I made it. Let me just say: I hate Chicago-O'Hare. I have slept in that airport due to snow storms. I should have known not to pass through there again.
Let me give you a breakdown of my travels:
2.00 am, morning of departure - Finish packing. Send final emails. Prepare paperwork to be sent on the way to airport.
2.40 - bedtime
3.30 - wake up to phone call from my father, worried about meeting points
4.00 - attempt to fall back asleep
5.00 - dream of missing my plane, wake up in panic
6.30 - wake up for real
7.30 - leave house, after discovering some odd sort of goop leftover on my suitcase from the last trek to the airport. Scrub, scrub, but damnit, I'm going to have to deal with the goop because it's there to stay.
8.10 - show up at neighbor's to pick up (the famous - in certain circles) jillyc, to trek to airport together. She has heavy bags, so I carry one. We embark.
8.20 - We stop to catch our breath. Did I mention the heaviness of the bags? Yeah...
8.30 - More breathing required. After being sick for several days, my muscles are working on 50%. Plus, I am painfully aware that I have 0 nutrients in my system.
8.30 - 9.15 - Lots of train changing, stair-climbing, and breath-catching.
9.15 - We learn that the train going to the airport is, in fact, never going to actually go to the airport. The workers are on strike, so we opt to take a cab. Fuckers. Had we known, we wouldn't have destroyed our back muscles in the metro for an hour.
10.15 - Arrive at airport and meet up with the FellowMichigander
10.15-12.00 - Hang around the airport in our exhausted delirium.
12.00 - Seperate to go to our respective check-in counters. Mine is just beyond the terminal that has been closed off due to a bomb threat. Great. I opt to walk outside to the terminal.
12.30 - 13.30 - Check in and stand in longest security line ever. French woman tries to cut in front of me and the 55 people waiting behind me and I am not about to let that shit fly.
13.30 (Paris time)-17.00(Chicago time) - Air time. This is definetly the best part of my travels. I watch 'Mona Lisa Smile' and 'Madagascar' and two episodes of 'The Amazing Race.' I recognize that I am hormally at a fulcrum when I start crying at how beautiful the ostriches are on 'The Amazing Race', and then cry AGAIN when the husband in one of the couples cheers his wife on in the most supportive and adorable way. Nine hours and fifty minutes of air time pass, but oddly, I don't sleep. For the first time in days, however, the food stays in my system. I actually have a moment where I feel wholly and entirely content as a result of the food.
Already I am exhausted. But wait, it gets better.
17.00 Knowing I have a connection to make at 17.45, I freak out at customs. I get my bag and run, check it in, and book it for the other terminal. I get there at 17.20 and know I still have to pass through security before getting to my gate. Time is short, but I check to see which gate I need, exactly. It's not on the screen.
17.22 - I ask the woman at the American Airlines desk why my plane isn't on the screen. She tells me because it's been cancelled.
17.22 - 21.30 I wait for the later flight. Somewhere in there, I buy a smoothie. I do my best not to fall asleep in the lounge. My biggest fear is missing my flight. I desperately want to be in a bed, any bed, but I know I don't want to spend another night at O'Hare if I can help it.
21.45 - I learn that my flight is going to be an hour late. I have a deranged conversation with the guy sitting next to me, and I can't tell if he's being weird or if I am just wacky because I am so sleep-deprived. I buy some Mentos.
22.45 - We board.
1.30 am (Detroit time) We land, and much to my glee, my dad is waiting there for me.
In total, I travelled over 24 straight hours, and I only slept about 30 minutes. And that was going on only three or four hours of sleep from the night before. Last night, we got back from the airport and I got settled in, and was in bed and asleep by 2.30. Despite myself, I woke up at 9.00 this morning, so I'm thinking tonight I will be in bed by 20.00.
Regardless, I am here, and am so happy to be so. My parents' house is such a nice place to just BE. I made myself some fresh coffee, took the dog for a walk (there are 6-8 inches of beautiful, brand-new snow on the ground, and there is that blessed post-snow quiet), shovelled the driveway, and watched a re-run of the 'The Daily Show.'
Tomorrow, I think I'll get some work done, and hopefully do some more on Sunday. Monday, I hope to finish my Christmas shopping. Mainly, I just want to sit and be mellow.
I'm going to go get my knitting now, and sit down to watch some Mexican soap operas. I'm not a big soap opera fan, but it's way easier to follow the Spanish in a soap opera than the Spanish on a talk show or the news, which are my two other options. I like to get in practice.
ha, my voyage was eerily similar to yours, glad to know i wasn't the only one who had the trip from hell. and funnily enough, i bought mentos and ice cream (close enough to a smoothie) at the airport too!