I wrote most of this Saturday April 3rd
I’ve flown a lot of places since I met Laurence. I never really had to fly stand-by until I met her, and I embraced immediately. We would both stress about the trip, but we seem to stress in complimentary way’s. It added a sense of adventure every time we went somewhere. There was always a chance we wouldn’t get on. This lead to the opportunity to travel the non-obvious route which also adds spice to a journey. Something always seemed to work out, even if it took a little longer to reach the destination.

Today was probably one of my worst experiences, but it could end up being my best. It actually started last night, friday April 2nd.

I had bought tickets to this Flash conference some months back. Because of Laurence’s flight benefits, it is actually much cheaper for me to buy tickets to a Flash conference in Toronto and make the trip there, than it is for me to buy tickets to a similar conference in San Francisco…go figure. I’m actually able to go to both conferences, but I had to volunteer at the San Francisco one. Which leaves the Toronto one for me to kick back, relax, and enjoy.

So last night I left for SFO. Laurence wasn’t feeling very well, but she was able to drop me at the train station, which would take me to BART, and in turn SFO for one of two red-eye’s to Chicago. And wouldn’t you know it, apparently it’s the Spring Break Sprawl and everyone is flying everywhere…so no flight for Cody.

Laurence was feeling well enough to come and get me, so I went home around Midnight for about 4 hours of sleep only to return to SFO at 5:30 A.M. To start the whole process over again.

I’m honestly not sure how many flights I didn’t get on to chicago, but I can tell you it was a lot. It’s not often I loose count of things. I seemed to develop a group of buddies that I really didn’t know, but I would see them at every flight looking as tired as I felt.

Lucky for me, Laurence was working in Kiddy City today and I got to hang out with her while I waited. She was like my inside man, running the flight loads and compairing them with the standby lists. Those little bits of information helped immensely.

Around noon my group of standby refugees and I were told to walk back down the terminal again to go and wait for the next departure. I started to leave after everyone else when she called and told me to hang out there for a few minutes. Lucky me,
There were a bunch of families traveling together an there was one last seat. Boarding pass in hand as I crossed the threshold of the jetway, I hear the agent yelling “WAIT”. Two paying passengers showed up after the last minute and the were going to board instead. All I could do was laugh…

Back in Kiddy City we went over my options, and things were looking grim. If I flew threw Boston and spent the night in the airport there, I would get there late tomorrow, but I would get there. I was getting ready to accept defeat and go home with Laurence at 4 P.M.

Lucky for me, one of the Chicago flights was running late, and was rescheduled to leave at the same time as the following flight, so my odds were cut in half. I got the last seat on a 2 P.M. flight, and through some last minute mixup I got to ride upstairs First Class in a 747-400, my first time riding upstairs.

It was fantastic, a warm sandwich, a couple if Gin & Tonics, and a nap makes Cody a new man. I’m sitting here in Chicago getting ready to board, and for a great weekend. I guess things really do work out…

As a little Footnote, I got First Class the whole trip. I got back late Monday night and I had a great time. I guess with a little patience…anything can happen…