Can't Let a Year Go By...

I'm glad I checked in on Blog Spot. I don't think it would be prudent to let a year go by without posting something new. So...

Just this past weekend, I took a trip to New York City to get away from everything and just unwind. It was a good time catching with an old friend and also doing some things that I need to scratch off my list of things to do in life. On a previous trip, I was able to scratch off "Stay at the Waldorf Astoria." This time, I scratched off, "Go to a game at Yankee Stadium." It was a neat experience. The Yankees were playing against Detroit. As an added bonus, Roger Clemens pitched.

While it seems like a good time was had in NYC, this trip was not without its difficulties. I flew First Class for the first time ever. I usually try to take all of my luggage on board as carry-on luggage for fear of having the airlines lose my stuff. This time I decided to check since I was flying First Class (I assumed that my luggage would be cared for well) and I had a long layover in Minneapolis (3 hours). After arriving in Minneapolis, my luggage, sans me, was sent ahead to NYC so that it would be waiting in the terminal upon my arrival. What the airline did not know was that a big storm was about to hit NYC at the same time that flight was suppose to get in. The flight my luggage was on was diverted to Newark, New Jersey. This was made known to me an hour and a half after we arrived in NYC, and after staring at the luggage carousel intently as it went round and round and round and round.

The lady at the baggage desk told me that since my luggage was in Newark, they would have to deliver it to me at my location in NYC. I gave them the address of the Yale Alumni Club since my friend is a member and someone is on staff 24/7. I was assured that my luggage would be there some time the following afternoon. Suffice it to say, things are never that easy, at least not for me. My luggage was never delivered. I also had another dilemma. I had no clothes. I slept that first night in the clothes I had been wearing all day and picked up a t-shirt at the Gap the following morning.

Countless calls were made to the airline to try to find out where my luggage was. No one knew. It was just sitting somewhere and no was bothering to arrange for its delivery. It was finally delivered on Monday morning, fifty six hours after I had arrived in NYC and minutes before I hopped into a cab and headed to the airport to go home.

Call me a moron, but I checked my luggage on the way home. BIG MISTAKE! GUESS WHAT? My luggage never made it to Chicago. It was stuck in Detroit because my flight from NYC to Detroit was delayed which meant I had only minutes to get to my Detroit to Chicago flight and my luggage was not going to go with me. I got to O'Hare and did the whole luggage carousel deal thing and realized after 45 minutes that something was wrong. I went back to the baggage counter, where I essentially lost it with the Japanese airline worker. As I expresssed my frustration and asked her to tell me how this could happen to someone twice in one weekend, with a thick Japanese accent, "I don't know. What can I do?" YOU WANT TO KILL ME!? ( She gestured in harakiri fashion.) I told her that wouldn't be necessary because she'd get blood all over the counter. I asked her to call a manager so I could formally express my frustration and she did. And I did. And that was it. I was assured that my luggage would be delivered that evening.

And it was. At 1:30AM, my doorbell rang. I got my luggage.