I had been planning this vacation for months. I had my time off work approved, my plane ticket, and had made arrangements to have some good friends look in on Isabel, my cat. I was working feverishly to get to a point at work where 3 days--June 28-30--would be enough to close out the current financial fiscal year at school when I returned from vacation. I was mostly packed by Thursday of the week I was leaving on Friday. Everything was set. There was just one little problem...
Thursday evening (the night before! I know, right?) I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was maybe getting a bladder infection. I don't drink enough water, a fault I have always had to work on. Add to this my frantic rushing around to prepare to be gone from work for 2 weeks, and about a ton of stress, and yep...recipe for disaster.
Oh, did I mention that I am taking an online class in Summer I? I debated about dropping it, but I have tried every semester to get into this class, a required one for my major, but it was never offered at night or online. When it became available online, I grabbed it. I had worked as far ahead as I could on the homework. Yes, add that stress as well.
Friday morning, there was no question. I was sure I had a urinary tract infection. I went on to work and called the doctor, thinking they'll call something in for me. No, they had to see me. Great. I told them I have a 4:30 flight, which means I need to be at the airport by 3:30 or 3:45 at the latest (it is Fort Smith, after all). It is now almost 11:30, and they go to lunch for an hour at noon. I locked the office and took off down to the doctor's office (which is in Van Buren, thank God). I spent my entire lunch hour in the doctor's office. The final diagnosis was, yes you have a UTI. Duh. So they called something in for me and I raced off to Walmart to get it. Of course, when I got there it's wasn't ready. I ended up waiting almost 30 minutes there for my prescription, which the pharmacist told me to take with food. I hadn't had time for lunch, but I knew I needed to get started on the antibiotics, so I went through Sonic and got a large WATER and a corn dog. Then I booked it back to work, where a lady was waiting for me to open up so she could pay her daughter's pep club membership.
I managed to get out of there by the 2:00 time I had set to run home and pull all my baggage together. I was 99% packed, but there are always last minute things like my toothbrush, the Chi, which was too hot to pack when I left for work, etc. I got this done and my friend Deb showed up right on time to take me to the airport. I was a nervous wreck--flying makes me nervous, and deadlines that I am worried about missing do as well. I talked non-stop I'm sure all the way over there. I was at the airport by 3:30 as I had hoped, and I checked in at the kiosk for my boarding passes.
And.....my flight was delayed. What?! No! You mean I rushed around for nothing? I went ahead and checked my one bag (too much stuff is needed in a week's time to get it all in the 2 carry-ons you're allowed). I then went through security with my carry-ons and collapsed in a chair by the gate where we would board. I could now relax. They finally called us to board and we ended up taking off about 5:08. Only about 38 minutes late. Not too bad. I could still make my connecting flight in Memphis.
We got to Memphis with no time to spare. Fortunately, the gate was on the same concourse, so it wasn't too far to go. There was no time to sit down, though, because they had already announced that our flight would board in the next few minutes. This plane ended up being delayed a little, too. They finally let us board, and we were on our way to Atlanta.
When we arrived in Atlanta, already about 20 minutes behind, our gate was not ready. So we sat in the plane for about 20-30 minutes. It was already going to be close for me to make this next connection. I was supposed be there by 8:45 or so, and the next flight was at 9:37. Since we were behind, though, it was after 9:00 when we got to Atlanta. We didn't deplane until 9:30. I looked at the departure status of my next flight, and it was delayed! It was set to take off at 11:30 instead of 9:37, but at least I would have time to get there. It was on C concourse, and I was on B. So I made my way to the subway train, went over to C, found the gate...it was moved. It was still delayed, but had been moved to--you guessed it--B concourse. Yes, the one I started on. *sigh*
This whole thing was like a comedy of errors. By this time, it was past annoying and stressful and just plain funny. Ever see the Bugs Bunny episode where he's the cartoon artist, drawing stuff to happen to Daffy?
Jeff was supposed to pick me up about 11:30 in Richmond, so I texted him and told him the delay status. We did finally take off around 11:30 from Atlanta, and landed in Richmond about 1:15 am, where we proceeded to wait for 30 minutes for our baggage. So it was 2:00 when we left Richmond for Williamsburg, a 45 minute drive. We arrived at Jeff and Alli's apartment just before 3:00. Jeff proudly showed me to the guest room that they had fixed up for my visit, and I crashed.
I know that the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. I have no doubt that He had it all arranged just the way it was for my protection. All evening, even though I was tired and a little frustrated, deep down I knew the Lord was taking care of me.
And so ended day one, the traveling day. More vacation blogs will follow.
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