Flighty

I went on a lovely one day vacation on Monday. Well ok, it wasn't lovely, but it was a lot more lovely than the 48 hour drive endured by my parents and little brother. So here's how things went down:

I got up early Monday morning and headed to the airport to catch a one connection flight to Minneapolis where I was to meet my immediate family, to join my extended family who live there for a lovely week at the cabin. I made it through security--after a slightly creepy incident involving the security guard hitting on me--and rolled my little carry-on happily to my gate. I boarded the plane, was seated next to a very young, very lovey couple, and before I knew it I was ready for take off. A mere hour and five minutes later we landed in Denver where I was to have a two and a half hour layover before jetting off to Minneapolis, the land of the mosquitoe.

To my surprise, Colorado greeted me with an alarming message on my voicemail; it was my mother telling me that due to some unforeseen circumstances the vacation had been cancelled. This seemed especially odd since my mom, dad, and brother had just driven 24 hours to the lake-y state less than a day before. After talking to my mom it was determined that unless I could get my flight changed back to Salt Lake (I was flying on a one-way ticket) I would have to fly to Minneapolis where they would meet me and then drive the 24 hours back to Salt Lake. This did NOT sound like a good option.

Still confused about the cancellation and desperate for another option I approached the airline's help desk. I walked up to the woman behind the counter and clumsily attempted to describe my situation--explaining that someone in my family was sick and that our vacation was cancelled and that I had to get back home. Conveniently enough I was on the verge of tears the entire time, something I was not fabricating but that I'm sure only added to my case. I think maybe it was the prospect of driving 24 hours with my coughing brother in a small car that made me a little misty. In any case, the woman clearly felt sorry for me and managed to get me on a flight back to Salt Lake in a half an hour and waived all of the fees.

Relieved, I headed over to McDonalds to be reminded of the horrors of airport fast food, and before I knew it was back on the plane with the same grumpy flight attendant who had manned my earlier flight. Two crosswords and a sudoku puzzle later I was back home enjoying the rosy memories of my one hour Denver vacation.

Still, all your sympathy should go to the ones who drove to Minnesota and back. I'll take the two one hour plane rides any day.

(By the way, can anyone tell me who told Frontier Airlines that it was a good idea to paint creepy animals on the wings of their planes? Really, and Delta's going under?)