Mothers Day Travel Fiasco

                 Event in the Life of Lynn
Yesterday, Mother’s Day, I woke early, took a shower, and went to breakfast with Martie, her beau, and the kids.  It was entertaining as meal events usually are with Jack and Rachel.  They love a captive audience, and their ability to mimic funny lines from movies always makes me laugh.
    After breakfast they took me to Long Brach Airport to hop a plane to San Francisco to spend the rest of the day with Rob and Leigh.  They had sent me an e-ticket and I had printed it out, given it a glance and tucked it in my purse.
    Martie dropped me off at the curb and I went in to check in and get my boarding pass.  The lady behind the Jet Blue counter said, “I hope this isn’t for flight 456, because they are closing the doors right now.”  (How did she know!?) 
It seems I had read the arrival time as the departing time.  These things happen with me.
She quickly picked up the phone and asked someone on the flight crew, “Can you take another runner?”  Sadly for me the doors were closed and they were pulling away.
She placed my name on the stand-by list for the 3:00 flight, and informed me that I was the fifth name on stand-by.
Now I had to find a phone, as mine has been lost since April 24th.  (I called about it and there hasn’t been any activity on it since then, so it’s probably around here somewhere, or I threw it in the recycling bin again.)  Try to imagine how difficult it is to find a pay phone in this day and age!  Now try to imagine how difficult it is to get someone to give you 8 quarters for $2.00.
When I had found both, I called Rob and told him my predicament.  He was ever so patient.  He said he’d call around and see what he could find and call me back in ten minutes.  Then I had to tell him about my missing cell phone, so he told me to call him back in ten minutes.
When I called him back he said, “Grab a cab and go to LAX.  There’s an 11:30 flight on United.” 
One half of an hour and $46.00 later, I was at the self check-in at United, reading on the screen that the flight was closed.   
Nearing hysteria, I had a conversation with the clerk that started out a bit snippy on her part, but when she looked on her computer screen she suddenly became ever so polite, and said I could proceed to gate #85.
Apparently, Rob flies with them so much that he belongs to some hoity-toity-special-business-boy-club.  When I got to the gate, the clerk asked where would I like for my assigned seat to be, and I answered,
“On the plane, please.”

It’s not easy being me.