Proud To Be On American?

This weekend is Oktoberfest in Cincinnati. When my little sister, who went to school in Cincinnati and still lives there, was a freshman in college, we went to parents weekend. It was held the same weekend as Oktoberfest (and a Bengals / Packers game, which is an entirely different story). Oktoberfest in Cincinnati is nuts. It is a lot of beer, brats, cream puffs, rubber chickens, chicken dances, chicken hats and buffoonery. I try and make the pilgrimage yearly. I was looking forward to the trip and some sister bonding time. I had been sick all week and my sister didn’t want me to drive by myself, by sheer luck, I find a cheap flight on American.

This morning, I woke up, did 2 quick loads of laundry, packed my suitcase (minus the clothes that were being washed), did the dishes, and took out the trash. I went to the laundry room to get my clothes, so that I could finish packing. One set was dry, the other drier was open and stopped and not one lick of the clothing was actually dried. I was left with 10 minutes before I need to leave, soggy underwear and no other clothes clean. I threw the soggy clothes into my suitcase and darted out the door.

I jumped on the bus to the blue line, which was slow as hell (thanks Cubs / Cardinals). Took the blue line to O’Hare and got to the airport with a little more than a half an hour to my flight. I dashed through the millions of miles of sidewalks between the conveniently located “L” and my terminal – god forbid a moving sidewalk ever work. Checked in at the terminal, hauled through security and ran to my gate, which of course was nowhere near where I had to go through security. Covered in sweat, I approached the gate as the lady was closing the door. I apologized for my delay and asked to check in. The guy (Carlos) at the gate told me after a minute that the flight was closed. I asked how that was possible since the door had just started to be closed as I was at the gate. He said that they close 10 minutes before the flight. Fair enough, but I was there before 10 minutes before the flight and I had already checked in – it wasn’t as if they weren’t expecting me. After talking about this for a few minutes, I pointed out that it was just 10 minutes before the flight now, to which a lovely (actually rude) woman held up her cell phone to show me that it was in fact 12:48 – my flight was at 12:57. Interesting that I could stand there and have a conversation with the people at the gate for several minutes and still only miss my flight by less than a minute. I would like to thank American for being completely accommodating and helpful. Oh, wait, that would be a lie. What I want to know is how I ended up on one of the only American flights running on time. Crazy.

Carlos, a.k.a Mr. Customer Service, put me on stand-by for a 4:34 PM flight. I asked if there was anything earlier on another airline. He said that I would have to talk to a supervisor at the terminal. By the way throughout all of this, the damn plane is still at the gate. Back to the terminal I go and I stand in line to talk to an agent. She tells me that the next flight is 3:45 PM on United Express, but asks me why would I bother, since there is not a big difference in time and since I would have to go standby on the other flight. Heeding her advice (she was actually nice), I kept my flight and went out to find a place to kill the next 3 hours at the airport.

I found a nice little bar, watched the first have of the ND vs. MSU game and killed time. At 3:30 PM, I headed to the gate just in case this one boarded and closed early. En route, I check the screens. Shock of all shockers, my flight’s gate has changed and it is now delayed until 5:10 PM. That is the American Airlines I know and love. Once again, I wander the airport, bored, because “G” is apparently the ghetto section of Terminal 3 and there is not a lot to do. Finally, close to 4, I decide to head over to the gate, figuring that they will start boarding in about a half an hour. Well, it is 4:43 PM, 9 minutes after the flight was supposed to leave and almost 4 hours after my original flight, and I am still sitting here. In true American fashion, we are now on our second delay. I was supposed to land in Cincinnati at 3:10 PM Eastern time. Now, I will be lucky if I am there by 8 PM. At this point the United Express flight will be landing before we board.

Banning the Wicked?

So, once again the lovely Jennifer is mad at me for my lack of posting. She’s threatened to ban the wicked (very pun-y) if I don’t start posting again. I’m sorry that I don’t post on a regular basis. Sometimes, I just don’t have anything witty to say. Now, I know that Jen’s friends – the ones nagging her to post more frequently (ironic, don’t you think) – have told her just to post whatever, but I am a neurotic perfectionist and I hate posting so-so items.

Have no fear though; this day has given me fodder for 20 different posts and then some. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I have enough material to at least make Jen happy for a day or two.

NetFlix Addict

Hello, my name is Dea, and I am a NetFlix Addict. Is there a 12-step program I can join? Many years ago, I used NetFlix--mostly because I had fines at all the local Blockbusters. I barely used it. I had the same lukewarm movie in my house for a month and I never watched it or returned it. Eventually, I cancelled my subscription and moved on to racking up fines at other Blockbusters.

Recently, I have found my way back to NetFlix and I feel that I am becoming co-dependent. I eagerly wait for the red / white envelopes to appear in my mailbox. I am constantly amazed at how many movies they have in NetFlix land and how quickly they ship / receive / ship me movies. My co-worker told me that I would become addicted if I wasn’t careful. This was after she heard a friend and I dissecting the shipping process – (how do they get the movies in 1 day?) Well, after updating my queue, writing reviews for my friends and reviewing movie after movie…I realized, she may be right. I check my NetFlix page at least a few times a day. I sat on my couch a few weeks ago and watched 4 episodes of Felicity in a row, so that I could mail the disc back and get a new one. It has become a major obsession and it’s not just me.

My friend, Jen, has been cemented to her couch watching every single episode of Homicide. (I know…I think it’s a little scary too). My friends have built queues of 60-70 movies. I mean think about it. Would they really rent these movies if they going to Blockbuster? I know that I wouldn’t rent half the documentaries in my queue if I had to pay for them. Maybe that’s the beauty of it. NetFlix allows you to expand into genres that you normally wouldn’t. It allows you to grow as a human being. It is here for the greater good of humankind. Or at least that will be my justification the next time I find myself chained to couch on a Saturday afternoon.

Just another Blog Entry

So, lovely Jen wants to know if I am posting again. I know. I suck. I am not sure why I have been such a slacker. I have started a bunch of posts, but they were not as interesting as I wanted them to be and so I deleted them.

This is an entry just to have one, but I promise there will be several that follow. So many that Jen's next comment will be "Enough already!"

Can I get some applause?

Last night was Neil Diamond. It was the culminating event of my birthday weekend and I was very excited. Got off to a bit of a rocky start--rushing home, barely changing clothes, running the carpool all over the North Side and then racing to the UC and getting there 40 minutes early. Nice to get there early, but I would have loved 5 minutes at home to brush my teeth and refresh myself a bit. No matter. Jen, my Mom and I ate something and headed to our seats at about 7:55 PM. The announcer told us that there would be no seating during the first song (which was never actually enforced, though it was a nice idea) and that the lights would end abruptly--which they did about 10 - 15 minutes later.

Neil opened with Crunchy Granola Suite—not a favorite of mine, but soon the show was rocking. He played some of my favorites (Play Me, Forever in Blue Jeans, Cherry Cherry, Cracklin’ Rosie, Soolaimon, I Am I Said…). We were clapping, swaying, singing and having fun…at least the 3 of us were. I think that someone accidentally sat us in the ”No Fun” section. Almost all of Section 308 sat through the whole show—even through America and some through Sweet Caroline. Seriously, it’s Neil Diamond. He is a little bit country, a little bit folk, a little bit Rock ‘n’ Roll, a little bit cheesy and a lot of fun. You are supposed to clap and dance and sing. Why go if you are not going to have fun?

Shout out to the 2 women in front of us—Section 308, Row 11—who did not once move or clap—not even at the end of a song to show appreciation. They uncrossed their arms only a few times to look through binoculars, but I don’t know why they bothered. It didn’t change their disposition at all.

Real shout out to the couple (not sure if it was straight girl and PGA or an actual couple) who were a few rows ahead and to the right of us. They danced and sang to every song…as it should be.

All in all though, Neil was a blast. Great show—even when we thought he was making out with his backup singer after “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (she turned out to be one of the members of the band’s wife). Neil was all I thought that he would be and then some.