Friday, October 26, 2007

Sensory Overload

The theme for Las Vegas has to be "there is no such thing as too much". Between the lights, people and clanging slot machines I am numb. Vegas also seems to have a real talent for wrapping anything that stands still in gold lame and if at all possible there will also be multiple colored flashing lights. It ain't easy to make Myrtle Beach look like a refined, cultured, toned down vacation area but I think Vegas has come very close to accomplishing that goal. The basketball team that Polly coaches made the championships so we decided to get to the airport early (5 AM, oh dear God) and do our best to get Polly home for the big game. We didn't get back to the hotel room until after 11 PM and between packing and talking it was close to 1 AM before we fell asleep. Soooo, 4 AM rolled around pretty early but thank goodness we packed the night before and don't get me started on telling you about trying to get Polly's suitcase closed. That thing was plum slam full and easily weighed over 100 pounds. We checked out and when we got down to the taxi stand the doorman was NOT very nice. New Yorkers (sorry Debi, I don't mean you) would have found him rude. We looked at each other and shared the "no tip" eye roll and got in the cab. He walked around the cab, opened my door and said, "OH NO REALLY....THANK YOU!" and then slammed my door. I was very tempted to get out of the cab and pound his scrawny behind to the ground. Now, don't go feeling all sorry for him because he had to lift Polly's anvil collection. All he did was open the cab door while yelling over his shoulder to the cab driver, "Hey buddy...get out here! They have luggage to load." OK, we arrive at the airport at 5 AM and figure it will be us and the homeless people who sleep there. We are both flying Delta so we are able to take care of business with one stop and both tickets get changed so both of us will get home early. There are a few people around the airline counters but not a lot and then we turned the corner to go through security. There has to be a 1,000 people there trying to catch the early morning "cheapie" flights. I have plenty of time but we aren't sure Polly is going to make her flight. We flagged down a TSA person and told her Polly's flight time and she assured us that at the very most it would take us 15 minutes to get through security. Riiiiiight. Well, I'll be a ding dang donkey...for once TSA was right! In less than 15 minutes they had moved that whole mass of passengers through security and we were on our way to our gates which were ta da...next to each other! Now, what are the chances of that happening? We visited until it was time for Polly to board and she was on her way back home for the big game. My flights were equally uneventful except for the last one from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach. We taxied down the runway to take off and then the pilot shut everything down. Hmmm, the cockpit door opened and the co-pilot came stomping down the aisle and went outside. Then the Captain came on the PA and said that the warning light for the cargo hold door was flashing open and they wanted to do a visual inspection. The copilot is opening, closing and banging around on the cargo hold door and we heard him radio to the Captain, "Yeah, I think it's fine. I slammed it shut and I guess we will know for sure in a few minutes. Har Har Har." My thought was...we are in Georgia so you know they have a roll of duct tape in the glove box. Tape that puppy shut and let's GO! I guess he must have slammed it really good because we took off and landed without incident. Debi picked me up at the airport and we met Sid, Tom, John and Kevin at Tony Roma's before I went home and they all came back to work to start the holiday decorations. I would have LOVED to stay and help but I had to go, ummmmmm.....geesh, I KNOW it is something important. Just give me a minute I know I'll remember what it is that I have to do. Ummmm...guess not.

P.S. The girls won the game 31 to 28! Way to go Lady Falcons!

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