thursday afternoon:
the flight was supposed to arrive in atlanta around 8:37am and my connecting flight was at 9:30. i don't think i got in atlanta till about 10:30.
once i got off the plane, the lady at the gate who was directing connecting flights asked where i was going. i said "chicago", she said "C14."
a brief glimpse of hope. was my next flight delayed, too, and i'd still be able to make it?
i got off at C3. it was a long fucking walk to C14. atlanta airport doesn't have any of those moving walkways, it seems. the first thing i noticed about the airport, actually, was the ceiling. i let out a "huh" and marveled at its warehouse look. it took me a few minutes to realize the ceiling was like that only because they were in the middle of construction. yes, i can be slow. but some places have their ceilings like that on purpose, so you never know, really.
at C14, i saw that the flight was leaving at 1pm. different flight number. no, i definitely missed my flight.
AirTran customer service was right next door, so i figured that was a good place to go. in no time, i was assigned a seat to that 1pm flight.
after that, i bought a cup of coffee and took a time out in one of the smoking lounges. fucking smoking lounges. how awesome is that. thank you, atlanta. i know SG told me when he was stuck in an airport, there was no place for him to smoke and he was dying.. either that or he had to exit the gate to do so, and that was just really inconvenient to go through security again.
anyway. the nicotine and caffeine was pure heaven. next task was to find a way to get in touch with both my parents and my baby. we had an 11am lunch date, chicago time, and it was lookin' like i wasn't going to make it.
payphones at C14. i tried calling the parents' cell with the calling card info they gave me. but the card wasn't activated. so i tried calling with an old card number. i had 5 minutes. quickly, i left a message that the calling card wasn't activated, i missed my connecting flight and wouldn't be in til 1:48pm, chicago time. next i had to call my baby. since they like to penalize you for using payphones, i now had 1 minute left. he answered, and the first thing i said was "i have one minute" and i quickly said everything i needed to say. i said, "okay?" he said "that changes things" and "okay."
i might've had another cigarette after that, don't know. it wasn't too long before i realized i could probably buy a calling card in one of the stores. and that's what i did. for 10 bucks. the cashier was apologizing for her behavior, saying she didn't get much sleep last night. i wasn't sure where she felt she needed to apologize, but hey, i totally felt her on that, having not slept much myself. act as ditzy and out of it as you need. i'm right there with you.
ugh. so i tried calling the parents and my baby again, but this time neither of them were picking up. just my fucking luck. and it charges me 1.25 each time i use the payphone, too, so i was losing minutes fast. walked around some more.. looking for something to eat. everything was so fucking expensive. my bag was getting heavy on my shoulder. there was a wendy's. but instead of a 99 cent menu, it was the 1.09 menu. and it didn't even have any burgers or chicken nuggets on it. i needed some MEAT! my body was feeling drained..
i walked all the way to the other side of the concourse again until i decided in just buying a large rice krispies treat for a dollar in the vending machine. sat at my gate to relax and eat. and then i tried calling the parents again.
this time they answered. and my baby was with them. imagine my surprise. meeting my parents for the first time without me. i felt a little bad, i know it can be a stressful thing. the first thing my mom said about him, though, was "he's really cute, danielle." i said, "i know."
but.. that cheered me up. because that was unexpected that they'd end up meeting anyway. and i was able to laugh.
phone call done. i was left to myself to just wait.