Fear of Flying
This weekend was full of both high and lows, and because of the utter ridiculousness of certain events I think I should document it. I should preface this by saying that, to my dismay, I really don’t blog very much about weekends that I spend in Berkeley. After this weekend, I decided that I really need to change this, since my time spent at Berkeley is usually AMAZING, and totally makes life bearable at Caltech (since I have something to look forward towards)
I was especially looking forward to this weekend because a lot of stuff in my life hasn’t been going well for me. Though I’ve minimized contact with the parents, this whole ordeal has been pretty taxing. For the first time I’ve finally been honest with the parents about my lifestyle and it just really sucks that this is how they’re responding. Adding to all this stress is stress associated with the lab I’m working in now. I’ve realized pretty early on that this lab isn’t a very good fit for me, and going to work isn’t very fun anymore to say the least. Overall on Thursday night I felt like I had reached my tipping point in terms of keeping it cool and not letting all of this stuff get to me, which is why I was really really looking forward to seeing Naeem and visiting Berkeley to get away from it all (at least for a little bit.) Anyway, I thought it would be one of those easy trips where I’d get to the airport early, buy a magazine, get on my plane at the right time and see Naeem by 10. Boy was I wrong.
For the past week it’s been raining pretty torrentially in Pasadena, which is a rarity in terms of Pasadena weather. Because of this, my super shuttle came about 30 min early, since the driver was worried about getting in an accident, and being in rush hour (it was 6pm). True to form, I was ready early so this wasn’t a problem. I checked my bags, and got through security smoothly, and expected that this visit to the airport would be like any other.
Boy was I wrong.
Upon getting through security, I saw that Burbank airport was in complete and utter chaos. My flight, which was supposed to be at 8:45pm, was delayed to 10:40 pm. All the other flights seemed to be getting canceled/delayed. Anyway, I noticed that two other earlier flights to Oakland were also delayed, including one at 6:50, which was delayed to 9pm. I immediately got on standby for this flight in hopes to getting to Oakland at my normal time. Then I read this sign that said that getting on standby flights may subject you to charges. This didn’t sound good. I also started wondering what would happen to my checked bag if I got on this flight. So I waited about 45 min in line to talk to a southwest person (and there were only four in the midst of this chaos, can we say poor planning!) and she said that getting on standby meant that I would voluntarily separate myself for the luggage. An image of me and Naeem waiting 2+ hours for my luggage came into my head, and I decided to get off standby. Anyway the two other flights to Oakland that were before mine came and went (even though they were increasingly delayed) and I found out that my flight had been delayed an extra hour. I was pretty much at the end of my rope, now having been in the airport for about 6 hours when literally 5 minutes before my flight a southwest attendant says “I’m sorry but I have the worst news possible, your flight in cancelled”
I’m currently at the end of my rope. How the hell will I get to Oakland?! I NEED TO GET TO OAKLAND. How will I get home? How will I get to the airport to catch the next flight? How much will all of this cost?!?! And most importantly, I can’t believe I’m gonna miss out on this precious little time I get to see Naeem.
As immature as this sounds, I ran over to the next gate and started crying. It was all way too much, too fast, especially with all this shit going down in other parts of my life. I call Naeem, and finally get a hold of myself.
Anyway I make my way to the counter when I see this really angry guy (another passenger) waiting to talk to the attendant. Since he’s clearly been waiting to talk longer than me, I offer to let him go first. He says, “No you go ahead, when I get done with this guy [the southwest attendant], they’re gonna need to call the police”
A little freaked out, I make my way to the southwest attendant. The next flight out of Burbank is at 2pm. No way in hell I’m waiting that long. The next available flight from LAX is at 6am. I book it. Then I ask about my bags. The southwest guy says that they’re in the airport and I can get them from the luggage carousel. I then look out the window and see one of the luggage handlers outside mouthing “no bags!” to the Southwest attendant. WTF. I immediately ask him about this and he says that my bags are already in Oakland, sent on an earlier flight. I can’t fucking believe it. I could have been on standby this entire time and gotten to Oakland and Naeem when I was supposed to. I call Naeem asking him if he can maybe pick up my bags at the Oakland airport, and Naeem says its fine and suggests I ask to be reimbursed for expenses I incurred traveling to the airport. The Southwest guy starts saying something about talking to customer service when dear “They’re gonna need the police” guy steps in, yelling, telling me that Southwest is playing me for a fool. I really at the end of my rope now, now that the attendant and crazy dude have started quarreling.
And suddenly it all got better.
A woman who had been traveling for business on the same flight as me saw all this shit that was going down. She quickly came over and said that her company was paying for all her traveling expenses and that she could get a taxi and give me a ride to LAX. After talking about it for a while, we decided that it would be easiest if I went with her to a hotel near LAX, stayed there, and took a shuttle from the hotel to LAX to catch out 6 am flight. And her company would pay for all of it!
I really don’t know what I would have done if this woman hadn’t been there. Once she got her ticket taken care of, we ended up chatting about our lives and careers, and had a really great time. Though I was only able to get two hours of sleep that night, I was able to catch my plane to Oakland, and see Naeem at 7am Friday. I’m so glad everything turned out great in the end, and even amidst all this drama I was able to make a friend. In a way I’m also kind of thankful it happened bc it really put everything in perspective. With all the airport/flight drama I totally forgot about my other problems and started living in the moment again, which was nice and made me enjoy my weekend with Naeem even more!
And speaking of that, this post has become pretty long (and was kind of a downer) which is why I think I might do another separate post to talk about all the fun stuff I did in Berkeley! :)
