Mmmkay. So here's the deal. Classes here at UVM don't start until tomorrow, but I had planned on being back on the east coast a few days early to celebrate the roommie's birthday and potentially do some skiing. As we all know, Petersons love plans, but that doesn't mean that the plans always go as planned. So here's the breakdown of my 30 hour adventure back to Vermont.
Thursday - 4.15 CST: Wake up after having dreams about missing my flight and then having to drive back home to get bags that I forgot only to have some man named Carol mis-schedule my flight. Some of my dreams are oddly detailed.
4.35: Leave in the 1989 Ford Ranger to go down to Land to Air Express for the 5am shuttle to the airport. A surprising number of people are also up at this ungodly hour.
5.00: Shuttle leaves. Plan is working.
6.17: Shuttle arrives at MSP.
6.35: I'm already checked in and through security. The dude at the Continental desk didn't even weigh my bag rendering the 3 repacking sessions futile. Now to waste 2.5 hours.....
8.40: Board the tiny plane to Newark. Some nice dude in an overly fancy, three-piece suit shoves my backpack under the seat next to him since there is no room left in the overhead compartments.
8.45: Pilot informs us that due to inclement weather on the east coast, we've been delayed for an hour. Crap. I only have a 35 minute layover in Newark before catching my connecting flight.
8.47: Pilot informs us that we have been delayed an additional 90 minutes and that we are all to deboard the plane. Plan has derailed.
9.05: Supposed to be flying to lovely New Jersey, instead I'm waiting in line to talk to the flight attendant. She tells me that my connecting flight has also been delayed because of the weather 3+ hours and that I should have no problem making my flight. Awesome, plan is back on.
10.20: Reboard the plane and depart 45 minutes later.
2.30pm EST: Arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport. I check to departure board for my gate only to find that my flight isn't there. Talk to another flight attendant who informs me that my connecting flight actually left on time and that the original flight attendant must have been smoking crack.
3.35: Finally get to the customer service desk. Mother calls/texts multiple times during the wait. Sorry, Mom, but I've found it's best to make the plan first and then inform you of it when things are ok again :)
3.40: Rude customer service man makes me wait extra long so he can help people behind me in line. But surprisingly nice customer service lady helps me instead. Things are looking up until she informs me that there are no seats on any flights to Burlington that night. Plan has been completely scrapped. She asks me if I have anyone to call and I tell her that I'm from Minnesota - her face was priceless. The complete actualization of the "oh shit" feelings I was feeling on the inside. Then I realize that I do know one person in Newark, a Johnnie who's in NJ teaching at a prep school. So I call: "Hey Eric, sorry to be the friend who doesn't keep in touch after graduation and then asks for massive favors, but I'm stranded in Newark at the moment. Can you help me??" And thank the Lord Baby Jesus he said yes.
3.50: Call Mother and inform her of my plan. Then wait for Eric outside door 4 and watch taxi drivers obsessively point out scratches on their cars to colleagues.
4.15: We arrive at Saint Benedict's Prep School in Newark where Eric teaches and lives. I now call it Hotel Eric because he set me up with an apartment/guest room to stay in, let me shower, fed me.
6.00: We eat dinner with the other Johnnies staying there and some of the students and then watch Family Guy and eat pie.
9.30: The guys are antsy and decide that the appropriate thing to do is drive to Hoboken, NJ. We take a powder blue van nicknamed the Abbot Wagon -- it even has its own plaque on the parking space. Paul, another Johnnie, points out that all the cars have massive scrapes on the sides because the automated gate tends to close while you're driving through it. On the drive, Paul calls his new favorite cigar shop to see how late it's open. The "little Arabian man" says 11pm.
9.45: We run, literally, to Coldstone for some ice cream, (which, after the pie, I was too full to eat. dang) and then make our way to the aforementioned cigar shop. But first we stop at Carlos' Bakery, where TLC's Cake Boss is filmed and peer through the window :)
10.00: The cigar shop is closed. Thus begins Eric explanation of "Paul Approved Plans" and he warns me that I will be hearing about this cigar fiasco until I die. He was right.
10.30: We send some time walking along the Hudson River, looking at the NYC skyline, while Eric, Paul and Andy (another Johnnie) tell me about all the sketchy people who live in New Jersey and how many times they've almost been attacked. Good thing I'm too sleep deprived to be concerned.
11.30: We start driving back to Newark and I fall asleep in the car only to be awoken by hitting pot holes every 10 feet. I then crash (literally) on the couch in my room and end up sleeping there for the rest of the night.
Friday - 5.40am: Eric drives me back to the airport even though I would have willingly taken a cab (he later informed me that cabs only pick you up about 50% of the time even with a reservation are sketch-tastic in general)
6.15: Another trip through security at world-record pace. I find a bagel and almost have a panic attack that I bought a chocolate chip one, but then realize it's cinnamon raisin. I hate chocolate in the morning. I then spend 90 minutes watching HLN on the airport TV and observing 2 obliviously worn-out parents try unsuccessfully to manage their 2 daughters probably 2 and 3 years old.
7.45: We board the plane and I have the entire row to myself. Tiny miracles. Unfortunately the tired parents with the demon children are right in front of me. I have never seen such passive parents in my life. maybe they were just trying to keep the tiny humans calm, but after a 20 minute (no lie) screaming fit, I hardly think that's the case. And FYI tired mom, seat belts aren't optional and yes, the flight attendant is perfectly justified in reminding you of that.
9.13: I land in Burlington and luckily my bag had been transferred to my rebooked flight so I could just grab it and go.
10.00: FINALLY back in my apartment. I put off the unpacking and showering in favor of a 3 hour nap. Welcome home :)
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my unplanned excursion as my camera was in my checked bag, but it was fun all the same. There are only 3 airports in the world that someone could have come to get me and I am beyond thankful that I was stranded in Newark and not somewhere else. And I'm also so grateful to to the CSBSJU orientation staff of 2007 for putting Eric and I in the same group :) Otherwise I would have been S.O.L in 2012.
