Welll...the snow-grinch stole my xmas
Dec. 24th, 2004 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatOh it's still intact in Hilton Head, SC - I unfortunately am stuck here in cold gray NYC. My nightmare started at 8:15 am this morning when I realized the flight had been delayed to 11:15. I'd been at the airport since 6:45am.
Then it was delayed til 12:15. Then cancelled altogether. Along with five other flights today all going to North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Why was it cancelled? Heh. Glad you asked. The plane was fine. It was just stuck on the runway in Norfolk, Va. because the flight crew manning it were stuck in Cincinnati, Ohio. As my pal, whose a travel agent explained, when a major storm hits three cities it has a domino effect on everything else. So I stood in line for 3 and 1/2 hours to get a voucher refund on the $361.70 I paid. I'm out five bucks on the expenses, which Delta did not refund. Because I got it through travelocity. Also out the 60 bucks round trip to the airport by cab and car service. Been up since 4:45 am. Slept less than five hours.
Ate little. And well, you have no idea how depressing it is to return home after a cancelled trip you've been looking forward to for months, only to unpack and rush out to get food.
Didn't just get food. I got French Pinot Noire (very good), Baily's Irish Cream, Hazelnut linzer cookies (4), two chocolat rum balls, two slices of bourbon chocolat pecan pie, two florentine cookies. And rented the following DVD's : The Day After Tommorrow, De-Lovely, King Arthur, and Dodgeball (I needed something to make me laugh and they didn't have Grosse Pointe Blank or Noises OFF which I'd requested, so - I asked the video store owner if he had
a movie that could make me laugh and had *nothing* to do with Xmas. )Then after the requisite phone calls to my family - I made myself Veal Marsala with Rosemary and mushrooms over linguini, the french wine I'd had at Thanksgiving,
and broccoli. For desert? A linzer cookie, a rum ball, and a florentine cookie.
I'm oddly not that hungry. All I've eaten today is well that, cream of wheat and two pieces of luncheon meat and a few M&Ms.
Kidbro, according to my depressed mother who'd been looking forward to seeing me, did offer to have me visit him in Beacon. But, well, I'm so tired of travel and one day of travel headaches and travel anxiety is more than enough.
And well - it would feel awkward. My downstairs neighbor also took pity on me and invited me to her bar - on 2nd Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Dempsy's, for a party starting around 9-9:30pm. I'm wavering on that one. I don't know anyone and only sort of know her. But on the other hand? What do I have to lose? Except getting stuck somewhere else, alone, with people I don't know or barely do.
Oh, I'll still get the presents - probably have to hire a car service to pick them up at the post office which is in hell and gone. And Mom will send the fudge, spritz cookies, and magic cookie bars eventually. But...but...but...
somehow a telephone call isn't the same as a hug or smile. I miss my folks.
And I was looking forward to getting away just for three days. Looking forward to spending this holiday with them. This is the first Xmas I've spent alone in my life.
I shouldn't whine, I know. Afterall things could be worse. I could be stranded at an airport somewhere. I'm at home. I could be in Iraq. I could be working, although that's not so bad, as someone at the airport pointed out - you're getting paid. And I could be broke, unemployed, and alone. Yet...it's so frustrating to have what I was so afraid of happening, come true. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, except grit my teeth and somehow make the best of it. Hmmm - I think that was my moto for 2001-2004: "Grit my teeth and Make the best of it."
Then it was delayed til 12:15. Then cancelled altogether. Along with five other flights today all going to North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Why was it cancelled? Heh. Glad you asked. The plane was fine. It was just stuck on the runway in Norfolk, Va. because the flight crew manning it were stuck in Cincinnati, Ohio. As my pal, whose a travel agent explained, when a major storm hits three cities it has a domino effect on everything else. So I stood in line for 3 and 1/2 hours to get a voucher refund on the $361.70 I paid. I'm out five bucks on the expenses, which Delta did not refund. Because I got it through travelocity. Also out the 60 bucks round trip to the airport by cab and car service. Been up since 4:45 am. Slept less than five hours.
Ate little. And well, you have no idea how depressing it is to return home after a cancelled trip you've been looking forward to for months, only to unpack and rush out to get food.
Didn't just get food. I got French Pinot Noire (very good), Baily's Irish Cream, Hazelnut linzer cookies (4), two chocolat rum balls, two slices of bourbon chocolat pecan pie, two florentine cookies. And rented the following DVD's : The Day After Tommorrow, De-Lovely, King Arthur, and Dodgeball (I needed something to make me laugh and they didn't have Grosse Pointe Blank or Noises OFF which I'd requested, so - I asked the video store owner if he had
a movie that could make me laugh and had *nothing* to do with Xmas. )Then after the requisite phone calls to my family - I made myself Veal Marsala with Rosemary and mushrooms over linguini, the french wine I'd had at Thanksgiving,
and broccoli. For desert? A linzer cookie, a rum ball, and a florentine cookie.
I'm oddly not that hungry. All I've eaten today is well that, cream of wheat and two pieces of luncheon meat and a few M&Ms.
Kidbro, according to my depressed mother who'd been looking forward to seeing me, did offer to have me visit him in Beacon. But, well, I'm so tired of travel and one day of travel headaches and travel anxiety is more than enough.
And well - it would feel awkward. My downstairs neighbor also took pity on me and invited me to her bar - on 2nd Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Dempsy's, for a party starting around 9-9:30pm. I'm wavering on that one. I don't know anyone and only sort of know her. But on the other hand? What do I have to lose? Except getting stuck somewhere else, alone, with people I don't know or barely do.
Oh, I'll still get the presents - probably have to hire a car service to pick them up at the post office which is in hell and gone. And Mom will send the fudge, spritz cookies, and magic cookie bars eventually. But...but...but...
somehow a telephone call isn't the same as a hug or smile. I miss my folks.
And I was looking forward to getting away just for three days. Looking forward to spending this holiday with them. This is the first Xmas I've spent alone in my life.
I shouldn't whine, I know. Afterall things could be worse. I could be stranded at an airport somewhere. I'm at home. I could be in Iraq. I could be working, although that's not so bad, as someone at the airport pointed out - you're getting paid. And I could be broke, unemployed, and alone. Yet...it's so frustrating to have what I was so afraid of happening, come true. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, except grit my teeth and somehow make the best of it. Hmmm - I think that was my moto for 2001-2004: "Grit my teeth and Make the best of it."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-24 06:59 pm (UTC)For good or ill, I've decided to let my body rest tonight and have forgone the whole midnight party idea. Considering it started at 9:30 - and it's ten now and I'm not dressed for it - probably a good thing.
I am feeling better. The food, the good french wine,
(its "Reserve Maison Nicolas 2003 Pinot Noir" in case your curious or into wines (can't remember if you are). Smooth. Only 9.99 and no heartburn.) have helped considerably. As have the kind responses.
I feel loved in spirit, even if it ain't in body.
People have been kind to me today.
Hope your hunt for trains for your mother goes well.
And you have a good holiday! Also congrats on going back to school.