The trip home

This semester has been a lot of fun, but it’s also been hard. From meeting my SOS students, living on GUS, and being on Missions Conference, to family accidents, friends in hospitals, and late nights reading, I’m tired and on Monday I was ready to come home, but there was still more in store for me.

That morning not one, but two people from our Torrey group were missing. Nancy had written us a letter telling us about John’s condition. He had fallen 20 feet from a fire escape in LA. He broke his hip, both wrists, and the bone behind his eye. He was going to be released on Monday, but instead our Torrey group got a letter from Nancy. She wrote that the night before John had gotten a fever of 104. She was staying with him and his family in the hospital and wasn’t coming to session. Two other things were brought up that morning that brought our group to tears. God brought our group together for a reason, and his purpose is being shown in the love and support that we have for one another.

That afternoon I got my Torrey paper back, and it was the best one ever! The editor said that it was well written and that my ideas flowed very well. There isn’t too much to correct, just a couple of awkward sentences. Soon after my management class I left Biola. Luke, my roommate, drove me to the airport, which was an adventure. First, leaving campus was difficult because I had to deliver something and then eagles took forever to make Luke’s food. The freeway was jammed, but only in the carpool lane and we couldn’t get out. When we got near the airport we missed the turn three times. But eventually, after all the hassle, I got out of his truck and headed to my gate.

I had made it with about an hour to spare, but when I looked at the flights it said the plane was delayed an hour. I pulled out my computer and plugged it in. While I was waiting I saw Madison, her boyfriend Mica, and Laura who works in SMU. We thought it would only be a few hours till we were home. We were wrong. Our flight got cancelled. I went up to the desk and couldn’t get a flight till the next day at 12, but Madison and Mica found one for 6:45 so I switched to that one. The difference was that it stopped in Portland. With the receipts for our new tickets in hand, we left the gates because they closed them at night. We found a nice place to camp out for the night by the doors and were joined by a military officer and a middle aged woman. I started using my computer while the others left the airport to walk around. Eventually my computer started to die, so I looked in my bag, but couldn’t find my power cord. I thought that I had left it in my dorm room and didn’t worry about it too much.

The others came back and we went to ‘sleep’. By ‘sleep’ I mean lying down in the freezing cold with cranes beeping  and moving all around you and people yelling about construction. Finally things started quieting down around 2am, when we were joined by another ‘gentleman’. This ‘gentleman’ listened to a British audio book, with the speakers turned up, while he was asleep. The continual drone of the narration was broken by the occasional cussing from the ‘gentleman’. After this had been going on for a good thirty minutes he started singing I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. This was when I knew that this was not ‘gentleman’ but was really a drunkard. The woman next to me, along with everyone else, had been woken up by his singing (if you could call it that) and the woman looked perturbed. I asked her if she thought he was drunk and if public intoxication was legal. She said yes and no and I went to the phone and called security. I didn’t want to be there when they came because I didn’t want to be identified by the drunkard. They asked him when his flight was and it wasn’t till two in the afternoon. He had no business there so they made him move and then forgot to take my statement. Finally we had quiet.

After that ordeal, although it was quiet, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I walked around a little bit, but there wasn’t much I could do. My computer was drained so that was worthless. No one was awake so there was no one to text (one of my SOS students from Washington also got stuck but in LAX). After a few hours I walked over to print my ticket. As I headed over to the Alaska kiosk I heard a British audio book. I looked to my left and there was the drunk guy, sleeping on a bench in the airport. I rushed past and got my ticket.

We headed back to security, but there was a long line so we went to the other checkpoint. One of the ladies said, “We’re more proficient over here” and as I was saying thank you she gave out a wicked cackle. It was kinda creepy. Laura and I got through security fine, but Mica and Madison were no where to be found. Well, remember how we got our receipts? They thought we got our tickets, so they had to go back. Just another hassle. Why didn’t Alaska just give us the new tickets in the first place? I have no idea, but we were almost off. When we got to the gate I saw a sign that said “outlets here”. That’s when I remembered that I had plugged my computer in. I looked around and called lost and found, but my power cord had gone missing. I’ll have to call again tomorrow.

We got on our plane and headed to Portland. i found the flight fairly peaceful, but Mica had a fat guy’s elbow in his ribs and babies all over the plane crying. We made it to Portland though.

We ran across the airport and found our gate, but our flight was delayed. Then delayed again. Then, ten minutes before boarding, it was canceled, but the flight heading to Seattle ten minutes after it was able to go. We were pissed! We had been through five delays, two cancellations, a night in the airport, a drunk guy, and no compensation! What worse is some lady cut us in line because she had a “quick question” but really was trying to get on the plane. God save her soul because she is bound for hell right now.

Anyways, I talked with the lady at the desk and she wouldn’t give us anything. Our compensation was a comment card. We angrily filled them out and then I went to Alaska to gripe to them. They didn’t help us either. Finally I went back to the lady and got food vouchers, $8 each! We were all hungry and hadn’t eaten since the night before. We went over to the cafe and all had a nice lunch. We had been through so much together that it felt nature to eat and just sit in silence. We had become family. Soon we loaded on the plane (not jet) and all got to sit next to each other. We read the magazine and some story about a chipmunk that a family adopted and raised and then took off. The next half an hour was the most peaceful we had the entire trip as we slept the entire flight.

We finally landed and got off the plane in cold, frozen Seattle. We really knew it was cold because we got off on the tarmac. We headed out to baggage claim, got Laura’s stuff and went outside where Madison’s mom met us. Madison, Mica, and Laura all road together and I went with my dad and sister. Our family went our separate ways, but we will always remember that trip.

None of us wanted our pictures taken since none of us had showered in forever, but we knew we would want to have this to remember our trip by.