How I Screwed Up

I'm back from Mt. Holyoke for an invited talk. It was quite an adventure. It all started around 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning. I thought I left in plenty of time to reach the airport. I had done a similar trip to the airport in early October to go to San Diego. My flight was earlier than in October, so I left earlier. But, it was raining, and traffic was bad, so my trip took 30 minutes longer than usual.

I parked in the long-term parking and took the airport-parking bus to the terminal. I had to doublecheck which terminal I had to go to. I got to the terminal at 9, and my flight was at 9:40. OK, no problem.

I got up to the self-service check-in and realized that I did not have my purse! I thought I had left it in the car, but I remembered that I left it on the bus.

I talked to the clerk and she told me to call the busses, but that she would be able ot get me on the 11:15 (the next) flight. I tried calling the busses, and thatdidn't work, so I had to flag the next one down. When the next bus finally came, I told the driver my sob story. He called in but couldn't get an answer from my bus driver. He thought I should ride with him the whole route--back to the main desk--and the other driver would leave my purse there for us to pick up. I thought I should wait for my bus to come back around, but I didn't really have much of a choice.

So, by the time I went the whole route on the bus, it was 10:15. My plane had been delayed by 10 minutes, but that wasn't enough. I talked to the new guy at the counter (I couldn't find the lady I talked to). He said that the 11:15 plane was overbooked and I couldn't get on that one. Crap, crap, crap. I pleaded and eventually he put me on standby.

I rushed to the gate, and the 11:15 plane was delayed, so it wasn't going to leave until 12:40. The next flight was at 1:30 (also oversold), which would mean that I would not get in in time for the talk.

Eventually, people boarded, and the counter lady started putting the stand-bys on board. She wasn't going to let me on the flight. I was the last person on the standby list. (I think that wasn't fair; I'm pretty sure the first woman I talked to screwed me on that. I could have checked in without my id. They don't check id until security.) I begged and talked the other standby woman waiting into letting me go.

After that, my trip was pretty uneventful. The talk went well. There are some things that I need to work on, but overall, I think the talk was good. After the talk, I went to dinner with the two professors. I learned a couple more tricks before I go on the job interview circuit.

When I stopped to buy a pretzel today, I realized that the money in my wallet is gone. They probably got $50, which is usually my spending
cash for the month. I had more in my wallet than usual because I had gone shopping over the weekend and paid cash--using my birthday money. So, I'm really upset that they got my birthday money. I know, I know, it could have been worse, but I'm still bummed.

And, finally, something is wrong with my Mac. It seems like it's not displaying red. I tried restarting it. I also tried searching on the web for solutions. I'm running out of ideas.