I hoped to have "fun" airport stories, and, wow, do I ever have a "fun" story. So, I knew things were going to be interesting when my very first flight was delayed 3 hours. This set off a chain reaction that sent me to a whole different country on the way over here. But, you know, that's fairly normal for airlines these days, so I was ok with that. Having a longer wait in the Little Rock airport now, I decided to sit and watch the Giants game while enjoying my last Dr. Pepper for a while. Mmm, happiness, right??
So I sit down and get cozy with my laptop, ready to send out a few last minute emails to pass the time. Grab my Dr. Pepper, twist the cap and get sprayed from head to toe. Seriously, it felt like the whole terminal had a Dr. Pepper shower. I didn't know the bottle could hold that much Dr. Pepper and spray with such force! I wasn't excited about being showered with Dr. Pepper to begin my 24 hour trip, but I could deal with that. It was the Dr. Pepper that was soaking into the keyboard of my Mac that I was less than thrilled about. In fact, the emotions of just having said goodbye to my family, learning that my flight was drastically changed, and having paid twice what I was once told for my excess luggage began to shower over me much like my Dr. Pepper had just done. The poor guy sitting next to me...when he jokingly said "wow, you can't catch a break today, huh", had a look of terror on his face as I crumpled in my Dr. Pepper pool in response to his comment. Ok, ok, so I get everything cleaned up, and so far the computer is working fine, just a little sticky...I can do this.
About an hour goes by and I'm much more composed and decide, hey, I still haven't had any of my Dr. Pepper, because amazingly there was still some left after the explosion early. So, I twist the cap again, and Dr. Pepper fountain all over again. Yes, again! Same bottle. This time my computer was safely tucked away, but my clothes were not as lucky. This time there were no tears only laughter and disbelief. The guy from the first shower was still sitting near me, only not right beside me anymore, and I had to think he thought I was the biggest moron in the world! OH well. By now I was litterally soaked with Dr. Pepper and because of restrictions on the size and number of my carry on bag, I had nothing to change into. I considered buying a souvenir sweatshirt from the airport shop, but just couldn't bring myself to pay $50 for a shirt that said Little Rock in huge letters across the front. So I head to the bathroom and stand awkwardly near the hand dryer to try and dry some of the giant wet spots.
Moral of the story...an addiction will always bite you on the rear at some point! The good news, though, is that I don't think I'll be missing Dr. Pepper quite as much now.
The day continued with gum on my shoe at one point, a seat on the 46th row in the very middle of my overseas flight, the speaker for the call bell on the plane directly over my seat (yes, that means that every time anyone on the entire plane called for an attendent the *ding* rang out over my seat), bathrooms on either side of my row on the plane, a screaming 5 year old behind me for 8 hours, and to top it off not one piece of my 5 pieces of luggage arrived in Istanbul with me. My prayer life definitely grew on this trip. And, I can joyfully say that all of my luggage was delivered to my doorstep by 6 the morning after I arrived. In fact, it was as I was sitting in the living room praying about my attitude over lost luggage that the doorbell rang to deliver all the pieces!!
So, fun stories from the airport! :-)
