EWR ---> SEA

Wednesday November 25th 3:55pm flight to Seattle.

..out of Newark.

Out of the three NYC airports, Newark is my least favorite to fly out of -- especially during the holidays.

We had a half day at work so I left at 12, got on the subway to 34th Street, walked to Penn Station, waited in line for 15 minutes to buy my train ticket, got on the train and transferred to the air train.

At the air train station I checked the monitor for my flight and correct terminal. My flight wasn't posted. hmm that's weird. I must be early or the monitor must not be updated. I boarded the overly crowded air train anyway and was crammed into the little pod-like compartment among the other holiday travelers.

While in my seat on the air train I decided to verify my travel documents. Why wasn't my flight on the screen?? Waves of a sickening feeling started in my stomach. I unfolded my printed confirmation email to see "New York-Kennedy" discreetly printed at the very bottom. I AM ON MY WAY TO THE WRONG AIRPORT!!!!!!!!!!!

Panic, shaky hands, stomach cramps, frantic texts filled with misspellings to Jecca and Laina take place. Obviously I can't start making phone calls and let eavesdroppers hear of my mistake. I have to maintain a little bit of composure in front of my fellow air train-ers. I texted my mom, I texted Laina, Colleen and Jecca something along the lines ofHoly s***!!! My flight is out of JFK and I'm headed to Newark! F***

I got off the air train at terminal A and started a mad dash in pointless circles back and forth between the American Airlines ticketing counter to the escalator to the window and back again. I called my parents' house, I called my mom's office, I called my mom's cell, I called my dad's cell, I texted my sister... NO RESPONSES! Where is my family during this emergency! I may be absent from our Thanksgiving dinner!!

Luckily, thanks to gchat, Jecca stepped in and took the necessary steps to help me. She got on the phone with a car service who told her traffic between Newark and JFK would be an hour and a half. I would never make the flight. She checked the Alaska flights out of Newark and the 6:30pm flight wasn't sold out. She sent me the 1-800 number for Alaska Airlines.

I found a semi-private corner to make the call. I was connected with Sharon.

"Hi-Sharon- my-name-is-Jamie-and-I-am-traveling-to-Seattle-from-New-York-I-was-supposed-to-go-to-JFK-and-I-went-to-Newark-I-am-at-the-wrong-airport-I am-never-going-to-make-my-flight-home-for-Thanksgiving-what-can-I-doooo?"

While she put me on hold, I called my dad on my other phone. Terrified freak in the airport corner with two Blackberries, one on each ear. With hold music in one ear and my dad's voicemail in the other, I left my dad a panicky message.

Sharon got back on the phone and told me that I can leave from Newark on the 6:30pm flight. "PERFECT. Let's do it!"

"Bless your heart, dear. You will make it home in time for Thanksgiving. You're not the first person this has happened to. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!"

"Thank you so much! You have been so helpful. I will make it home to see my family, but they will never let me live this down. Thanks so much for your help!! Happy Thanksgiving!"

$305 later, after my "expensive mistake" as per Sharon, my ticket was changed.

I finally got in touch with my mom who was completely and surprisingly calm about the situation.. does she not know what trauma I just went through?! Does she realize her 25 year old daughter should be in assisted living?! She blamed my lazy eye.. That's right! I would have been able to get to the correct airport if I had some freaking contacts!

Anyway, I made it to Seattle and I am thankful for Jecca, gchat and Sharon from Alaska Airlines this year. Seriously.. if it wasn't for them I'd probably still be curled up in a ball crying in the corner of terminal A.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

driving-thru and parking in PA

My BF and I flew to Pittsburgh, rented a car and drove to a wedding in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania on Friday. It was pure adventure as we navigated and got lost on the MANY highways of Pittsburgh. (I learned that luckily Dan didn't get too mad at me when I got us lost. Phew!) I have to say, I made a pretty good co-pilot as I routed and re-routed our journey with the help of Mapquest and Google Maps on our Blackberries while I maintained constant good tunes. I also helped Dan make safe left turns and nagged him whenever he looked at his cell phone. "Haven't you seen the movie Seven Pounds?!?!!?!! You have precious cargo in this car!"

Anyway, our plan was to find a Starbucks for a caffeine fix before the wedding until we realized the town we were in. Churches and antique shops were sprinkled on every corner and the closest thing to Starbucks was McDonald's. With a McCafé latte in hand, Dan ever so chivalrously opened my car door for me. This is when I noticed a woman whiz by on an electric wheelchair. Of course this caught my interest and then I realized what she was doing. Wheelchair woman was headed to the drive-thru! As Dan closed my door, in giggles I pointed her out. He must have been just as captivated by her as I was because he mindlessly sat himself down into the backseat rather than the driver's seat because he was staring at her so intently. I had uncontrollable giggles at this point, Dan got into the driver seat and we followed her...




In addition to the wheel chair drive-thru hilarity, we had a great time at the wedding and got to spend quality brunch and park T-I-M-E with besties Colleen and Jake!

Nature shot in my Forever 21 lovely miracle dress

Dan in action getting the kite to fly

We had a great trip driving-thru and parking in Pennsylvania!

may recap

May has been an interesting month. I have to be honest and say I am glad it's over in 40 minutes. Here's the scoop:

May 1-3: My life coach and BFF Colleen visitsMay 4: I get laid off
May 5: I turn 25
May 6-8: Search for jobs
May 8-11: I go to Seattle for a weekend trip; boyfriend gets his backpack stolen :-( I get to spend Mother's Day with my mom and grandma :-)May 11-18: Boyfriend goes to LA for work; I spend my lonely days searching for jobs and interviewing
May 21: I accept a job offer
May 21-25: Phoenix reunion trip with my my best friends in the entire worldMay 26-29: First week of new job
May 29-31: Spend entire weekend with boyfriend :-)Phewww I'm exhausted and ready for a new month. Happy June!

My (most fun and I want to do it again) Vacation

I've been struggling with creativity and inspiration lately. Mostly because I am depressed to return to my normal life after a 7 day vacation of a lifetime with my dear fam. Here is a mini photo diary of the highlights.

My seeester challenge: refill ice cream cones every time we pass the ice cream machine. We quickly upgraded into getting a bowl, crunching up cookies and filling the bowl at the ice cream machine.The crew (from right to left): me, seeester, brother in law, future sisssy in law and bro.

Randy getting felt up by the shot girl.

Me getting felt up by the shot girl. "Free massage!"

Porn star Echo Valley! "I'm sooooo drunk!" After a little Wikipedia search I learned that this was my introduction to the bra size 65NN

Please someone take me back to this moment. Around this point in time I was floating in the ocean thinking about how lucky I was NOT to be working on Excel spreadsheets.
My tan is quickly fading, my shins and feet are peeling, my sandflea bites still itch, and I REALLY miss my family!

the baggage claim game

I remember those golden travel days of yesteryear when I could quickly check in my suitcases, breeze through security sipping my grande nonfat no-whip white chocolate mocha, then I'd buy Cosmo at Hudson News, give the plane a little "trusty plane" good luck tap when boarding (it's tradition) and then enjoy my in-flight meal and watch a movie with the headsets the airline provided. This was the way I traveled back in the good old days of my teenage years.

Now I have to dish out $15-$25 just to check a bag. The airlines are forcing me to pay more than my self tanner and hairspray are worth just so I can travel with them! I have to rid myself of any liquids I may have "accidentally forgotten" in my carry-on bag; I refuse to do the Ziploc bag thing because it just seems so dorky. I have to take off shoes and practically strip naked to get through security, have to use 4 of those stupid white bins to get all the stuff organized correctly for the x-ray machine, by the time I get to the gate I am still readjusting my clothes and can't afford Cosmo anymore. I give the plane my "trusty plane" tap, board the plane and then I begin to starve to death since I now have to pay for anything more than the bag of spicy pretzel mix the flight attendant slams on my middle-seat tray table.

Let's be honest. Flying is awful. It has lost all of its glamour and excitement. Sometimes when going through security I have a daydream that this is me stripping down to enter a concentration camp. Morbid, I know. But it is pretty bad and it will probably continue to get worse. Perhaps they will start charging passengers for the required seat belts or install credit card machines for those passengers wanting to use their overhead lights. 50 cents to use the onboard bathrooms?

But I must say that the absolute WORST thing about traveling is the baggage claim. For paying $25 to check my bags, you'd think some beautiful male model in a captain's suit would personally deliver my suitcases to me but NO. I have to fight to even get a view of the bags which are haphazardly thrown on the carousel. As soon as that orange indicator light goes off, people suddenly go loco. The pushy people crowd around the metal conveyor belt blocking the less aggressive travelers' views and access to retrieve their bags. My after-Christmas baggage claim experience was the worst. Continental, WestJet, Alaska AND JetBlue were all on the same carousel and it was PACKED like 6 people deep just to get a glimpse of the shiny moving metal. I walked around the circle looking for a sparse area and BINGO! I found the perfect spot...or I thought. I failed to realize that a father-son duo was blocking anyone else's view with THREE Smarte Cartes! I couldn't see anything, I couldn't go anywhere, my bags could have gone around 7 times but I was blocked by this idiot Crocs wearing duet. The dad loaded their carts one by one and the son would push them back behind me bumping into everyone apology free. I still could not get any closer to the carousel's edge. Anytime there was 6 inches of space, someone else out of nowhere would swoop in and steal the spot that should have been mine! This always happens to me. I don't understand why people can't stand back a little bit so others can see. Is it a race that no one ever told me about? This man literally put his red Croc foot up onto the ledge of the baggage claim to further block anyone or anything that might come in his way!

Maybe everyone is worried about travel procedures continuing to change for the worse and are afraid that if not claimed quick enough they will be penalized with some sort of "you took too long to get your bag" fee. Who knows. I wouldn't be surprised.