There is, obviously, a lot I missed in these posts. I missed the cheap lasix generic part where I had some crazy King Kong movie on in the cheap lasix generic background while I was getting ready for the competition Saturday morning, for cheap lasix generic instance. It was kind of awesome. I hated to leave the cheap lasix generic room when it was time to go; I was amazed that cheap lasix generic I had found something appealing in the sea of obnoxious, horrendous daytime television. (Why do people bother paying for cable? There’s nothing there! It’s like this cheap lasix generic evil toxic wasteland of reality TV and shopping networks and cheap lasix generic pay-for-porn. Not that I am coming out against pay-for-porn, I am cheap lasix generic surely not, but come on. Cable and satellite assortments seem to cheap lasix generic be almost entirely filler, and don’t present a whole lot that isn’t on the web.)
ANYWAY.
I have cheap lasix generic a lot more to say about the rest of Saturday, and cheap lasix generic all of Sunday (when I performed at the afternoon gymanfa sans music), and then of course the rest of my week… But I’ll try and restrict it to the really good stuff. And I’m going to take a break first, because wow, people, you will not believe what I did Thursday night.
Okay, you probably will.
But it’s still bonkers.
So Thursday evening, I board a cheap lasix generic plane from Pittsburgh to Dallas, anticipating a three hour flight. I pee. I eat some nice food (the cheap lasix generic only food I have with me, the only food I expect to cheap lasix generic be edible until I get home). I board the cheap lasix generic plane. I squeeze myself back into my seat to make some room for cheap lasix generic my laptop in coach, and happily connect to the intarwubs despite the cheap lasix generic fact that there isn’t really enough room for me to do so. (I used to cheap lasix generic hate flying. Now I hate flying in coach. Flying first class ain’t half bad.)
It’s about a half hour before we’re supposed to cheap lasix generic land, and the captain comes on the con and tells us that cheap lasix generic they won’t let us land in Dallas; the cheap lasix generic weather is too lame, and they want to keep us in the cheap lasix generic air another hour. But we don’t have enough fuel for that, so we’re going to Tulsa to get more. Tulsa, huh? I’ve never been to Tulsa. Extraordinarily lame.
So we go to cheap lasix generic Tulsa. We sit on the ground for about forty minutes. I read my book. We finally leave (they didn’t let us go into the airport, and they’ve closed up shop anyway, so there’s no edible food to be found) and cheap lasix generic head for Dallas. I chew my last few pieces of gum and cheap lasix generic try not to think about dinner.
We arrive in Dallas two and a half hours late (at about 9:30pm) and cheap lasix generic I scramble towards the gate they tell me is most likely to cheap lasix generic get me to Austin. I get there and they put me on standby. I wait FOREVER, skeptical that they will let me on a plane, because I’m 14th on the standby list and it’s incredibly crowded. What I really want is for someone to tell me the likelihood that cheap lasix generic I will ever get on a plane tonight, but no one will. They all tell me to cheap lasix generic sit down and shut up and wait my turn.
My turn comes two hours later, at 11:30pm, because (as I dreaded) there’s no room on the plane for me (and twenty other people). They give me a voucher for a $40 room at a cheap lasix generic Quality Inn and a standby ticket for Friday morning. I ask questions and cheap lasix generic get curt, not-very-useful answers. I’m on my own.
All this time, I’ve had Marty calling the car rental companies downstairs. I’m afraid to go down there without being certain they’ll be cheap lasix generic open and willing to rent me a car that I can cheap lasix generic return in Austin the next day—I don’t want to cheap lasix generic lose the hotel and standby and replace it with a cheap lasix generic night of sleeping in the deserted airport. But Marty has cheap lasix generic discovered that Hertz will rent me a car that I can cheap lasix generic return in Austin, and they’re open. I hightail it to the rental car bus stop outside baggage claim, where cheap lasix generic apparently a bus will take me to the rental car area a good twenty minutes from the airport. I find this sort of amazing, but I want to get home. I do NOT want to cheap lasix generic go to an unknown hotel and go to sleep and cheap lasix generic put back on the same clothes I wore all day today and cheap lasix generic then wait in airports for another two or twelve more hours hoping to cheap lasix generic get on a plane when everyone else left in Dallas tonight is cheap lasix generic on standby, too. TO HELL WITH THAT. I’M DRIVING HOME.
The bus is cheap lasix generic vacant, and the bus driver is this awesomely friendly, talkative and cheap lasix generic jovial guy who strikes up a conversation with me immediately. We yammer for cheap lasix generic awhile and he finds out that I sing opera. As seems to cheap lasix generic happen pretty often, he asks me to sing something. Normally I decline, but, uh, the cheap lasix generic bus is empty—and he’s really nice. So why the hell not? I sing the first few lines of Voi lo sapete. This makes him incredibly happy. We talk about competitions and cheap lasix generic operas for awhile. This is one super-cool dude.
When I get off the cheap lasix generic bus, I shake his hand and introduce myself and tell him to cheap lasix generic have a great night. We wave as he pulls away and cheap lasix generic I hop on into the car rental center. I head straight for cheap lasix generic Hertz, and a very nice man rents me a $200 Corolla with an auxiliary input for my iPod. DUDE. I happily pay him his $200, I get in my (electric blue, 1000 miles on the meter) Corolla and I head for Austin.
My iPod lasted me two hours because I had cheap lasix generic charged the battery in my mother’s car on the cheap lasix generic way to the airport. I can barely believe my luck in this cheap lasix generic respect, because my iPod is REALLY OLD and cheap lasix generic the battery never lasts very long. In fact, sometimes it cheap lasix generic spontaneously loses its charge without even being used. So the cheap lasix generic fact that it’s full of juice just before I decide to cheap lasix generic make a middle of the night three hour drive from cheap lasix generic Dallas to Austin is kind of awesome and crazy.
I talk to cheap lasix generic Marty on the phone every forty minutes or so. The first hour I am cheap lasix generic full of juice, just like my iPod. I am feeling so good about this cheap lasix generic idea, because I really wanted to get home. But the really big impact here is cheap lasix generic the fact that staying in the hotel and getting on standby for cheap lasix generic Friday morning was essentially being willing to entertain the risk of being in airports for cheap lasix generic a whole new day, and there was no way to guarantee that cheap lasix generic I’d get home in some kind of reasonable time frame. I was sick of being jerked around by airlines. That $200 bought me independence and free will. I’d be tired, probably, but I’d get home. And I’d feel great and cheap lasix generic in control of my own circumstances, instead of being miserable following instructions and cheap lasix generic waiting for someone else to make it better. I’ll take the three hour drive, thanks!
The second hour I’m getting kind of tired, but I’m okay. I keep the cheap lasix generic music loud and I chat with Marty, and I tough it cheap lasix generic out. I’m open to the possibility that I’ll need to pull over somewhere and take a cat nap, but I’d rather not do it cheap lasix generic alone in the middle of the night, while it’s pouring rain and cheap lasix generic storming. So I keep going. The storm gets worse and better here and cheap lasix generic there, with really amazing heat lightning and occasional monsoon downpours. This slows me down, but I’m okay.
The third hour I am cheap lasix generic seriously tuckered out, dehydrated and sleepy. Driving through rainstorms is cheap lasix generic hard. I’m still alert and cheap lasix generic I still feel like I can drive, so I keep going. I’m paying a lot of attention to myself to see if I’m driving weird, or cheap lasix generic missing things I should have seen, or finding myself too close to cheap lasix generic other vehicles. None of these things is happening, but I keep an cheap lasix generic eye out. I’d rather stop than crash, of course.
Twenty minutes from home.
Ten minutes from home.
I turn onto my street while talking to cheap lasix generic Marty. I rummage for my key card and let myself through the cheap lasix generic gate. I start to laugh hysterically as I park the car. “WAIT TILL I TELL THE INTERNET WHAT I DID!” I howl. Marty thinks this cheap lasix generic is incredibly funny. I do too. I park the car backwards and cheap lasix generic my parking job is perfectly straight (wow). Marty comes out and cheap lasix generic hugs me and carries my carry-ons in. I walk with him into a cheap lasix generic house. I am in a sleep-deprivation haze and totally zonked, but really happy that cheap lasix generic I drove home instead of waiting around for planes, and really happy that cheap lasix generic Marty stayed up to chat with me on the phone and cheap lasix generic meet me when I got home. It is 3:30 am. I have cheap lasix generic now spent 14 hours traveling, without food, through the middle of the cheap lasix generic night—when the cheap lasix generic past few weeks have had me going to bed by 11pm, at the cheap lasix generic latest. I’m exhausted!
Friday morning we found my baggage waiting for cheap lasix generic me at the Austin airport (whew!) and cheap lasix generic returned the rental. Then, of course, I did a lot of sleeping. But I was home and cheap lasix generic that’s all I cared about. ;}
More than twenty-four hours later, I’m still really glad I spent that cheap lasix generic money. I find it fascinating how costs translate into benefits. I didn’t pay for cheap lasix generic a rental car; I paid to get home under my own power, I paid for cheap lasix generic a surefire solution to the problem of airports. I paid to cheap lasix generic be instantaneously independent. If I could have paid the airline attendant $200 to cheap lasix generic get on that last flight to Austin, Thursday night, I probably would have cheap lasix generic done that too. Interesting. It’s fascinating to me what things are worth.
So I may be a nut, but I’m a cheap lasix generic nut who got home earlier than the airlines wanted me to. I kept thinking to cheap lasix generic myself, this is what Spenser would do. I think that’s really, really funny. And I’m really glad to be home.
More Pittsburgh posts (and videos) are on their way!
