Sometimes I wonder how I ever survived this long.

Since my flight was to depart at 9:50 a.m. for a transfer in Narita, I figured if I left the apartment around 7 a.m. I'd be okay, as a 3-hour lead time is usually about right, door to door. No problemo.

I didn't actually get to the airport bus stop until 7:30, but even then I figured it would be okay, since we'd being going against traffic during early morning rush hour. Wrong. Traffic was really terrible for whatever reason (weather maybe?), and I started to panic at around 8:30 when we still had not arrived to the airport.

It was 8:45 a.m. by the time we got there, so I took off for the check-in counters, only to discover that not only were they all closed, they were sealed OFF with ropes! I thought, wow, I guess the terrorist attacks have really bumped things up a notch, better keep that in mind next time I travel.

Undeterred, I crouched under one of the ropes and stepped up to the one counter with a NW employee and asked about the status of my flight. She gasped, "The gate's been closed for departure!" and I'm like WHAT?!

That's when I REALLY started to panic.

Next thing I know, I am being summoned frantically by the staff at the "problems" counter way in the back who all looked PISSED AS #&*%! as they were waving me down. Despite my incredible tardiness, they were going to help me get on board, and all I could do was wimper, "Oh thank you, thank you so much!" while documents were flying in front of my face.

By 9:00 a.m., I was on that plane.

To summarize:
I managed to check-in to an international flight, get my plane ticket, go through immigration, go through security check, and board the plane in exactly FIFTEEN MINUTES.

But that's not all.

So as I stepped onto the plane, I was a little dumbfounded that EVERYONE was seat-belted and ready to go. I was expecting people to still be putting their bags up and getting themselves settled in but no, I was the only one in motion. Kind of embarrassing, but whatever. I was just glad to be there.

Only when the plane left the gate did I fully grasp the situation.

We departed at 9:05 a.m.

Not 9:50 a.m.

I read my ticket wrong... per usual.

View / Post Comments

---

LAST ENTRY     |     NEXT ENTRY

---

HOME  |  ARCHIVES |    |  ADVERTISE  |  ORIENTED
Copyright (c) 2001 HeyChristine.com. All rights reserved.

---