A Series of Fortunate Events

Because of car problems, flight delays, bad weather, and late arrivals, I got 12 extra hours with my favorite boy and free Chicken Selects.

It all started on Friday night, when my aunt-to-be informed me that the dashboard lights on her car weren’t working. That car was to be a wedding present—she had two, I had one that broke down expensively at least once a month. It was a gift I was strongly looking forward to since it offered the promise of not seeing my mechanic more often than I do some of my friends. But the dashboard lights weren’t working. My father-in-law-to-be was to take a look at it. It unraveled from there. The dashboard lights were the tip of the iceberg, and I wasn’t going to be driving back to Indiana in that car after all.

So I booked a flight, and the cheapest one matched me up with Eric from New York to O’Hare. In O’Hare there was rain and bad visibility. But we had long layovers and it was okay. We boarded the plane. We were delayed another hour. This was looking less okay now. By the time we deplaned, it was 3.5 hours after the scheduled arrival. But his connecting flight was further delayed and so was mine. We parted ways at the info screens and went off to our gates. I headed to take the shuttle to my terminal. It was too late—the shuttle had stopped running, which sent me in the direction of his gate. I saw him again, stayed as he got food, and then again we parted ways.

I hadn’t eaten since I had a bagel and cream cheese about 8 hours earlier, and airport restaurants were starting to close. McDonald’s had its metal gate half closed. I ran up, asked if they were closed. They were, they said. But do you have ANY food? Well, do you want some Selects, they said? Um, yes. They handed me the bag and sweet and sour sauce. I got out my wallet. No charge, they said.

My flight was delayed even further. But I don’t mind.

Update: I finished writing this post right before we began boarding our plane to Indianapolis. We then sat on the runway for...I dunno, a long time. With the extra time to drive home, my voyage finally ended at 3:30 am. I have rarely felt so out of it as I did on the last 20 miles of my drive. But that's not so bad, relatively speaking--when I landed in Indy I got a text from Eric whose flight got cancelled after they had already boarded. He was supposed to fly out this morning, but he was bumped again. He is probably just now leaving Chicago. So, this story is not quite as 100% peachy in hindsight, but I'm still grateful for our extra hours and my free dinner.