3:53am – Alarm goes off. Emily grumbles and rolls out of bed.
4:45am – Church member picks Emily up and drives her to Pinebelt Regional Airport.
5:15am – Emily arrives at Pinebelt and discovers ticket agent at the only ticket counter has not arrived for work yet.
5:30am – Emily checks in.
5:45am – Emily proceeds through security. She sets off the alarm and must remove the chapstick from her pocket as well as her watch. This satisfies the machine and Emily continues to the only gate at the airport.
6:00am – Passengers load puddle-jumper airplane. Ticket counter agent has now become baggage and loading assistant.
6:20am – Plane scheduled to depart at 6:17am seems to be having “battery trouble.” Pilot announces they will “look into this.”
7:45am – Still on the ground. Plane drives around the runway some, but is unable to gain much speed. Plane is hot and stuffy.
7:55am – Announcement made that plane will not be departing and mechanics must be called in to fix the problem.
8:00am – Emily joins the line of people who are trying to get on the next and only other flight out of Pinebelt Airport this day. Flight is full.
8:05am – At the ticket counter, Emily is able to get a flight out of the next closest airport – Jackson International. Emily calls supervising pastor to request he find a church member to immediately pick her up and drive her to new airport – please!
8:55am – Church member willing to drive Emily to Jackson pulls up to airport as if out for a Sunday drive. Emily jumps in and emphasizes that her flight leaves Jackson at 11:10am. They take off. Driver tells Emily to just relax.
10:30am – Church member takes the wrong road in Jackson and realizes he doesn’t know how to get to the airport. They stop at a gas station and get directions.
10:40am – Emily runs into Jackson International Airport only to find out that the airline has given away her seat. Nice. Next flight they can get her on doesn’t leave for another 4 hours. Emily is directed to mysterious black phone. Man on other end of the line is no better. He suggests racing to another ticket counter to try and get on one of their flights. Cool.
10:50am – Emily secures a standby ticket for a flight leaving at 11:30am. Security line is long. It’ll be close. So of course, she is flagged for a thorough pat down and inspection of all luggage. She passes security check and takes off for gate.
11:20am – Emily makes it to the gate to try and get on flight before door to plane closes. After much finagling, she boards.
11:30am – Flight begins to depart for Memphis. Plane stops at end of runway. “Air traffic jam.” Ten minutes later, plane takes off.
12:35pm – Flight lands in Memphis. Emily grabs some expensive lunch – over $10 for a sandwich and drink – and makes her way to the new gate for her connecting flight.
*** Commercial Break: While eating lunch on the go, Emily gets chocolate on her capris. Oh no! But wait! Emily has a Tide-to-go pen in her purse. Nanananaa nanananaa hey hey heeey goodbye. Stain gone! ***
1:15pm – Emily boards connecting flight to Detroit.
1:35pm – Scheduled departure time. Pilot announces that controls were a little slow on the last flight and need to be checked out by maintenance. Passengers are told to “sit tight.”
1:50pm – Pilot announces that controls must be replaced. Spare controls are at the airport and will take 15-20 minutes to secure and then time to install.
2:05pm – Emily is still sitting on the plane and has begun to document her day for her blog. Emily wonders if she will ever make it to Michigan to meet with her church session at 7pm. If original flight had worked out, she would have been home for 2 hours by now.
2:15pm – As she types, Emily can hear drill replacing controls. Pilot announces that new controls are now installed and have been tested. They are good to go, except mechanics must complete paperwork. This will take 10 minutes. Great. Then flight should depart.
2:35pm – Flight departs. Pilot even announces that he should be able to make up for some of the lost time.
5:15pm – Emily, finally, lands in Detroit Metro Airport. She is exhausted.
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4 comments:
Oh, my. Sleep well ... and may you never have another day like that, ever!
I hope all went well last night despite the awful day. My favorite line from that book seem sappropriate here as well, "I think I'll move to Australia" Blessings on getting back to Mississippi.
hey biggie! i am glad to hear that everything worked out in the end, but seriously...what else would you expect from mississippi? my favorite part is the commercial break. i can see you pulling the tide pen out of your carry-on bag. beautiful.
tom...what's with "governor bryson"? please tell me you're not becoming political on us now.
Wow. What a day, Emily. I came across your blog from Revgals.
I'm an introvert as well and in ministry. Sometimes I feel like the two don't go together very well. Most of the time I remember that God is bigger than the issue. Great to come across another introvert with a pastor's heart.
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