Rude Awakenings

"Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome."

Sir Arthur Ashe was certainly true and deserves a bravo for rephrasing a quote so eloquently. I left for Phoenix airport around noon for what I thought was going to be a relatively short 3 hour flight to Atlanta with a connecting flight to Durham to see my brother. The plan was far from what was actually the outcome oh the journey.  Checking into the airport and sitting in the terminal at 1, I knew it was a bit early, but it was better to be safe. That safety didn't pay off cause from the time when our plane was about to take off at 2:30 until 5:30 we were being informed that we needed one more steward(ess) to fly. And for the 3 hours we waited, the announcer was trying to sooth our worries with saying the steward was nearly there. 

After we take off, the flight was easy enough. No one sitting nearby, lots of sleep and a nice shot of orange juice they serve with too much ice. We arrive in Atlanta with icy conditions that would not allow anyone to leave, just to come in. From Sunday to Tuesday the airport was on standby, so the capacity of the airport was overflowing similar to heating up pasta with too much water. I hate it when that happens. Lucky for me I found a friend named Nancy. We decided to stick together and accompany each other through the night on the hard floor of the ATL airport. Hindsight 20/20 says I shouldn't have played any kind of game with her. She had won every card game, backgammon, and dominos game. After a bruised and heavily beaten ego  it was 3:30 am and time for an attempted nap. By nap I mean laying on cold ground with my eyes shut. Nancy and I instead stayed up looking for a warmer ground to sleep on, and chatted. Her fiance is a serviceman in the Navy that has fallen ill. I wish him the best and hope he can have a quick recovery.

5 pm Tuesday comes along and it is time for each of us to take our leave and hop on the plane. From there no troubles or outside interference led me down a different path. Greg picked me up and set me up on his futon and it was time to fall into the dark.