It’s the Saturday night before Christmas, and we are leaving for our trip out West the next morning. We just dropped Ally da Pup off at her pet sitter’s and are heading home. We have done everything on our never-ending-to-do-list and are finally ready to go on our vacation. We are busy congratulating ourselves on a job well done! HCFG gets an “unknown caller” on his cell phone and ignores it, assuming it’s a telemarketer.
We get back home and I have a message from an unknown caller too. I call my voicemail and hear a computer generated voice.
“Hello, this is ruin-your-long-awaited-holiday-plans-airlines. We have just cancelled your flight. Please call this number as soon as possible to reschedule your travel.”
“Sh*t! Honey, our flight just got cancelled.”
“What? It’s two days after the storm, I didn’t think the snow was still that bad!”
“I’m calling the number they gave me right now… Wonderful! They say at least a 30 minute wait.”
As you can imagine we were less than thrilled. After 45 minutes on hold, someone picked up. HCFG handled it while I sat nearby. He travels a lot on business so he stayed very calm. After a fairly long discussion, our flight was rescheduled to leave 3 days later, on Christmas Eve. There was literally so much chaos due to the storm that that was the earliest we could get out. With very little choice, he booked the flight. He then had to call his family and give them the bad news we were not arriving the next day. They were disappointed but understood. Meanwhile I was on my cell phone, cancelling our ride to the airport, calling the pet sitter to tell her we were picking Ally back up tomorrow, and letting various people who needed to know that our plans had changed.
After we finished our phone calls we were exhausted. And numb. It was such a letdown. We had gotten everything accomplished and we were already in “vacation mode.” As much as we love New York, we were ready to get out of town. It was especially hard on HCFG since he hadn’t seen his family in a while, and was really looking forward to being with them. Not to mention introducing me! His parents had planned a big welcome for us into their home and now it was postponed.
We were drained. And quite bummed as well.
“You know what Honey? Let’s just play hooky the next few days until we leave. We both need a pick-me-up. Let’s go see some of the new movies, relax and do exactly what we want. I don’t want to work until we have to, ok?”
“That sounds perfect.”
So that’s what we did.
And yes, we finally got away. We almost missed our flight connection in scenic Cleveland but that’s another story!
(This post originally appeared on Kizmeet)
Glad to hear you finally got out. And HFCG had it totally right. I too would have opted to play hooky for those days while waiting for the next flight.
what a bummer you were delayed, but better late than never, we are sometimes forced to say… happy new year to you!!
Are pre-recorded messages ever good?
OMGosh, how disappointing! But yet it worked out, yes? Anxiously awaiting the rest of the story
The only time you REALLY want to get stranded in Cleveland is during the National Kielbasa Festival. Of course, then it can be hard to get a room…
You are among the very brave or feeling lucky to travel at this time of the year. We went a week early for a weekend and got delayed because of a bogus whether delclaration in Houston. A stewardess on the ground confided in us. We still feel very lucky getting stuck with an overnight in Houston with no whether situation anywhere Happy New Year, you two!
That story had a surprise happy ending. Well then again I guess it’s not over now, is it? I love the title of the post btw. Happy new Year, too!
I’m sorry your trip got delayed, but I’m glad you didn’t say, “Well, as long as we can’t leave yet, let’s just go to work.”
I’m glad you made the most of it, but dang that is frustrating as all hell! Can’t wait for the rest of the stories!!
We experienced our share of inconveniences with the airlines this holiday season. It sounds as if you made a wise choice in not letting the change of plans put a damper on your holiday.
Hope your holidays were grand!
I’d rather be dead than in Cleveland.
What a mess that was! Seems like you made the best of it.
Sometimes, the best vacation is just burrowing in and sleeping. Especially after the year we’ve had on Wall Street, it was really great to just hole up in Lisa’s apartment, go to bed early every night and sleep in until noon the next day. Other than my parents, only the doorman knew we were still in town. We promised each other that we’d go out and see a ton of movies, then we’d run all over Manhattan sampling the holiday decor. We saw exactly one movie, but both ended up watching a ton of sappy Lifetime movies (”Mother, May I Sleep With Danger” starring the oh-so-talented Tori Spelling was a highlight) and Oprah reruns (”I see, O Great One, and I obey!” Lisa and I both chanted in monotonic unison by Tuesday afternoon). What fun! A great way to start the vacation! We left largely exorcised of the demons of the year-end deadlines…
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@ZenWizard: Sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time in Cleveland. I’ve spent more than enough time in Ohio than any coastal boy should admit to, and would much rather be worried about whether I want my Kielbasa “covered and smothered” (i.e., with melted cheese and fried onions) than being in Cincinnati, wondering whether I want my Gold Star chili “three way” or “four way.” And it’s not the Kielbasa aficionados that make Cleveland travel that time of year so tough. It’s the roving gangs of polka musicians that hang out at the festival that you really have to watch out for. Oom-pah, Oom-pah, ouch!
@BudBuckley: You’ve got the patience of a saint, to be happy when stuck in Houston. Both Lisa (with family in Houston) and I, who have spent a lot of time on business there, would infinitely have preferred Cleveland.
@GolfWidow: You don’t know what iron will it took on my part to have stayed at home sleeping in as decadently late as possible. I must confess I did actually have to go into the office to do a conference call that I would have needed to do from my parents’ house on the road anyway, because it was infinitely easier to do it from the office than to juggle everything from Lisa’s place. But I scooted out of there the instant I hung up…
—HCFG
Thanks everyone! It was a mess, but luckily we had no idea how much worse it was going to get before it got all better