Saturday, January 14, 2006

Chivalry is not dead...

...and the people who fly out of JFK can be a lot of fun. I don't even know where to begin with this story but so much happened in the last 24 hours and I need to write about some of it before I finally get a chance to sleep. Professions of love, cancelled flights, a date, celebrity, hair and hotel vouchers. I had no idea NYC could surprise me on so many levels!

Friday morning started off as usual, stuck in a conference room at work. Boring - until that fateful phone call saying my flight had been cancelled. Then the drama begins. All flights leaving LGA were overbooked and the weather was bad, but I was able to get one of the last seats on a flight out of JFK later that evening. I figured that wasn't too bad, and arranged to return my rental car there as well. My boss was pretty accommodating and actually suggested I leave even earlier to try going standby. Little did I know that there was only this one flight, so standby was not an option. So after checking in I change into my jeans and a t-shirt so that I would be comfortable since I had three hours to kill before my flight was to leave. I decided that going to the bar was the place for me and snagged a great spot at the end with a good view of everything around me. I was happy and really in a fabulous mood. Instinct told me that my flight would have issues but I figured things were good and I'd still make it home at a decent hour. Boy was I wrong! As the afternoon progressed, I occasionally got calls from American telling of a gate change, and then the calls of the delays started. The first was a delay of an hour, the second of another 30 minutes. In the grand scheme of things, that was minor so it didn't faze me a bit. I had dinner and did a little work until the bar started getting busier. That's when Scott sat down next to me. He was from Malibu, probably in his 40's and had really long hair - you know, rockstar hair. He was a very nice guy and gave tips on places to visit in NY when I'm there next weekend. We chatted for a while and he even showed me pictures of his kids and his ex-wife - I guess I reminded him of her. During our conversation, I received that fateful call. My flight was cancelled. Again. I decide that getting on the phone to find a way home was necessary at this point so I had to go to a quieter part of the bar. Little did I know, Scott had to board his plane shortly, so our conversation was over, but he did stop to say goodbye, which I thought was sweet. And then when I returned to my barstool, I found out from the couple beside me that he paid for my dinner and drinks! I was astonished, as was the woman beside me. We only chatted for about 20 minutes, but he was obviously a very generous person. So that was the first event of many.

I continued chatting with the couple beside me who were from NY and headed to Miami and then Drew got into the conversation as well. He was headed to LA and his flight kept getting delayed also, so he had settled in with a book for the evening. I realized I still needed to find a place to stay for the evening, so I excused myself and headed to the gate to get a hotel voucher and find my way out of the airport. Little did I know that American does not give vouchers for anything weather related. Their only suggestion was to stay in the airport for the night. They didn't even bother suggesting any hotels! I was not happy. But this is when things get interesting. This is when I meet Don. Don was also trying to get to Chicago and had actually been on both of my flights. He was beside me at the ticket counter and was listening to my pleading for a place to stay the night and said he may have a solution for me. I figured it was that he had booked a hotel room and that I could share a cab over so that I could get a room as well. Silly, silly me. He actually suggested that I stay with him the night since he had a 2 bedroom apartment down in Battery Park. As soon as he suggested it I turned him down, but we kept talking and headed back to the bar for another drink while I decided what to do for the night. The bar was less busy by this time since many flights were cancelled or had already taken off, so we returned to the same spots as before and Ron noticed something at the table nearest to us. It was Kiefer Sutherland and his mystery woman. He is so much smaller in person than I realized. He's not a bad height, just really skinny! A few of the bar patrons, including Don, couldn't resist going up to him and getting pictures and autographs, but I never like doing that and would rather just acknowledge them with a smile and a head nod. Kiefer was very gracious and all he asked of Don was not to take a picture of his companion. It must be hard to be a celebrity, I know I could never tolerate that much attention. So once the commotion of having a star in our presence started to fade, the group which included Drew, started trying to figure out my options for the evening. I think I liked Drew's suggestion the best - fly to LA and then get the red-eye back to Chicago. I seriously contemplated this option since no hotel would be required and I'd probably arrive in Chicago the fastest this way. The drawback was that I would probably not be able to sleep very well and then what's the point of flying to LA if you don't actually get off the plane to enjoy? So I nixed that idea and was leaning towards staying in the airport for the night. As the time passed, somehow Don convinced me that I shouldn't stay at the airport and wait for the only flight at noon Saturday. He made me realize that leaving out of LaGuardia was a much more safe option since flights left pretty much every hour through the day. So I called American another time and change my flight once again for 6:30AM and then Don and I headed out to find a cab and head to Battery Park for a few drinks.

To be continued....

Posted by Maple :: 8:58 AM :: 4 Comments:

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