NEWSLETTER

I know, it's been awhile.  So, I'm going to catch you up on lots of things.  Call it a "newsletter", like the ones you get in Christmas cards.


Relay for Life is over for the year.  As usual, the Luminaria Ceremony was beautiful, so peaceful.  I walked the silent lap with a dear friend whose dad has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  The rain chased us in around 1am and there we stayed until the sun came up.  Ultimately we raised more than $30,000!  Way to go, Martin County!






I got a card in the mail last week from Thy Word Network.  They just wanted me to know that my name was pulled to be one of the people they pray for by name.  How amazing is that?!  I was still stressing about my latest phone call with Jeff (see below) and a little anxious about my two week trip to be evaluated on my knowledge of ERP.  So, the prayers were welcome...and truly appreciated.  It totally made me smile.  And the homemade card is beautiful!

Jeff has made a huge decision for his life.  It's personal to him.  So I don't feel all that comfortable sharing the details on the world wide web.  But suffice it to say, I'm very proud of him.  I don't think he realizes how much I believe in him.  His first call to me was very positive.  His second call to me was very negative.  I haven't talked to him in over a week.  But I've written to him and hope to hear from him again soon.  Prayers for Jeff!

It was SummerFest weekend in Loogootee this past weekend.  I went with a friend Thursday night.  I had plans with the 89ers Friday night and after singing at mass and then with the MarCo's Saturday night, I needed to pack and rest for my trip.  So, Thursday was the best day for me to attend.  It happened to be the night of the auction.  ...I walked away with a red love seat.  I love it and it looks GREAT in my living room.  Friday, I stopped by Englert's and ordered a rug.  When I get home from travel next week, I'm ordering a recliner.  My apartment is definitely coming together.

Like I said, Friday night I went to dinner with the 89ers.  This time, we went to Bobe's and then Scoops in Washington.  GREAT time!  We had a couple of newbies.  Peggy came down from Indy and Tammy came down from near Bloomington.  It was the first time they had both joined us and we had a lot of fun getting to know them again.  I hope they join us more often.

I think I had a migraine early (and I mean EARLY) Friday morning.  I woke up at 3am with a horrible headache.  Within 30 minutes, I was vomiting.  It wasn't until after 4am that I finally fell asleep again.  But still, I woke up with a headache.  Went to work for much of the day, but wore my shades most of the morning.  Finally, one of my co-workers asked if maybe my headache was a migraine.  Made perfect sense!  That's the first bad one I've had in several years.  By the time I went home I was feeling TONS better.

I'm traveling again.  Business, not pleasure.  I chose to drive this time, as opposed to flying.  I figured that since I was going to be here for two weeks, I'd like to have my car with me.  I'd be able to come and go as I pleased and even make it to church.  But I've been here since Sunday night and haven't moved my car even one time.  I'll probably get out and explore some Friday.

Every once in awhile I ask someone if they pray.  Either I'm asking for prayers or I want to share something with them that they'd really only appreciate if they're actively Christian.  I think it's safe to say that I've asked that question dozens of times.  Monday for the first time ever, when I asked someone if she was a praying woman, I received the response, "no".  I was surprised by the answer, mostly because I'm usually surrounded by people who pray.  But I didn't hold it against her or even show that I was surprised.  What I did was share the bible verse with her anyway!

I got a Facebook friend request yesterday that really surprised me.  I accepted the request.  And I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of that relationship.  And that's all I have to say about that...for now.

Trip from Hell

So, I am finally home.  I was on travel this past week.  I left really early last Sunday morning for training that started at 8am Monday morning.  I had a 6pm flight out of there Friday evening.  I should have gotten home between midnight and 12:30am Saturday morning.
Best laid plans...

We got out of class early Friday, just before lunch.  Probably should have gone right to the airport and tried to get on an earlier flight.  Not sure that it would have made any difference.  And since we can't go back in time, it makes no sense to wonder why.

Nevertheless, I got to the airport in PLENTY of time for my scheduled flight.  As I'm checking my luggage, the soft-spoken lady behind the desk explains to me that my flight to Charlotte is delayed.  I'm like, it's not even supposed to be here for nearly three hours and they already know they're delayed?!  Sounds like plenty of opportunity to make up time to me.  But I don't fly for an international airline, so what do I know?

This soft-spoken lady went on to say that even if the first leg of my flight was only going to be 30 minutes late, it would give me a really short layover in Charlotte.  In fact, she said that it would be 'really tight' for me to get off one flight on Concourse E and make it to my next flight on Concourse B.  She immediately suggested that I change my second flight.

Ugh!  I was already getting home after midnight.  I didn't want to get home any later.  But I didn't want to miss my flight either.  So, I agreed, asking her what the next flight out was.  She said that there was one at 10:10pm...but it was already booked.  I'd be on the stand-by list, but it didn't look like I'd get on that one either.

By this time, I'm wondering how many more flights Charlotte Douglas could possibly have going to Indy on a Friday night.  The answer?  ZERO!  The soft-spoken lady said that she had a confirmed seat for me on a flight out of Charlotte exactly 24 hours after I was originally supposed to fly out there...8:15pm Saturday night!  WHAT?!  They were scheduling me for a 24-hour layover?!  What the heck was I supposed to do in Charlotte for 24 hours?!

I hadn't even checked my luggage and I was already stressed about my trip home.  If I didn't make my connection in North Carolina, it appeared that I wasn't getting home until sometime Saturday night.  So much for my three-day weekend.  (I wonder how I'm supposed to charge this time on my time card?)

I tried not to stress.  I checked my luggage and got my boarding pass.  Then I headed through security and on to my gate...where I found a good 200 people waiting on an airplane from Charlotte...to take them back to Charlotte.  Apparently there was a bad storm delaying things in-and-around Charlotte, even putting them on a 'ground stop', which means that none of the ground crew is allowed on the tarmac.

And wouldn't you know it, that same storm made its way up the eastern coast line to DC, putting Dulles on a 'ground stop'.  So, the 4:10 left closer to 6.  The 6:01 left closer to 8.  So, I was definitely going to miss my 8:15 out of Charlotte.  And I'd already been told that I wasn't likely to make it onto the 10:10pm out of Charlotte to Indy.

So, I resigned myself to staying the night in NC.  I headed to baggage claim to grab my suitcase and see about getting a hotel.  Because my baggage was supposed to simply transfer planes in order to get to Indy, it wasn't at baggage claim.  It wasn't lost, just somewhere in the bowels of Charlotte Douglas...and completely unavailable to me.

Okay, so I'd get a hotel WITHOUT my luggage.  I'd still get to take a shower and get a good night's sleep.  Right?  WRONG!

Thanks to the Coca-Cola 600, there were no hotel rooms to be had.  Great!  So, I tried to go back into the airport.  Up to this point, I was dealing with things pretty well, considering.  I'd already been away from home six days in a row.  Another week of training where I learned WAY too much in a five-day span.  A depressive day in there.  And now, a less-than-idea trip home.

Soooo, I learned that I couldn't get back into the airport because my boarding pass had a time that was in the past.  So, I went back to the US Airways desk to get another one.  THIS is where I started to get REALLY annoyed.

It's nearly midnight...the time I was originally supposed to be pulling into Martin County.  I'm in line with five other people.  Not 100, not even 20.  Just five.  And this overweight guy with long hair and a moustache announces that they're closed.

WHAT?!  You have hundreds of stranded passengers here.  Where do you think you're going?!  I told him that I'd never been in this position before, couldn't get a hotel room, and apparently didn't have a flight for 20 hours...I asked him where I was supposed to go.  He pointed at one of the chairs in the lobby and said, "I suggest you pull up a chair and get comfortable.  We'll be back at 4:45AM."   He also got a dig in there about how I should have planned ahead and gotten a hotel room before midnight on a Friday night during a race weekend.  I told him that I wasn't accustomed to having to get a hotel in the city where I was just making a connection flight...then again, I'd never flown US Airways before (which is a lie, but it accomplished my goal of ticking him off).  He went on to tell us that the storms were not their fault and pretty much we weren't his problem.  Talk about some ticked off customers.

So, I pulled up a chair and waited it out.  Hey, at least I had a chair.  Sitting there with two laptops and my purse, I was a little leery about falling asleep in the middle of hundreds of strangers.  Not that it mattered.  All the lights were on.  The carts that drove by all had little beeping sounds to clear pedestrian traffic, not that there was much of that at that time of night.  The vacuuming and buffing was much too loud to sleep through.  And then there were a dozen or so people yelling and cussing about how dissatisfied they were with this airline.

Five and a half hours later, I had a new boarding pass and was heading back into the airport for breakfast.  AND my 8:15pm flight became a 4pm flight.  WooHoo!  With any luck, I could be home by dark!  Also, I was sitting stand-by for the five flights out of Charlotte to Indy before my flight.  I didn't get on the first two, but I got on the third one, leaving NC at 1:15pm.  Praise the Lord!

I referred to my stay at Charlotte Douglas as an incarceration.  But really, I was only there about 15 hours.  Just seemed like days.  Just like my five days of training seemed like a month!  I swear, I was in some strange time-warp all week last week!

At 5:30 Saturday afternoon, I was home!

And lucky me...I don't have to make that trip again for TWO WEEKS!

Almost Home

I write this tonight because I'm away from home.  But in about 25 hours or so, I'll be home.  And I'm REALLY looking forward to it!  I've had another long week.  I have a three-day weekend coming up.  I have family coming in this weekend.  And I get to sleep in my own bed.  I can't wait!

"Almost Home"

by Karen Boyd

From her website...

This was an art class assignment to do a high horizon painting. I was happy that I didn’t “muddy” up the colors as I always struggle with this. The name “Almost Home” was because it takes me back to my Indiana childhood home even though the setting is not quite the same.

Indiana!  Did you read that?!  Home for her is Indiana too!  Love it!