I made it!

I survived my first solo flights!!  Barely.  Sadly it was not as smooth as I would have liked.  I was hoping for a nice incident free trip, but it did not work out as such.

I got to the airport about 2 and a half hours before my flight. (I know, that's nuts but I'm seriously anal about being early for things.)  I went straight to the airline counter to check my bag and the first thing I hear was "oh, you're on the Cleveland flight?  Hmmm.  Well that's been delayed an hour or more."  Crap.  He checks me in and I go to my gate to wait far longer than I had anticipated.  That whole end of the terminal was completely empty, I was all alone.  Finally someone from the airline gets there and I ask how long the flight will be delayed.  He looks confused and says "That flight was canceled"  Panic set in.  No one told me this!!  He looks things up for me and said I was put on another flight leaving in an hour from then.  "Was anyone planning to tell me this?"  He just shrugged.  I had to go back out to another airline ticket counter and get new boarding passes, then go through security AGAIN.  They gave me a hard time about my crocheted cowl I was wearing.  Seriously?  (Yet no comments on my 10 inch Tunisian hook on my bag.)  Anyway I got to my new gate with a half hour before boarding.  I checked with the folks at the gate to make sure my baggage was transferred.  Thankfully the lady there was SUPER nice.  After many calls I was assured my suitcase was in the right place.

I had to go through Charlotte, NC though.  This is so not on the way to Connecticut!!  Ugh.  I had a 30 minute layover which to frequent flyers you know this is VERY tight.  The flights gods shown down on me though my my gates were literally side by side.  I got off the plane, walked across the hall and got on another one.  The first flight was very smooth and I was seated next to a very sweet young man who talked my ear off and distracted me from my petrifying fears.  The second flight....much less smooth.  The turbulence was so bad we were all jostled around the plane.  When we came in, the plane was almost exactly 90 degrees to the ground.  Sideways, people!  SIDEWAYS!  Enough that the people across the aisle had to hang on  to their seats to not land in my lap.  What got me was no one seemed concerned.  What the hell is wrong with people?!?!

Either way, I landed safely and only an hour later than originally scheduled.  All settled in and relaxing now on the coast with the living-in-sin-laws and theonlyboyfriend.  Whew.  Looking forward to a New England New Year's Eve.  Not that it will be much different than Ohio.  Heh.

Hope everyone is well,  Love to everyone!