well, toto, seems we're in kansas
as part of my new duties as project manager of the new website the alumni association is rolling up, i've been sent to overland park, kansas (don't ask me where that is, exactly) for training and data-dumping in order to best prepare. due to the total state of ruin our budget is in, i had to get the best possible airfare for my trip out here, which meant a stopover in denver before hitting kansas city (missouri). after being woken up at 5am with a ridiculous texted question from a colleague, i made my way to the airport to meet up with my fellow travelers and face the midwest.
after discovering that united charges $20 for the FIRST bag you check (!!), i found myself wedged firmly in to a middle seat in the second row of the plane, far away from meg and paula. 10 minutes before landing the short flight, i hear a cough/sneeze sound behind me and think little of it. simultaneously, i see the gentleman to my right reach up to his head and look accusingly at me. the lady behind him started calling the flight attendant, which made me turn around to see her hand clasped over the mouth of the little boy behind me. he "coughed" again, and out spews vomit, cascading over her, me, and my seatmate like an exploding water balloon. thankfully, i was spared the shower, but still got some fall out. i heard the mom mutter "shouldn't have had all that seafood..." ... ... now i think i will hurl.
i got to joking with the guy next to me about it (turns out he thought i had spit on him... who does he normally sit next to?!), and all we could really do was laugh about it so we didn't get mad. as we disembarked from the plane, as fast as humanly possible, i might add, he mentioned that he was an air marshall. cool! i asked him what that meant, and he said that he was there to make sure the plane didn't get hijacked. i asked what happened if it DID get hijacked, and he said he'd shoot someone. too bad he couldn't take care of barfy-head.
the leg from denver to kansas city, i'd like to say was uneventful. mostly, the only difference was now i was second from the back of the plane rather than the front. also wedged in to the middle on a very full flight. and unfortunately the victim of my neighbor's diet coke. to top it off, i managed to spray myself down with foam soap at the airport, and come to think of it, i had a leaky coffee cup before even taking off in the morning. not a good day for keeping clean.
to add insult to injury, meg's alarm didn't go off this morning, which meant that we were awakened by paula's knocking on our door at 7:45am... the exact time we were supposed to board the shuttle for our training session today. in case you were wondering, we were up, dressed, and out the door with breakfast in hand in 8 minutes flat. 2 girls. impressive? yes, though i would have rather had the time to wake up.
tonight proves to be an adventure through thunderstorms. hopefully tomorrow will be a nice reset.
there's no place like home... there's no place like home...
current mood: there's no place like home!