So a few weeks back I was invited to come out to Seattle for an interview in an urgent care clinic. The potential employer would make arrangements for my flights and rental car. Being a practical individual and wanting to maximize my time there exploring other possible options I agreed to meet with another organization while here.
One the appointed day I woke at 4:15 to catch a bus to Boston and my flight which would connect me in Chicago. Time was tight between between my arrival and departure in Chicago, but I had enough time to get a sandwich and freshen up a bit. Just as we began to board someone shook up the snow globe and suddenly you couldn't even see the terminal across the way. All de-iced and loaded up we taxied out and waited our turn to take off. Unfortunately that turn never arrived as the captain informed us there was too much snow on the runway to both safely and legally take off. Screw legally, you had me at safely pal.
So we returned to the gate to await the word of the tower. Eventually they said our flight was cancelled and had us get off. Now, what you need to know is that I was carrying all my luggage with me, but on the flight out of Chicago they ran out of room in the overhead bins so I had to check my bag and leave it on the jetway. Normally this works well because they simply pull that bag right off and give it back to you as you exit the plane. Well, that didn't happen. So, I waited along with everyone else, to see the agent and both claim my bag and get a new flight booked. After about an hour I arrived in front of Mr. Wright (that's what his name tag said, no joke). He explained that my bag had ended up in "general population" while he pecked away to find me another flight, all the while taking pity on me as I tried my best to calmly explain that my interview suit was in the bag now MIA. He secured me a seat on a flight leaving at 8:10 that evening and put in an order for my bag to be delivered at claim #5. No problem, the bag should arrive in about an hour. I walked away pretty satisfied with this outcome.
This is where things start to unravel a bit. Down at baggage claim #5 other folks began to congregate and when 60 minutes had come and gone I inquired about my bag and was now told it could take another 1-2 hours before it would arrive. I could feel my blood pressure staring to rise as I had visions of interviewing in jeans or a frantic trip to Men's Warehouse where I would throw myself at the feet of the in-house tailor and plead my case. To add to my frustrations I discovered from other passengers milling about and enjoying a similar plight that my 8:10 flight out was now cancelled. Dashing back upstairs I got in a que to see an agent and get to the bottom of this rumor. Talking on my cell phone with my friend Kevin in Seattle and filling him in on my current state I found myself being jostled, bumped and generally annoyed by a fat woman with an even fatter suitcase who clearly was in a hurry to go no where in a line that was moving at a snails pace. Now I don't generally lose my shit on complete strangers and I would like to say I did exercise some degree of modicum when I turned on her like a caged badger, politely interrupted my conversation with Kevin, and gave her a little lashing about personal space. Satisfied I went back to my conversation.
The agent did her best to try and help me and in the end I was able to be routed through Los Angeles on a flight leaving at 7 am which turned out to be much better than what other folks faced. Hotel voucher in hand I worked my phone to re-schedule my interviews while awaiting my bag. That process took another two and a half hours and it wasn't until about 6:30 pm that I finally had my bad in hand. Getting a shuttle to the hotel proved to be a difficult task as well. It seemed like everyone at the airport had gotten vouchers for the same hotel and so when a single, small van approached the driver was nearly crushed as people descended on him like a pack of wild dogs. In the end the folks without luggage ended up with seats as the rest of us had to ensure our luggage got in the back and that meant we couldn't be in two places at once. As the full van pulled away, five of us stood scratching our heads at the curb feeling like we had just been promised a date with a super model only to have gotten Olive Oil.
After weighing our options we decided to wait the hour that it would take the driver to make another circuit. I felt particularly bad for a nice gentleman from Finland who had been beaten out on two shuttle runs to the hotel by overly pushy Americans hell bent on getting to the bar first. With a plan hatched we set ourselves up to get seats on the next run and it was a damn good thing since it ended up being a complete do-over when our ride arrived. However, one of the nice Canadians discovered that his bag had not gotten on the van when we arrived at the hotel and he was forced to endure a trip bag to the terminal to see if luck would prevail. I don't know how that turned out.
Finally, after waiting some more to check in I was able to lay my head down on a pillow at 8:30 pm. It was a brief sleep however since I was up at 3:15 to catch a 4 am shuttle back to the airport for a 7 am flight. This was the only shuttle still promising seats so I had little options outside of taking a $45 taxi. Fortunately my morning flight got out fine and passed over lush, green irrigated valleys bathed in a brillant morning sun before landing at LAX.
At LAX I discovered that if you have to change terminals you have to exit security and go through a complete re-screen to get back into the boarding area. Because I was switching from American Airlines to Alaska I not only had to be re-screened but also had to hoof-it from terminal E to A and I was on a tight schedule.
Now, a few times I have had to walk fast to make a connection but never have I run like a madman and I always thought that those people who did just didn't plan well. Wrong! I actually lost count of how many times I went through security on this trip but I am waiting to see if my genitalia suffer any repercussions of multiple x-rays and body scans. In the end I made the flight with time to spare and landed safely in Seattle at 2 pm.
From there I hustled my way to a shuttle to pick up my rental car. "Down one level and pick out any mid-size car. The keys will be in it and you check out with the gate." Simple enough. Except there were no mid-size cars, only economy, compact, full size, SUV's, mini-vans. Uggg! Pulling my roller-bag I navigated through a sea of cars in a herculean sized parking garage to find an attendant. I had to get to Kevin's house to get cleaned up and dressed for a 4:30 interview and there was no telling what traffic would be like. Understanding my plight, Bruce, the nice attendant told me to take any other car. I sped off and to my delight discovered traffic wasn't bad. Ultimately I made my meeting on-time and it went very well.
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