Postponed

As it turns out, my flight from Detroit to Philadelphia has been postponed, due to weather conditions. This means that I won't make my connecting flight from Philly to Glasgow. So, Danielle from US Airways starts burning up the keyboard, trying desperately to get me to Scotland. I even overheard her on the phone, trying to route me through Germany -- but, no luck, the Lufthansa flight was full. Finally, she tells me tha my new flight will leave tomorrow afternoon, flying from Detroit to Philly to Manchester to Glasgow.

The good news is that I'm now able to get to the AT&T store to pick up a replacement cell phone, so there's your silver lining. That's good, as it partially offsets the money I've lost in non-refundable reservations in Glasgow (bus ticket, tour, hotel room).

Change Is Inevitable...

In this case, though, all that changed was my departure gate... and even then, it just moved to the gate next door. Not a problem with my plane -- the one ahead of mine is delayed. So far, my flight is still on time. Let's hope it stays that way, I've already had my "hitch" today.

Terminal Boredom

Sitting in the airport terminal (get it?), still musing over the loss of my cell phone. The airlines know that people have to sit and wait for long periods of time. Why don't they provide something to do? Hell, there could at least be a clock on the wall!

Communication Breakdown

No long trip, or other large undertaking for that matter, can ever go off without a hitch. I think it's some kind of unwritten rule, like a law of nature, or some such nuisance.

But hey, why put things off? Why not get your "hitch" out of the way early, freak out, get it over with... then you can relax, settle down, and enjoy the rest of your trip? Great plan, right? Well, that's exactly what I did.

My son was riding with me, so that he could drop me off at Detroit Metro Airport (which is, ironically, about 15 miles from Detroit... but I digress) and take my car back home. Although we didn't realize it at the time, when we'd only traveled about two miles from home, my cell phone decided that it had had enough of riding on top of the car, and leapt to its death on the unforgiving pavement below.

If we had been aware of my phone's suicidal departure, we could have at least saved the SIM card (and thus, saved all of my phone numbers). But alas, this was not to be. It was not until seven or eight miles down the road, right about the time we were entering the airport complex, when my Bluetooth gave me the "Help, I can't find the phone" tone. At first, I thought to myself, "That's peculiar" (in my head, I can hear Eddie Murphy doing his bit about the Amityville Horror). After about 10 seconds of that, a realization slowly came over me:

"Oh shiite, where's my cell phone?"

(Insert freaking out here.)

OK, all is not lost. Breathe.

My son will call the phone company, explain what happened, and get a replacement phone shipped to me in Scotland. I will have him email me all the important family phone numbers, so all I have to do is hit an Internet cafe in Glasgow tomorrow.

But, as of this moment, I feel disconnected. I don't even know what time it is, as I haven't worn a watch in years. Looks like I'll be buying a cheap watch and a cheap alarm clock in Glasgow (as my cell phone had previously performed these functions).

Oy.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

My vacation starts this evening... I'm flying to Scotland for two weeks.

First time since 1984 that I've:
-- Been on a "real vacation" (in other words, you leave home for longer than an extended weekend);
-- Been outside of North America;
-- Been on a plane.

Don't worry, I'll take pictures (maybe even one of the Loch Ness Monster, if I'm lucky).

;-]