An hour and a half flight...

... turned into an 12-hour trip!

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:05 PM yesterday afternoon from O'Hare. The checkout time at our hotel was noon and we didn't want to go back to the show for just an hour - so we decided to just head straight to the airport. We figured that by the time we got there - with waiting for the shuttle and making other stops and everything - it would be 1:00 and that's only an hour earlier than the two hours that they tell you to be there for.

SO... we got there around 1:00. Got our boarding passes (we actually got seats all together this time! Yay!), checked our luggage, got through security, and went to our gate. A plane was just leaving for Philadelphia - it looked really crowded at the gate so I knew we weren't going to get on it, but I checked to make sure. Yup - standby only. It was just as well - our luggage was going to be on the second flight anyway.

So we stood around until that flight boarded and then we got some sweet seats by the window. We bunkered down for our two and a half hour wait. I got out my book, Deena got out her iPod, my mom got out a magazine (but she really spent the whole time poeple-watching!)

So the next time we checked the board, our flight was delayed until 5:30. An hour and a half - kind of a nuisance, but no biggy. Then the guy got on the loud speaker and said that it had been delayed until 7:30! YIKES! We were ALL pretty upset about that. Turns out, he just made a mistake - it was still 5:30 *eyeroll* He should have been more careful - he almost had a riot on his hands ;)

Well, our flight DID leave at 5:30 and there were no problems whatsoever. Smooth flight. We landed around 8:00 Eastern time. Got downstairs and it did take a long time for the luggage to come, but finally it did come. Well, at least Mom's and Deena's luggage came. All the luggage came and went and they turned off the conveyer belt and mine was nowhere to be seen. So I made the hike down to the luggage office, or whatever it's called. Filed a report, had the slowest-moving girl on the face of the earth finally allow me to look at the tag on the suitcase that I thought belonged to me even though she checked the tag and said it didn't - IT DID.

But when I tried to wheel it away, the handle wouldn't come up. Looked down and realized my suitcase had been smashed in half and was destroyed. So they got me a NEW suitcase and I had to unpack and repack that one.

So by this time it's around 11:00 and I still had to drive my mom home. I got home around midnight and finally unpacked and to sleep around 1 AM. And today, I am TIRED. But on the bright side, Jack is thrilled to see me. He's also thrilled with his Thomas tent, even though the box it was packaged in was crushed in my suitcase... as was every sheet of my beautiful Crate Paper samples :( But I'll be getting more of that soon enough ;)

So I'M HOME! I have boxes to pack and ship - so if you placed an order while I was away, it will be going out today!

It's SO good to be home! :)