Once upon a time there was a girl who was SUPER stoked about returning to her beloved city of York and seeing all of her people. However, she had had a long term relationship with Ohio and they were jealous of her new love York. When the day came for the girl to leave Ohio threw a fit and bitter cold and snow fell across the land. But the girl was determined that nothing would stop her from returning to York. She drove through a blinding blizzard and arrived at the airport earlier than expected. Where there were no lines and she breezed through security. All was looking well, her flight had not been delayed or canceled, in fact it was right on time.
As the girl bored the aircraft she was assured that they were right on scheduled and that she would have no problem making her next fight. Ohio, however, had other plans. The wind blew snow everywhere as they pulled away from the gate right on time. The girl sighed in relief knowing that she would be on-time and everything would go well. ... She was wrong. A few minutes after pulling away from the gate the pilot came on and announced that before taking off they would need to de-ice the aircraft. .... for 45+ minutes. The girls heart stopped. She would be late now. As the minutes ticked by her hope for making it to her next flight in the hour lay over that she had slipped away one by one. With a sigh she put her headphones in and turned on her "Power Up" playlist to make herself feel better. There was nothing she could do about it now.
After a soda and some reading and a bit of time they were informed that they were coming up on Atlanta and would be arriving at 7:00 a few min later they would arrive the gate. The girl was filled with hope. Her flight departed at 7:12 perhaps she could still make it! She checked her watch every two seconds. The flight arrived at the gate at 7:05. Katie looked up and all hope fell away...she was at the back of the airplane. and had 7 min. to get off and to her gate. It was never going to happen. So she accepted it and took a deep breath to calm down.
Walking off the plane she saw that she was in T terminal and needed to get to E.... across the entire airport in 2 min. It wasn't going to happen she gave up and didn't even try. Instead the girl got in short line to get her flight changed.... Short is a relative term. One woman was practically crying at the receptionist cuz "she needed to get home". Like no one else had messed up flights from the snow storm. Then there was the group of 18 people who needed to get to Miami (must be nice) together on the same plane or close to. So what looked like a short line quickly turned into an hour plus wait. The girl tried to keep her cool and positive attitude a patron who were in wheel chairs got taken care of before her when they had only just arrived.
After what seemed like forever it was finally her turn. She smiled at the lady and told herself not to get upset or frustrated because they were doing their best and this whole storm was messing EVERYONE up. "I can't get you on a flight to Manchester until Saturday" said the lady. "Saturday?! but that's two days from now." The girl and the woman talked and tried to figure out the best option. NO flights to London. NO flights to Manchester. Nothing she was stuck. Everything was full until Saturday where she could get the same flight at the same time but have to wait 2 days. The girl sighed. "Fine, what am I supposed to do until then?" "We can give you a discount on an airport hotel" said the woman. The girl asked for the cheapest option and proceed to make her way to the shuttles that would take her to the airport.
Upon arriving at the hotel the girl discovered that the hotel was running out of rooms so she was getting whatever was available. The 410 key was handed to her and the trudged up to her room hungry, annoyed and tired. THIS is where the story takes a turn. a HUGE room awaited her! King size bed. kitchen area, couch and lounge chair, desk, bathroom and .... best of all.... a Jacuzzi tub! It was very exciting but first she had to call her parents and her housemate who was going to meet her and let them know what happened and order some food. While everyone agreed the situation sucked there was nothing that could be done about it. Unfortunately the girl had nothing but the clothes she wore and her backpack full of homework and electronics. It would be an interesting few days.
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| Cool Tub! |
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| My Hotel is bigger than my Room at home... |
Once the Chinese food was ordered from room service and eaten the girl decided it was time to test out the jacuzzi tub. It was Awesome! All was as well as it could be. and actually a little bit fun.
The next day however, the girl had to get moved to another room because they couldn't keep her in the fancy room at the rate they were giving her. So she spent the day 2 rooms down in exactly the same thing really minus the cool tub and kitchen area. She got really bored. Jumped on her bed. Did her homework. Ran around the room like a crazy person. Watched a lot of TV. Skyped her friend in York who had been waiting for her and would now have wait a few more days. Oh and ate left over Chinese food all day out of a coffee cup because you can't microwave Styrofoam. After the longest most boring day ever she went to bed with high hopes about the next day.
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| Homework |
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| I had really nothing to do.... |
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| Food in cup. |
The next day she had her continental breakfast and headed back to the airport after checking out at the last possible second. The Atlanta airport was a shit show. Lines everywhere and people trying to get to their flights on time. The girl had time though. She actually had all day. So she waited patiently to find out where her bags were and check that they would make it with her. She waited an hour in the security line before she made it through. Then came the task of finding her gate (since it wasn't listed yet). Using her brain she made her way to the international terminal and decided she would hang out there until she found out. Luckily she found someone to ask and they informed her she was on the right track and what terminal her flight would be at. E4. The girl ate at TGI Fridays and enjoyed a nice cold Angry Orchard, because what else do you do when you have to spend an entire day at the airport?
And then she waited and waited... and waited. It was another long day. Finally 7:00pm rolled around and she was able to get on her way. She had a window seat and sat next to a nice older guy who was going to York for business. They had a pleasant chat and she was on her way... 8 more hours of sitting....
8 hours later Manchester greeted her.... and everything was well in the world. York was just a train ride away.
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| Welcome Back! |
2 hours later and in dire need of caffeine the girl met her friend at the train station and made it home.
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