Chowda Head in Training Part 1

Hello! Zay and I returned from Boston last Sunday the 5th. We took the seven and a half hour car ride and lived to tell about it! I had a fantastic time once I finally arrived (more about that in a minute) and I can't wait to go back.

Wednesday July 1-
My flight was scheduled for 6:50 p.m. so I worked all day this day. I do have to admit I didn't get much accomplished as I was too anxious and excited to focus on anything. At around 2:30 p.m. I checked my flight status and it was delayed about 20 minutes. Not surprising since the weather had been rain, stormy and foggy here but had cleared up by the afternoon. At 3:45 I checked again, and it wasn't delayed anymore. It was canceled. WHAT!?!? I went online immediately to see if it was rescheduled or re-routed, and no luck. My friend Karen was supposed to take me to the airport, so I called her and asked if we could go earlier than planned to see if I could get on another flight. My last experience with a canceled flight due to weather resulted in my missing two days of a vacation in London. I wasn't too optimistic but had to try. I called Isaiah as well and let him know there was a good chance I wasn't coming that evening and I would keep him updated. So we got to the airport, and thankfully there was no line at the ticket counter. The woman worked really hard to get me re-booked, and got me the last seat on a flight to Laguardia, and then on a commuter jet from Laguardia to Logan in Boston. Both flights were delayed by about 3 hours. I asked if there was a chance the connecting flight from Laguardia would be canceled as well, because if I was stuck in NY City I didn't know a soul! There was no way to tell because the problem was in Boston (the weather was awful there too). Unfortunately I only had about 20 minuted to board my plane so I decided to go for it. Luckily there was next to no one in the security line, so I got to the gate just in time to board.

Funny side story: I had made a batch of Italian cookies to bring to Isaiah's family. I didn't have enough room to shove the container in my duffel bag, so I was carrying it through the airport. Everyone who saw me said something like "Oh, how nice of you to make me some cookies!" When the lady at the ticket counter said that I replied "Well if you can get me to Boston tonight you can have them!" I was still so nervous that I would be stranded in Laguardia airport over night that I didn't have much patience for anyone else, and I'm afraid I may have come across a little rude to others. Lesson learned is to never walk through an airport with a bag of cookies unless you want to make friends with hungry people.

Anyway, we took off from Rochester on what was one of the longest flights of my life. I am usually never scared or anxious when flying, but all I did was pray to any saint I could think of that I would get to Laguardia and the connection wouldn't be canceled. Once we had to slow down in the air and make circles for about 10 minutes when the captain said there was bad weather over Laguardia and we had to wait. I had never been happier when we landed and I saw on the schedule my flight was still on but would land in boston at almost 11 p.m. I called Zay to let him know, and made my way to the bar. I needed a drink! But just as I was about to place an order an announcement came on that my flight had been changed to a different gate and was boarding an hour and a half earlier than planned! I turned myself right around and got on. I couldn't believe it, and neither could Isaiah when I told him, because about ten minuted before I said "tell your parents not to wait up for me." So we boarded, pulled away from the gate and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. We sat in line and waited for an hour (!) before we could take off. So even though we boarded early we still landed at 10:25 p.m. But at least we landed!!!! Isaiah met me at the gate exit and we took off on a search to find where he parked. In his defense, Logan airport is pretty big and very confusing, especially because there are about 5 different parking garages. Eventually we found his car and were on our way to his house.