You're Kidding

Mom's supposed to be flying up to see me today for my birthday. She gets to the airport this morning in plenty of time, to find no one that can help her do curbside checkin like she always does. She manages to find one rude person to tell her that Continental has moved to a different terminal. There, she finds no one curbside. She tries to check in at a kiosk, but it won't accept her information. Again she flags down someone who clearly can't be bothered, but who puts forth minimal effort to help mom. "You're doing it wrong!" the attendant snaps. The attendant tries, and the kiosk will not accept her information. After some runaround, they figure it out and the attendant tells mom there will be a $25 charge for her single bag. It's a new fee. So she tries to pay in cash and the attendant snaps that she can't give change. After another 15 minute ordeal mom proceeds to security. At security it was another long string of fairly mundane but typical hassles. By the time she gets to the gate the plane is gone.

She explains what happened and the attendant says they'll put her on standby on the next flight, but gave mom the wrong gate number. Eventually she gets to the right gate and verifies she's "on the list." She waits. After everyone is boarded, even the other people who were waiting on standby, she is ignored. She goes to the counter and inquires only to find that the new attendant can't find her name on the list. An argument ensues and mom produces her receipt from the last gate which finally gets her on the plane. The plane is locked and ready to go, when they shut things down, open it up, and call her name. They need to see her ID! After that 15 minute delay, the'yre finally ready to take off. The plane has started to taxi when it dies on the runway. They sit for 20 minutes, announce the plane is dead, haul it back to the terminal, unload everyone, and say it'll be another hour before they have more information.

This morning my water heater died, and it's supposed to be cold and rainy the entire weekend.

Happy birthday to me.