First, my original flight was cancelled months ago, so I was re-booked on the afternoon flight. I e-mailed the legendary media-whore and American Airlines pilot VanMurph and told him he should arrange to fly my flight. It’s too bad he didn’t because I had a surprise for him. I had a copy of the article from US News and World Report with his photo in it. I was going to commandeer the flight PA system and embarrass him. “Hi, I’m a friend of Captain Murph and I have something to share with the passengers on this flight.” I had it all worked out except he didn’t show 🙁
Anyway, we had a gate change because the flight to Port-Au-Prince was still at the gate. We go to the new gate and leave almost on time. Yay. We get to Vegas a little late and are mid-landing when the pilot veers out over the strip. Aborted landing due to “traffic spacing” — I’ve been in a few of these, and this was relatively minor, though he didn’t bother to explain until he finished the maneuver, leaving most of the passengers confused.
He landed the plane. And I use the term “landed” loosely. Apparently, he forgot that you touch down the rear wheels, then the nose. He decided that it’s okay to go full throttle and all four wheels to the pavement at the same time. Joy.
I wait for my luggage and wait and wait and wait. It never shows. I go to bag services. Everyone who checked in at MIA in the elite line was missing luggage. The lady there was rude, and uncaring. We asked her to call MIA to see if they had the bags or not. She said she couldn’t. Apparently, the phone was too complex. She really pissed off the guy in front of me. I asked her questions about my luggage like what “AFM” meant which is what she said the computer said. She said she didn’t know. I finally left and called AA bag services from the hotel. They were nicer but couldn’t even tell me if my bags were on the next flight. They said they’d reimburse me for some underwear and such. So I went shopping. Lovely first day in Vegas,
My bags were here this morning. Yay.
Lastly, I read the new Terry Pratchett novel, Nation and it’s amazing. You want this book. It’s not quite like anything he’s ever written. I just got absorbed into it straight away and through the end. I’m giving this 9 out of 10. If I hadn’t read the epilogue, I’d have given it a 10 of 10. It’s the story of Mau (an island boy) and Daphne (a girl of class) who come to meet and the story of their journey to adulthood sort of. It’s a kids book but it isn’t a kid’s book. Wow. No wonder I love his stuff. This is his best book. Ever.
And as an added side bonus, someone was online this morning when I was using my laptop and that made my day a WHOLE lot better.
I gotta go to my seminar with the Department of Homeland Security now. Peace out, readers 🙂