6.30.2009

Airport Fun

Oh my goodness. I am so sick of this airport in Charlotte!!! Let me tell you the fantastical story of my time here since yesterday at 12 PM.
So basically there was no one staying at the hotel until Tuesday, so I would have to fork out $80 for a lame hotel room for a few hours to wait until my flight left today at 10 AM. Who wants to pay more for nothing? I don't! So I decided (ahem) to sleep at the airport and wait for my flight to leave. So I checked out from the hotel at 11 AM yesterday and waited for the shuttle to take me to the airport at noon.
Then I decided that I was not checking my bags because they can fit into the overhead bins. BUT I forgot that I had shampoo, hairspray, this huge thing of peanut butter in my suitcase. Those all classify as liquids and gels according to the airport security...so I had to throw away all my things. But it was ok, I wasn't worried at that point.
Then I go to my gate and just start sitting. Playing on the computer. Facebook. Watching movies. Emailing. Texting people. Reading. It got very boring very fast. So I decided to walk around and went to the bookstore and (surprise!) sat and read some more! It was about 7 PM when I decided to eat my food. There was hardly anyone in the airport and it was getting awkward between me and the airport people. I mean, they have seen me sitting in the same seat all day long, not doing anything. "What is she doing?" they must wonder. So I just do some more of the same things and around 11:15 PM I decided to put my pajama pants on and lay down on the seats in the airport.
It was freezing and all the lights were on, so of course I could hardly sleep. Besides that though, the airport people were cleaning and vacuuming the entire time. I probably slept for a half hour and would wake up, sleep for a half hour, wake up, and so on. Around 12:45 AM a huge group of people that just got off their flight walked past and were talking very loudly, so I woke up and sat up. I noticed a man dusting and when he got near me, he said, "You are going to have to go downstairs. The security is closing and they are going to come through soon, so if you go downstairs you will see other people that are sleeping waiting for security to open in the morning." I explained how confused I was because I didn't see anyone else sleeping near the gates, but no one stopped me from sleeping either. So I went downstairs.
Then I sat by these teenagers and these young kids who were crying basically the whole night. It was a lot warmer downstairs but I was more worried to fall asleep there because the doors to go outside were right there, so anyone could come in and take your stuff if you were sleeping. I tried to get comfortable and put my suitcase between my legs and my arms and head over my backpack to protect them. Around 3 AM another cleaning man came and woke me up so that he could move the seats back to their original position. I took my things and went to a protected corner in the hall and laid down. About a half hour later the same man told me to move so he could vacuum. It was ridiculous!! I went back to the chairs and just waited, dozing sometimes, until 5:10 AM so I could go back upstairs to go through security.
I got through and I've been awake ever since. I can't wait to get on the plane and sleep. With a blanket!!

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