Well, in case anyone was seriously concerned, I made it to Portland alive, albeit barely.
Putting melodrama aside for a moment, I'm thinking of writing a memoir of the airports I have experienced as a part of the PACE program. When I first arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, I thought it might top the already sizeable list of airports I have had layovers in. It was clean and easy to navigate and the people were friendly and helpful. I made my connection with time to spare. (Even though my flight was a continuation of the one from Newark, I still had to change planes.) So we get on the plane late, and once we're all seated, the captain announces that the mechanics are putting the finishing touches on a repair to the cabin pressurizer, which will allow us to breath at high altitudes. At this point maybe I should have been alarmed, but I wasn't. He apologized for the heat, and promised we would be on our way shortly.
After about thirty minutes, his voice comes on the loud speaker again, telling us that the air conditioning is broken and they're fixing it. It shouldn't take much longer. At this point the cabin is about a gazillion degrees and it was beginning to smell. Even the flight attendants looked bad.
After we had been on the plane over an hour, the pilot has another piece of news which inspires confidence in the airlines. "One of the baggage men has found oil on the ground below the plane, and they are investigating." At this point people are passing out from the heat, which has risen to over 100 degrees. Eventually they took us off the plane and put us on a new one and we got into Portland much later than originally planned.
My Uncle Don and Aunt Linda were waiting for me at the airport, and I realized as I was getting off the plane that they probably had little to no idea what I looked like. I mean, although my family sends out pictures every now and then, there are nine children, and we look very much alike. And I've only seen Uncle Don and Aunt Linda once in my life. But family is family, especially when you are moving to the West Coast. As I said hello, Aunt Linda turned to Uncle Don and said "I told you she's not one of the ones with curly hair." I laughed about that. But it was lovely to see them and they came to see where I would be living and all in all I felt very loved by their help.
I'll try to update with more about the school and the program later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
And yes, THIS is why I drive/walk/take a train/just read about far off places.
Yikes.
Glad you made it safely, sorry I missed your call today--this is one of Those Crazy Days here (and if shoes were in the giant box on the table...um, they're still here).
Thinking about you a lot, glad you connected with the West Coast Apperts successfully, lovely straight hair and all!
peace,
K
I'm probably going to read this thing a lot. I'm glad you made it to portland safely. Sorry for the delayed response. I definitely saw your text and then fell right back asleep before I could respond. Then it took me well into the afternoon to remember you texted me the night before. A comedy of errors really. I think I got a job! As a bartender .:insert laughter:. it's better than the other offer I got selling knives- don't ask, im pretty sure it's a pyramid scheme of sorts. Also, prepare yourself for a very excited text message when my sister is handed her diploma later today. I think I'm going to shout to the Heavens and then notify everyone I know that my sister made it out of high school and the moran family is still in one piece. i miss you! naturally
at least you recognized them, which was a good start...
were they like holding one of those signs that said "Welcome Emily" or something like that...
I had a rough time picking up someone from a train station before cause i didn't know what they looked like and they didn't know me either...
so I now wear a white shirt and write "I am looking for ________" on it...
that usually works (and gets me a lot of odd looks from other people in the process)...
that's kinda crazy about the plane, who'da thunk that it can be SO COLD outside the plane and a hotbox inside of it, maybe someone should've cracked a window a lil ya know 8 )
hope the living accomodations are kul, and at least you've got some family near you which is better. Always a comfort when you're heading to a far away place basically by yourself...
luck to ya!!
- Gregg
Post a Comment