Me, heading to the airport in Philadelphia to go home: *flags a cab* *hops in*
Me: Hi! I’m going to the airport, thanks!
Cabbie: Great! *starts driving*
Cabbie, after several intersections, quietly: Hmm. Which way was I supposed to turn?
Cabbie: *attempts to turn into a closed, pedestrian-only area*
Cabbie: Oops! Not that way! *jerks wheel back onto actual road*
Me: Uhh…
Cabbie: *glances at meter, which is not running* Oh yeah, I’m supposed to start this thing! *clicks meter on*
Cabbie: *continues driving in what I truly hope is the right direction*
Me: *quietly fears for my life*
Cabbie, after several minutes and multiple turns: Uh, so are you, like…in a hurry?
Me: I beg your pardon?
Me: I have a plane to catch.
Cabbie, nodding sagely: Ah, right. Yes. Ah, here’s the highway! That’ll definitely get you right where you need to go!
Me: *prays quietly to any and all gods in the Tri-State Area*
I spoke MUCH too soon! I made the flight, but the flight didn’t make it anywhere. Spent four hours sitting on the tarmac while a tornado watch and lightning storm shut down most of the East Coast.
Got taken halfway back to the gate after four hours and had to pause so the police could open our plane up and arrest a guy.
(No, I’m not kidding.)
Pilot announced we would refuel and be able to fly on, albeit very late, as the storm had passed.
Simultaneously, all of our phones buzzed with an announcement from the airline that the flight had been cancelled.
The pilot audibly stuttered over the intercom and was like, “Uh, you may have just gotten an unexpected announcement. My apologies. They didn’t tell me.”
We spent a further two hours in the airport with five thousand other unhappy people.
We have now rebooked for TWO DAYS FROM NOW, because there are no seats to be had tomorrow.
We made it back to the hotel we checked out of this morning and checked back in.
The flight attendants from our flight are in the room next door.
