Live from St Louis…
Tonight I find myself in a hotel room in St. Louis, MO. Coming to this city is about eight months delayed, but I am here….working for a different company, living in a different state and with a very different mission, but I’m here… finally.
After a minor panic attack this morning as I realized my alarm clock had not gone off, I made it to the Atlanta airport relatively easy. I got checked in, through security and to my gate with time to spare. I enjoyed some people watching and actually ran into one of my old patients while waiting for my flight. All was going fine until the announcement came: “All flights grounded until further notice.” What? Seriously? The commotion that ensued was almost comical as people tried to comprehend the repercussions this would have on their travel plans. The flight delays lasted for only about 30 minutes, but the damage had been done. My 9:30 flight was now scheduled to leave at 10:15 which made my 11:20 connecting flight out of the question. This was going to be a fun day.
The next part of my day found me (literally) running through the Charlotte airport. They had told us on the plane that the delays in Atlanta had caused several of the surrounding airports to delay their flights as well. We were told to run to our connecting gates and hope for the best. I got to my gate just in time to watch the plane leave. It stung a bit to actually see the plane pull away, knowing that I only missed it by a few minutes. The next flight to St. Louis left at 2:30, and by some miracle I was able to get a seat. Nothing like killing three hours in an airport…
I finally touched down in St. Louis around 4 o’clock this afternoon. I found my bag, got a rental car and managed to find my office just as everyone was leaving. My first day of my new job lasted for about 10 minutes. I’m glad they are breaking me in slowly.
I also had a rude awakening as I walked out of the airport in my short sleeve shirt to find it snowing. For a minute I thought I was back in Michigan…
Overall, its been a slightly exhausting, yet very successful day. I have a hard time complaining about anything right now as I am sitting in a nice (free) hotel room, eating (free) dinner, surfing the (free) Internet and watching the (free) TV. I think I could get used to traveling on someone elses dime. =)
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