing? Isn't she sitting in first class on her way to New York to meet her sister?" Not exactly. For the first time in my life I missed my flight!!! Can you believe it? So here's how my morning went. Sleeping very soundly for the first time in several days (might have been because of the pasta dinner and wine last night, but who knows) when I got the " have a great trip call" at 6:00 am which is when I should have been on the plane. Not so much...literally screamed at Jennifer (my ride to the airport) and threw on my clothes that had been carefully laid out for the last week - no shower, worse makeup ...and headed to the airport. I am absolutely certain that my look of distress is what made the nice gal at the Delta counter (Denise) move into hyper speed...ok that's not what happened exactly,but she did start the process of "get Laura to Milan". At least now I don't have to feel quit as bad about me being in first class while Mollie is in coach! It must have been kismet for this to have happened!
So - called Mollie to let her know that I would not be meeting her in New York, and not to worry just go ahead and pick up the car, all is good. There was a little bit of what I would call "stunned silence" on the other end of the phone. Several reasons for that I am sure. First - since I have been the responsible one for our entire lives togetter, I am sure she was just trying to get her head around the sentence "I missed my flight"! Frankly I was still trying to do that as well and at the same time holding one of the phones for my new best friend Denise as she was trying to get me on another flight! I am certain the next thought through Mollie's head was "wait a minute - she's the one that speaks Italian...now what the heck am I going to do? I tried to explain how to ask for the car in Italian, at which point she politly pointed out that she was not happy with the circumstances and would wait patiently for my arrival! Feel free to adlib at this point, as we are now embroiled in what was rapidly becoming a "cluster"! Denise is trying to tell me that there is in fact no flight that would get me to New York in time for my connetion. This is when I realized that I was not communicating clearly and took a deep breath. I pointed out to Denise that my main objective was to get to Milan! "Ahhhh "she says to me! "That we can do"!
So dear readers ...I did what any card carrying Pollyanna would do... wiped away my tears, told my new friend Denise that I really would appreciate it if she could speed things up just a little, as I did need to get to Milan by tomorrow, handed over my credit card, uttered the words "I don't care what it costs" and waited for the Gods of good humor to take over! It was amazing - next thing I know Denise is handing me my tickets to Amsterdam (one of my favorite airports) told me I am still in first class and it was only going to cost me six hours and $100 BUCKS! So there you go...to all of you who might have gone down the path of doom and gloom - I say no! Muster up your best aligator tears and march forward! There will be a Denise there to greet you and help you along your way!
So now that I have ticket in hand and approximately 4 hours until I need to check in, I am sitting in the PDX airport having a lovely breakfast of Bloody Mary's and eggs benedict, trying to convince myself that I can actually take a shower (or spit bath) in the rest room when....it dawns on me that I am a First Class passenger! Yes Virginia - there is a shower area in the Delta Room! There is a Hudson News Stand right across from me where I am certain they have the neccesities to make this happen! The stars are starting to align again and all is good with the world! All I need to do now is find that Delta Room! How hard can that be? This is when I decide to once again - confirm the car rental! I call AutoEurope and get a nice young man (Paul) on the other end of the phone who tells me " yes Ms Law...we do have a GPS reserved for you!" Now as many of you know that is a good thing given my sense of direction, however, my concern was ...did we have a car! Please keep in mind that I have had a trying morning and one Bloody Mary as I hear him try to let me down gently and say "you didn't reserve a car". This is when I very politely informed him that I probably would not have reserved a GPS without a car! That did it and he agreed that would not have been a good idea. It was clear that he was not looking at MY reservation! We do evidently have a car (of what sorts - I don't know and don't care)! What else could possibly go wrong?
I can only hope that the rest of this journey is as eventful as the start for me. It is a bit humbling to once again realize that things happen, and it is how we deal with them that will impact us. I am sure that with the two of us together - there will be many events or circumstances - large or small that will make this one of my trips of a lifetime! It is all about how we respond and embrace the happenings that will have the lasting impressions on us. We just have to believe in the Denises and yes Pauls of the world to help us along our way!
So I say....viaggio commence con mia sorrella! Credo e miracales!
Ciao
Laura
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An observation and perhaps a different perspective from the person who had called to say "Have a nice trip" that fateful morning...
ReplyDeleteThe night before departing on the trip of a life time, or should I say another trip of a life time, Laura decided to start her vacation slightly early by sharing a glass or wine (or two) with friends and family before her departure early...very early, the next day. After all she had followed up on all the loose ends she had at work, packed her bags and then repacked every one of them so as to have just the right amount of clothes and provisions she would need on her trip, set up and verified every detail at home making sure everything was in it's place while she was away and even had set her alarm clock for a early wake up call so as to get to the airport with plenty of time to relax and settle in before her flight to New York where she would rendavou with her sister Mollie and then they would fly together on to Italy for an adventurous well deserved vacation.
Yes, Laura was clearly in control and on top of things. I imagine she even dreamt sweet dreams with the content satisfaction knowing that she had done everything that needed to be done and that every little detail was in place. After all, Laura was an accomplished executive in her own right. She was a Senior Vice President who had been on countless business trips across the nation. So it was no big deal to cover all the bases for her own personal trip, her vacation, her highly anticipated trip to Italy with her favorite sister....Well, at least one would think so.
She answered her phone on the second or third ring. It was 5:55 A.M.. Her flight was to take off at 6:10 A.M.. I called her with the anticipation of perhaps catching her just before take off and being able to wish a safe and enjoyable trip. But when Laura answered the phone with a groggy "Hello" it seemed some how wrong. Her groggy tone should have been a little more, shall we say, "Chipper". After all, she must have been up for at least several hours so as to get to the airport on time. After all EVERYONE knows you have to be at the airport two and sometimes three hours before your flight especially if it's an international flight. But Laura some how sounded...well, a bit, shall we say again, sleepy.
"Hello", she groggily said. With a slight laugh I said "Laura, where are you"? She replied without much hesitation "OH SHIT!!! I'LL CALL YOU LATER!!!!"
Clearly Laura had had a good nights sleep...perhaps to good. Laura had slept through her alarm. Laura had missed her flight. Laura was now in a panic and frantically trying to wrap her head around the fact she had over slept. But that wasn't the worst of it, by over sleeping Laura had to not only get to the airport as soon as she could to see "IF" she could get another flight but she also had to call her sister Mollie who depended on Laura to meet her in New York for their flight to Italy...."THAT CLEARLY" wasn't going to happen, at least not as Laura had so carefully and so methodically had planned. I can only imagine the thoughts and the speed of those thoughts that must have ran through Laura's head just after she said "OH SHIT"!!. Now "THAT" must have been a Kodak Moment if ever there was one.