It is late afternoon. Self has spent all of today (starting from 9:30 am) at the San Francisco Airport. Her Delta flight to Manila was supposed to leave at 12 noon. Boarding began at 11:30. The plane started to taxi. The pilot announced that we would be in Tokyo in just over 10 hours. Self heaved a great sigh of relief.
Whereupon — awful smell began to seep out of the lavatories. It smelled like — well, it smelled like crap, frankly. Like someone had taken a huge dump and forgotten to flush. After a while, people started craning their heads back, to where the lavatories were. Others began to cover their noses with their scarves. Finally, the captain went on the loudspeaker and said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems there’s a problem of unusual smells coming from the back. That’s been a recurring problem with this particular aircraft” — at which point, self thought: Oh really? This aircraft has intestinal problems? Har, har, har!
She was not sniggering quite so much when the captain announced that we would be returning to the terminal to have the problem corrected.
After a few moments, another announcement: “Ladies and gentleman, we ask everyone to please disembark and take all your belongings with you. We may have to substitute aircraft. Please wait in the boarding area for further announcements.”
Much grumbling. Self dragged herself and her puny belongings back to the boarding area, sat, and tried to doze.
Then, a further announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, Flight 59 to Tokyo has been cancelled. Please proceed to the ticketing area and re-book.”
OMG! There was a mad stampede for the escalators! By the time self reached the Delta ticket counter, there was a line of about 300 people in front of her.
Which is why, at 5:51 pm, self is still at the San Francisco Airport. Her only consolation being: at least they have 45 minutes of free wi-fi now.
Methinks there is a trend here: Yesterday, self dropped Gracie off at the vet’s. She had an appointment for 2:30. She didn’t get to leave the vet’s until 6:30. Hubby kept calling: Where are you? “At the vet’s!” self said. “They’re still processing Gracie!”
First they had self sign all sorts of papers, stating that she was authorizing them to have Gracie taken to the hospital in an ambulance, should she happen to have a setback. Then she had to sign over a delegation of authority for her husband, in case he was called upon to decide whether to “put Gracie down.” Then they told self that she must pay $3,000 right then and there. (“If that turns out to be too much, we can easily issue you a refund.” I’ll bet!) Then the doctor had to run a complete set of medical tests on Gracie. Then they suggested that perhaps self should postpone her trip. (“Gee,” self thought, “I really wish you could have told me earlier, instead of waiting for the night before I’m supposed to leave!”) So, what with all that, and then hauling a 40-lb. bag of dry dog food from her trunk, and bringing down all Gracie’s medicines (two different antibiotics, in addition to humulin — which hubby dropped on the ground yesterday, by accident he said, but self couldn’t help wondering why the dear man seemed to relish telling self, “Now you’d better buy a new bottle. That old one’s no good.” Oh sure, hubby! What’s a measly $100 when money is flying right out of our ears!), and also a pillowcase which Gracie enjoys smelling, because it has some of self’s scent — after all that, four hours zipped by, and suddenly it was dark and freezing cold outside.
(This morning, when self was supposed to leave for Manila, she made a hurried last visit to Gracie. Then the friend who was bringing self to the airport called and said she was arriving half an hour early. So self had to scramble back home, toss everything into her purse, give her wayward locks a hasty combing, and pray, fervently, that she hadn’t forgotten anything. Of course, now, self is home again. Ha ha ha! All that scrambling around ended up being for nothing!)
* * * *
At long last, self is home again. She has a flight confirmed to Hong Kong, but no flight yet from Hong Kong to Manila. The exhausted Delta ticket agent said to come back tomorrow.
In the meantime, there’s Jerry Brown on flat-screen HDTV, delivering his first “official” speech since being elected Governor of California. He’s saying something about “sacrifice.” He’s saying something about deep budget cuts.
America is suddenly a depressing place. Self will arrive in Bacolod bedraggled and no doubt utterly exhausted.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.