What Happened

Here is the complete story of why I missed the bowling thing. I heard about this thing that AirTran did for college age people where it was $70 for a one way standby ticket. I thought I would try it. The idea was that I would look up flight times to Tampa online and get to the airport early and get on a plane in the morning and be home by the afternoon. I was also going to carry on my luggage. About 24 hours prior to me leaving, I began to notice that the flights to Tampa were selling out. By the morning of me leaving, there were only 2 left and the earliest one left at around 3 in the afternoon. I decided to get to the airport early anyway in case there was room on an earlier flight. After getting on the Tech bus and then the subway, I walked up to the Airtran counter and told them that I wanted to buy a standby ticket to Tampa. This is where the badness started happening. I was told that all Airtran flights to Tampa were sold out and that my carry on bag was too big. This meant two things. First, I had to find another airline, and second, I had to either buy a ticket to check my bag, or I had to mail it home. I had all my clothes in there, so I had to check it. So I got on the phone with my mom who was on the computer at home looking at tickets (the internet is not free in the Atlanta airport, which is pretty much the gayest thing ever). I talked to just about every airlines and soon discovered that it was going to end up being a trade off of time and money. Delta (the next cheapest alternative) had a one way flight to tampa for $900. Or, I could get a cheaper flight by way of Philidelphia or Chigaco, which would mean an 11 hour flight. My mom was freaking out because it turns out trying to by a ticket to Tampa, WHERE EVERYONE GOES FOR SPRING BREAK, several hours beforehand, is not easy. Or cheap. Then who should come to our house but an old Northside alumni who was selling knives. So my mom has to go listen to a presentation on the knives that slice AND dice and come with a lifetime warrenty. After refusing to buy large quantities of knives, we had an idea. Flying in to the Sarosota airport would be a lot cheaper because it is so much smaller. And sure enough, we found a reasonably priced flight to Sarosota that made a stop in Charlotte, NC. So I go up to the US Airways counter and talk to a dude named Fred. Fred was marginally insane. He made a remark about my name being Hunter and then excitedly muttered something about hunting and wild game. He also told me that he had been working at that desk for longer than I had been alive. Interesting. However, crazy Fred was nice because he managed to get me a seat on that flight and even gave me an Exit row window seat (lots of leg room). After making it through security, I found the gate and waited. The plane was scheduled to leave at 1:55. If everything went well, I would be home by 7. Nothing went well. The plane ended up being delayed for an hour because of the weather. Once I landed in North Carolina, I had missed my flight to Sarasota by 15 minutes. My new departure time? 10 pm. 5 hours of layover. But wait! On the screens by the gate there was a plane listed that was leaving for Tampa at 6:30! So I went to go ask the workers if I could just get on that one. And that is when my checked bag decided to attack my plans again. If I had not checked anything, I could have been on that plane. But because I did check something, the rule is you have to fly with your bags. It is 38 degrees in North Carolina and it is raining. I have never wanted to be home so badly in my life. Anyway, I have 4 hours to go now, and I will wrap up the story tomorrow (assuming I get home and the plane doesn't explode). Anyone want to bet that my bag will get lost?