I'm Staying in New York

Seriously, either I have the worst luck ever with flying or the airline industry is in shambles.

Went to Denver this weekend (such open space! and no crowds!? How nice.) and missed my flight this morning. Yeah, yeah. It was a 9:10 a.m. flight and I woke up at 8 a.m. So yes, it was my fault. But after missing the 9 a.m. flight, I got put to standby on a 5 p.m. (Mountain time) one. Well that one was overbooked and completely full (although I was first in line to get on... I was even as far as down in the little connector-hallway thing ready to get on if they said go but one girl came running in right at the last minute to keep me off) and so now the next available on is 11:55 p.m. (Mountain time), which is nearly 2 a.m. my time, and means that I won't get back to NYC (not even, actually, Newark, to be more specific) until almost 6 a.m. Which, of course, means I won't get home and into bed until probably around 7 a.m.

So based on this and my last experience flying (one my fault, one not), I think I am just going to stay in New York for a while and not do any more flying.

All My Problems Have Been Solved

It's kind of crazy, and I am leaving for Denver tomorrow, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

But my life's troubles are over. I got a new job, within the same company, but in the New York office, and with normal hours. Which means I will have a life again and see my friends more than once a month. And I won't have to pay New Jersey taxes. And I won't have to pay tolls. And I won't have to spend $250 a month in gas. I won't even need my car here at all. I'm very, very excited.

More details to come later!!

No-Fly Zone

So this week I had my first experience with what anyone who flies enough in this area will inevitably deal with – airline cancellations and delays. New York's airports (JFK, LaGuardia and Newark) are notorious for delays. They actually account for, I think I read somewhere, a third of the delays in the country...
So after going home for the weekend for a wedding, I was supposed to leave Cincinnati at 11 a.m. and be back to Newark by about 1 p.m., in time to go to work. As we were driving to Cincinnati though (about two hours from home) I got a phone call notifying me that for whatever reason my flight had been canceled and I'd been bumped to the 3 p.m. flight. So we wasted some time in the mall, and I went to the airport thinking I'd leave at 3. Nope.

Delayed to 4:30. Then till 5. Then 5:30... 5:50 ... 6 p.m. ... 6:30 ... totally frustrating. We finally left after 7 p.m., only to get on the runway and be notified that we still hadn't been cleared for takeoff. Needless to say, I didn't make it to work that night, and by the time I got home it was almost 11 p.m.

I can say with confidence I will never be flying Delta again if I can help it. Give yourself a six-hour bumper time if you plan on flying here, especially if it's raining.