So today I was supposed to go to Chicago to do a role playing job for this British company called Impromptu, Ltd. (http://www.impromptultd.com/) & get your minds out of the gutter. It's not clever, it's not original, it's just kinda boring. No you are not the 1st person to associate Role Playing with sexual kink & make some snarky comment about it. But I digress.
So anyway, the way it works is that I pay the airfare & ground transport & they cover the hotel & meals plus a (substantial) fee. My flight itinerary was an 11:30AM flight from NOLA to Memphis with a layover until 2:20 then on to Chicago. The plan was to spend the night at the hotel where we were working that evening & the call time was 8:30AM Wednesday.
When I arrived in Memphy, I noticed the departure time to Chicago had been pushed back to 3:30. I decided to take advantage of the fact the The Blue Note Bar & Grill has a smoking section & have a little lunch (AKA Chicken Tenders, Fries & a soda that totalled up to $15). My waitress, Airnitrisha, was around 6 ft tall & had a Big Freedia (http://www.bigfreedia.com/) style hairdo but it was all bleached at the top. She was a good time & made me feel right at home!! When I got back to my gate around 2:45 I notice the departure time had been pushed back again to 4:20. This made me wish for another kinda smoke break, but there you have it. Anyway, I sat around at the gate, chatting with some ppl who were heading home to Chicago & as the day went on, the departure time kept getting pushed back. The gate agents periodically made announcements about maintenance on the plane as well as bad weather in Chicago. There were problems with the PA & they often sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher, but eventually the pilot came out and addressed everyone & explained how crucial the maintenance was & how skilled the team was that were working on it blah blah blah....they don't know when/if they are getting to Chicago, because so many flights from around the country were being delayed due to storms in the Midwest.
You can probably guess from the way this is going that the flight was eventually cancelled. After the usual rush of people at the Gate Agents & the Help phones & kiosks, I managed to get thru to a lady at the help desk. She was amazingly nice & efficient & appropriately apologetic when she told me that my only options were to try to go standby on a flight arriving in Chicago at 9:30PM the following day (i.e. 13 hours after my call time & 30 mins after my flight home was scheduled to leave). I think I burst into tears at this point. I explained my situation to her & asked if she could just please get me home. Mercifully there was a flight for NOLA leaving within 15 minutes two gates over from where I was standing. She told me she booked me on the flight & that all I had to do was give the gate agent my boarding pass & it would be handled from there. I txted my so-called wife my flight # and asked if she could pick me up in an hour from the airport & (I'm tearin up in gratitude) she txtd back "I got you, girl" & so I boarded the plane.
As I was walking in, looking harried I am sure, one of the Sky Waitresses helped me stow my carryon in an overhead & I mentioned that when she came around with the drinks cart I would be ready. She said, "We may not do full drink service with the turbulence" I said "Oh lawd, don't tell me that!!" She had a chuckle & asked what I would like & I said "A double!!" and sat down. Did I mention that Memphy was having tornado troubles today?? So as we were sitting in this plane, the winds were so heavy that the plane was moving back and forth as if we were taxiing but no.We were sitting still & delayed for about another 30 mins? Miss Sky Waitress caught my eye & asked what I wanted to drink via sign language & I stage whispered "Bloody Mary." After a little more waiting, the plane eventually took off. I can honestly say this was the most turbulent flight I have ever been on. Saints be praised, I had the Target novelization of Dr Who: Fury From the Deep to keep my mind occupied. Since the flight was so turbulent, there was only a brief amount of service time so the Sky Waitresses did what they call a "Water Walk" but Miss Thing was true to her word!! Not only did she hook me up, she REALLY hooked me up & wouldn't even accept my credit card to pay!!
This is when I knew everything was gonna be all right.
I made it to the ground safe & sound & txted Miss Flawless, who was practically at the airport b4 I even got to the gate!! We landed around 9:45PM, which means by the time I got home I'd been gone for just about 12 hours. Lame. Frustrating. But it was not in my hands. I hate when I do everything I'm supposed to do but some external thing goes wrong & puts all my plans in shambles. I am not sure yet how the $$ for the plane ticket is gonna work out. I will contact the airline in the morning and see what they have to say. I certainly can't expect Impromptu, LTD to foot the bill for something like this, but I will double check my contract to see if there is any provision for this kind of scenario. I am also unsure of how I'm going to make up for the $$ I will be missing from not working this gig, especially given the lack of steady work in my immediate future beyond 2 days next week & the week of June 13th at the Medical School, but I'm sure I will find a way.
I always do!!
Thanks for reading & thanks to Kit, Kris, Matty, Elisha, Diney & Seppy for dealing with my text frenzy today!!
xxxo
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