When things look down...

May 30, 2006 6:10 am - Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport

Holy...sweet...jesus...what a night. I was supposed to fly from Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) last night into O'Hare and arrive at 11:00 pm. At the moment it's just after 6 in the morning, and I fly out of O'Hare at 2pm bound for London. It's been a long 9 hours.

My flight was delayed late, and finally canceled. We were given hotel vouchers to receive a "Distressed Passenger Rate" of $49.00 (plus tax) from a nearby hotel. To American Airlines' credit, it wasn't their fault; the weather in Chicago turned. Even so, it still meant that the absolute soonest I could get home was 10:50 am this morning: too late for me to get my butt home, repack, and get back to O'Hare in time to check in. Needless to say, my heart sank rather quickly.

And so I was on the phone late into the night trying to get everything sorted out. It remained firmly unsorted. I decided not to stay in the hotel (thus foregoing a bed), and opted instead to curl up in a corner at DFW so I could get up early enough to be the first on standby for the 6:15 am flight. Over the course of my life I've noticed that when circumstances are at their toughest, people never fail to come through. As always, this time was no exception.

I was curled up last night in a big, bright, cold, empty airport, sporting sunglasses and an mp3 player plugged into my head. With nothing to use as a pillow, I was determined to re-create the ancient art used by Tibetan monks high in the mountains of hard, flat-surfaced sleeping. It was a poor, poor re-creation. As I was trying to drift off I heard quite the obnoxious sound approaching. I could see from the reflection in the window I was against that it was two guys pushing a big plastic dumpsteron wheels collecting the trash. No surprise; it was the middle of the night. What WAS a surprise though was as soon as one saw me lying there, he tapped the other, pointed me out, and motioned for him to be quiet. TOTALLY unexpected, and done purely out of kindness and respect. It's always nice to know you're not benig completely ignored.

I awoke around 1:30 am, shivering. Being in Texas, I can only assume they crank the ac mercilessly. I stumbled, half asleep, to the other side of the hallway and collapsed into a corner there, hoping that being away from the window would help. It didn't, but as I lay there I was aware of a woman driving a floor waxer gliding by. A minute or two later she returned, but this time stopped right next to me. I looked up to see her offering me a red cotton airline blanket she filched from a locker somewhere! I drifted back off to sleep, warm and beaming.