nightmare

WARNING: it's a quite lengthy...

last friday i made my way across the arizona/california border to disneyland. and might i add... all by myself! i was a little proud of myself for making a brave move and not getting lost. i was kind of excited to take a little 'adventure' all on my own. :) i met my mom and sister in california for an exciting, fun-filled weekend of cheerleading. ah, nothing like high school nationals. brings back lots of memories!

before i begin telling about this lovely event in my life, let me back track for a moment so this story makes some sense to all of you. my brother in law came home this same weekend from serving a mission in japan. i was torn when i found out he would be speaking the same time i planned to be in cali. so being the indecisive person that i am, i concluded that i could make both trips work and i wouldn't miss out on anything. i would get to see chubbs cheer, spend some sister/mother time in disneyland, AND get to hear jason speak in church. it would be the best of both worlds, right? so we booked the flights. the plan: leave california saturday night, see family (mainly jason) in utah on sunday, and return to cali monday morning.

instead of driving myself to the airport (which is what i had planned on doing) we scheduled a shuttle to pick me up from the hotel. my mom and i just felt more comfortable about me taking the shuttle so i wouldn't stress about getting lost, allowing enough time and yadda. so i left the cheer competition early and booked it back to the hotel in time for the shuttle leaving at 6 pm. i arrived at the tiny long beach airport around 6:40, with plenty of time to spare since my flight wasn't leaving 'til 8:00 and i only had a carry on. ...i should've taken a picture of this joint, it was the smallest airport i've ever seen!

while patiently waiting to board my flight for about half an hour, an employee from jet blue announces that our flight was delayed and the plane wouldn't be arriving for another 3 hours due to bad weather in new york. what? ok, so what the crap was i gonna do for the next 3 hours?! luckily i had some things with me to keep me occupied. so i pulled out my nail file and started working on my cuticles and my nails! as i'm filing away, a friendly and very talkative gentleman sits down next to me. he was a faithful customer with jet blue and knew pretty much all of the employees there. he also owned like everything. he owned a bunch of mines, some ranches, was in the movie business, and he wanted to start a few hospitals for fibromyalgia and alzheimers...not sure if he owned any hospitals yet, but i wouldn't doubt it. (he told me that because jeff is in medical school) he was very open and told me pretty much his life story, even how he met his wife. he wasn't one bit shy, just a friendly and happy guy. while we were talking and right before he boarded his plane, he gave me a 4 leaf clover. who carries 4 leaf clovers with them and just gives them out, right?! i guess he had a relative that picked 4 leaf clovers and would sell them, so he had a bunch. he was just one of those people who had everything, knew everyone and had all kinds of connections. well even though my flight had been delayed, at least i got a 4 leaf clover for good luck...

not too much later we're told that they (jet blue) have a plan to get us on our way to salt lake city on another flight, but that they'll let us know what it is in about 10 minutes. ok, odd... a little later, they inform us of worse news: since long beach is such a small airport, they have curfews and stop servicing after 11 pm. which means, our plane would not be taking off from long beach that night since it would be departing after 11 o'clock. instead they were landing the plane at the burbank airport and shuttling us on a 45 minute bus ride to take off there. all i could think is what a mess, are you serious? well, whatever gets me there; i guess it's not a big deal since we'd be waiting for the same amount of time here.

45 minutes later we arrive at the burbank airport and of course have to go through security. again. and what a ya know, i beep as i walk through the metal detector which means they have the right to do additional screening on me including a manual pat down. lovely. this thing had to beep at every part of my body. not kidding. all i can say is that i won't be wearing an underwire bra next time i travel. but doesn't every woman?! good grief!

so we finally get to the gate and wait some more. they begin telling us that they aren't sure if we can board the plane and that they're discussing the legalities. wait, what? um, why were we shuttled here again? this was seriously the never ending joke! i just had to laugh because i couldn't believe what this was turning into. while this was all going on, i began to joke (or maybe more like think out loud) with the woman sitting next to me about what i would actually do if this plane really wasn't going to take off. she told me that her boyfriend would be picking her up if that were the case, and without any hesitation offered me a ride back to my hotel in anaheim since her boyfriend lived 2 miles from disneyland. she said he had a tiny little truck, but that they could squeeze me in.

so at this point, everyone was beginning to get a little bitter. i was just grateful i wasn't one of the many mothers with little children on this flight. these poor kids were all tuckered out and didn't know what the heck was going on! so after discussing the legalities, we finally boarded. well, i'd like to say that it ends here and we took off for salt lake city but... nope, it gets worse! after we boarded they STILL didn't know if we could take off and continued to discuss the situation. we sat on the plane for another hour while this was going on! and it's 2 am at this point folks. so after much deliberation, the decision was made: flight 234 to salt lake city was not taking off. why? the flight crew can only work 8 hours in a 24 hour period and because of the bad weather in new york this flight to salt lake city would put them over the 8 hour mark. ok, so now i'm furious and i'm thinking: why did it take 7 hours to decide that? and why were we shuttled to burbank if they weren't sure? and why were we boarded on this plane to sit here for another hour? correct me if i'm being too absurd, but i'm pretty sure it was completely unnecessary that it took them 7 hours to add the math up that they would be working more than 8 hours! and on top of all of this my phone was dead. so from the time i found out my flight was delayed i had been calling or texting jeff and my mom to fill them in, then turning my phone off so it wouldn't die! oh, it was just turning into a lovely night.

we're getting there i promise. well, maybe half way through... i warned you!

so now what do i do? i'm completely alone in burbank, california with no car, no flight, no phone service, nothing! i'm almost on the verge of tears here, and just wondering why i decided to take this crazy trip on my own. but somehow, i held up and actually didn't cry! i know, i was proud. so i waited in line to figure out accomodations for flights, hotels, cabs, etc for probably another 45 minutes to an hour with all of the other furious customers. as i'm getting in line, the woman who i spoke with earlier (jokingly) came up and introduced herself and again, offered me a ride. her boyfriend was on his way. ok, essentially this woman was a complete stranger, but she seemed nice and very sincere. i decided to wait in the line, but told her i seriously might take her up on that. so the only other flights they had to salt lake were leaving the next day; one was already sold out and the other was leaving too late and there was no way i would make it in time for jason's talk. while i was waiting in line i found an outlet to plug my phone in and charge it, yay! i don't think jeff or my mom got any sleep that night. sorry! i had to call them both for advice on what to do, since i was all alone and freaking out. while talking with other customers, i found out that there was one flight leaving the next morning at 7 am on delta that was more expensive. although that was good news, i didn't know what to do. it was currently 2:30 am, and at the rate this was all going by the time i would get to my hotel, i'd probably be turning right back around to the airport to make it in time for my 7 am flight. plus, call me a wuss but i just got nervous about being by myself and didn't feel comfortable. my only other option was to try to get back to my mom's hotel in anaheim. i still didn't know if i was going with that woman, but i got a cab voucher in the mean time. i looked for her on my way out to wait for a cab, but i didn't ever see her. and honestly, i'm not really sure if i would've had the guts to actually leave with her...

ok, so of course there are no cabs at this dead airport at like 3 am! however, i got lucky and saw some people across the street who were just putting their luggage in the trunk of a cab and getting ready to leave. so i ran over there and yelled, "is anyone going to anaheim?!" (which is an hour away...) of course nobody was, but the cab driver still offered to take me. hallelujah! we just had to drop off a couple at a hotel in burbank, then he could take me to anaheim. actually, this was a bitter sweet moment: happy that i'm finally going to get SOMEWHERE, and scared that i have to ride alone for an hour with this guy, my cab driver.

as we are driving, we get to chatting and he actually seems like a really nice guy. he had an accent and sounded just like "mr. portokalos" from my big fat greek wedding! i began apologizing that he had to drive me all the way back to anaheim and only by the merit of my cab voucher. poor guy wasn't even supposed to work that night, he was just trying to make some extra cash. he asked me about my travels, and i began to explain my complicated situation and that i was trying to get home for a 'missionary homecoming'. so of course, it probed some questions and it turned into a missionary opportunity for me! we started talking about mormons and he asked me some questions about some interesting rumors he had heard. he heard mormons were bad and all sorts of stuff. then he asked me if we believed in Christ and God, and replied, "then mormons aren't bad, i believe in Christ and God too." we talked about lots of other topics which i could obviously tell later as it's own story! but right about now i was kicking myself for not following my husband's example and carrying a book of mormon with me when i travel! i didn't have a thing! not even a pass along card! i began thinking maybe i went through all of this just to talk to him. and i think i learned that night that i need to be more prepared for missionary opportunities and what i want to say. i also told him about my 4 leaf clover i received that night and how ironic that turned out to be. then he said something that i didn't expect and made me think about things. he said, " maybe it is good luck, and you just don't know it." my first reaction was, what? but then i thought maybe i need to look at things from another angle.

shortly after our religious discussion, we hear some sirens. and some more sirens. and finally all 7 lanes on this crowded freeway at 4 am, come to a complete stop! soon 4 fire trucks show up, an ambulance, a tow truck, and several police cars. we were a little confused why 4 fire trucks had shown up since we didn't see any fire. but to make an already really long story short, we sat there. let me repeat that, we SAT there and did not move one inch for an hour and half! that's right. i was never going to get back to anaheim, let alone anywhere! this was the never ending night. or "nightmare"! while we were sitting there lots of people were walking around trying to figure out what had happened and what the status was. everyone kept coming over to my cab driver and saying i hope you're not making her pay for that! (my bill was around $100- $125 at this point) and one woman declared that she had never seen anything like this and she had lived in l.a. for 35 years. oh that's comforting, good thing i had my 4 leaf clover! after an hour or so, my cab driver got out and came back to report that it was a drunk driver, several cars were involved, and somebody had died. isn't that awful? i'm assuming that's why it took so long. we concluded that the fire trucks were basically there to block off the freeway so no one could see what a mess it was. it was only about 50 cars in front of us... glad we weren't in the accident.

after we FINALLY (used that word alot, i know) got going again. we passed the wreck and i've never seen so much damage. it was bad. as we're passing, i notice that a small truck was involved in the accident... i couldn't help but think of that woman that offered me a ride. who knows if she was in that accident, but i felt good about my decision not to go with her, or my not finding her that night... and heaven forbid that she was in the accident. after driving for about one or two minutes, we see our exit right around the corner! of course, we were barely blocked off by that accident. not too much longer we find my hotel and he drops me off. but this poor guy didn't know if his dispatcher was going to pay him or not because of the accident. they supposedly go off of how many miles it is from burbank to anaheim and approximately how long it would take to get there. but because of the hour and half delay from the accident, it wouldn't all add up... i felt so bad so i gave him the only $20 i had in my wallet and my email address if they wanted to contact me so i could back him up. i didn't even look at the actual grand total when we arrived, but it was around $150 smackeroos!! thank goodness i had a voucher!

now i'm standing outside my mom's hotel room at 5:30 am calling jeff for the millionth time to let him know i'm back safe and sound at my hotel in anaheim. i told him what my cab driver had said about this night maybe really being good luck, and then my very sweet and inspired husband says, "maybe he's right. maybe something would have happened if you got on that plane, and maybe the lord was just protecting you." after hearing that i got a little teary eyed and almost started to cry. maybe i was looking at this whole thing the wrong way and i really was "lucky" in so many ways. after i got off the phone i talked to my mom and told her the whole thing. she agreed that i probably really was lucky and that you just don't know what could've happened and that i should be grateful nothing dangerous had happened. and i WAS very grateful nothing serious or dangerous did happen! half an hour later i was finally going to sleep in the same place i had started this interesting adventure exactly 12 hours before.

i really did learn alot of different things that night. it's kind of unfortunate how it all turned out, but like "mr. portokalos" said, "maybe it's good luck and you just don't know it." makes you want to look at things from another angle doesn't it? well, there you go. there's my novel of a post! if you're still reading this, i applaud you. ...and i'll be posting some photos of the rest of the trip soon. despite this story, overall the trip was alot of fun and enjoyable!