Our Trip to AZ... A Work in Progress

It's been a comedy of errors getting to Phoenix this morning, and we haven't even taken off yet. The security line was a little long for me (Dan flew through that special TSA priority line, a benefit he has due to semi-frequent travel for work); but for me even to get through the line for regular travelers, I used my expired drivers license, which I hadn't realized was expired until I, along with the security person, quintuple-checked the label and year on the 'Expired' line - make no bones about it, it expired in March of 2015. I reassured her that I had renewed online; but without some sort of sticker or accompanying paper to prove it, it's hard to say for sure that I had. She let me through anyway. Guess who will be visiting the DMV on Saturday... if she makes it home, which is actually looking good because I'm not sure I'll even ever leave.

So when it was eventually time for us to board (later than planned, I'm not exactly sure how much later) with our fellow C45-50 people - yes, among the last to board - I had somehow "lost" my electronic boarding pass. Couldn't find it in my InBox, at least not among the emails where I found it earlier. After a slight panic, I searched for it and found it, I'm still not sure where.

Fortunately, I found a middle seat about 10 rows from the front, between two nice men of a "healthy" size. I feel bad even mentioning size, but I still haven't fully recovered from my claustrophobic flight from Philly a few months ago when I was squished between the plane's window and a very large man sitting uncomfortably in the middle seat. Shudder...

And it's smokin' hot on this plane now. We've been sitting on it for awhile now, and its engine and power were shut down to deal with two issues: 1) there was an extra person on board... someone who shouldn't be, and 2) the toilets aren't flushing.

So about this extra person... My first thoughts went south fast, as in this unexplained person somehow snuck on the plane and will now do bad things. Somehow, I managed quickly to suppress that theory and let my optimistic and rational thinking kick in. It was probably someone who was on the plane already with a layover in Chicago and didn't know to get off for his real connecting flight  (thank you for that theory, nice man to my right). And the flight attendants quickly determined who the extra person was, but not until after several pleas over the loud speaker for the person to figure it out himself, else they'd have to go person-to-person, validating ids and boarding passes... gulp!... we know mine aren't in great shape.

I don't know about the toilet thing. I only know about it because Dan texted me about it. I'm sure he overheard it from his seat at the front of the plane which he scored by boarding ahead of me while I scrambled for my e-ticket. All I know is I saw a maintenance person walk down the aisle, and I haven't seen him leave yet... and I have no idea how much longer it'll be.

Meanwhile, after easily an hour of sitting here, the only thing I have going for me is my Spotify music and an optimistic belief that we'll soon be getting to our fun New Years in Arizona with Aunt Sandi, Uncle Mart and thousands of Notre Dame fans (and I suppose a few Ohio State fans, too).

And look at that - toilets fixed (or will be fixed when pressure changes in the air and they unfreeze), and we're off with a promise for free drinks! Yea, optimism! Phoenix, here we come... I think!

... Mid-flight update... Science (or bullshit) did not work as expected, and toilets are still frozen. We're "making a right turn" in to Denver now for an unplanned stopover to fix it.  "Obviously" we can't fly under these conditions (I'll hold it if I need to!), and "hopefully it'll just be a half hour" (yeah, right). No drinks have been served "for obvious reasons." No kidding. I couldn't make this shit (pun intended) up if I tried. I suppose there are worse places to be than in Denver. I'm just glad it's without the Leatherkids.