#lmtourtales

I awoke this morning at 7:30 am and realized that today was the day Rozz and I would start our first tour of the documentary film that took us three years to make. “Rock, Rage & Self Defense: An Oral History of Seattle’s Home Alive” would travel to 11 different cities and communities. Our first stop is the Bare Bones International Music and Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I roll over and look at my phone. There is an e-mail update from United titled “Cancellation and Rebooking.” Uh-oh. I open the e-mail, still half asleep, and the copy explains that my second flight from Newark to Tulsa has been cancelled. I have now been rescheduled to arrive in Tulsa on…SUNDAY! WHAT?!?! PANIC ENSUES I hear the shower running, but still scream through the bathroom door to my Mom, the seasoned traveler. She pokes her head out, CALL THE UNITED EMERGENCY NUMBER! I run to my “travel drawer” and pull out the number, call it, and am connected to a woman at United. I explain the situation. “I need to leave today to get to Tulsa! The film screens tomorrow!” I hear silence for about five minutes and then she comes back. “There are absolutely no flights leaving from Baltimore to Tulsa on any possible connections for United, American, and Delta.” *%(^($*$#&@ How is that possible?! I beckon back to Mom who is still getting ready for work. “MOM! NO FLIGHTS FROM BALTIMORE TO TULSA ON ANY AIRLINE.” She responds, “WHAT ABOUT ROUTING YOU THROUGH CHICAGO OR DENVER?!” “NOTHING!” “ASK ABOUT DULLES?!” Dulles is the one airport in the entirety of the continental U.S. that every traveling human being loathes, but I knew what I had to do. “What about Dulles?” I ask the United lady. “One second” On hold with awful elevator music. She comes back on the phone, there is one flight from Dulles to Tulsa at 5 pm. “Book it!” Silence again and she comes back and says that it is confirmed. Hallelujah! Now I have to call Dad and ask if he can take me 2 hours earlier and, oh yeah he has to take me to..... Uh Dulles. I knew he would not be up because he is night owl and rarely wakes at these wee hours of the morning. But I call the house phone five times until he answered. I explain the situation. Luckily, my Dad is a saint and said he’d meet me at 1 pm at my house. I finish all the last minute packing very quickly because I just lost two hours of my day and then walk to the café to do some work. Things at work got very busy, very quickly and Ms. Irena was kind enough to drive me home. As we are leaving my phone rings and it is Dad. *WEEERO WEEERO WEEERO* goes the loud house alarm. He has arrived at the house half an hour early, let himself in, and set off the house alarm. He couldn’t hear me as screaming the code to him over the phone and the cops came and now we are getting fined. Well since Ms. Irena is a Buddhist she taught me a calming chant and we chanted together on the way home to help calm me down with all the craziness that was going on today! It did make me feel better.  Thank you Ms. Irena!

So then Dad and I talk and we kind of laugh about it….but we knew Mom was not going to be happy (Leesha…insert inside joke here).