After a crazy day of travel that started way too early on less than three hours of sleep, I’m finally settled in to my new digs.
Many of you are writers or artists of some sort, so you’ll understand. Yesterday my inspiration bug bit. My problem? My house was still in shambles from our dinner party the night before and I was catching an 8 am flight the following morning.
Here’s the thing about priorities… My to do list should have been as follows:
1. Pack for my 3+ week trip
2. Clean up my messy kitchen and dining area (so hubby won’t have to)
3. Write…if there’s time.
What actually happened? I followed my muse, of course, causing #1 and #3 to flip in priority order. Since I was on a roll and wanted to finish my WIP…..that’s what I did. During my breaks I loaded the dishwasher and started to pack. I finished packing around midnight. Finished my WIP at about 2:30 am. My alarm was set for 5:30 (saved time by showering at midnight).
At 5:45 my friend picked me up for the airport. I kissed hubby and the dogs goodbye and was on my way.
I should have known today would not go smoothly when I waited more than 10 minutes for the curbside check in guy to finish with the only couple in front of me only to check in at the counter instead. At the auto check-in the lady told us TSA was busy and had an hour long wait. I was almost through the line when the couple who’d been checking in curbside finally got there. Good thing I didn’t wait. Right?
Our flight left on time, and even arrived in DFW when it was supposed to. The problem? There was still another plane at the gate. We sat on the Tarmac for over 30 minutes. My actual arrival time was 9:51am. My connecting flight began boarding at 10:10 with a scheduled departure time of 10:40. By the time I made it off the plane it was already 10:36. I did what any seasoned traveller would do. Stop at the gate and talk to the lady at the counter in an attempt to get them to hold the flight for a few extra minutes.
As The woman and I talked the gate told her I had 10 minutes. She’d already mentioned the next flight, but they’d told her to have me rush to catch the shuttle and try to get my flight. I was in D concourse and my flight was in c. Gamely I rushed to the new gate, huffing and puffing through my poor sinus infected body, bogged down with luggage and expecting to die of what might become my first asthma attack. I got there 5 minutes after the flight took off. Of course!
Next, they rescheduled me for a later flight…leaving in a little more than an hour. Sweet! Except it was all the way back where I started. In D concourse. At least this time I didn’t have to kill myself. The time gave me a chance to grab a bite of the worst seasoned orange chicken and fried rice I’ve ever had…and to take my meds.
Finally I got on my flight to El Paso at 12:45. I was thrilled! This time everything went off without a hitch. Well, till I got my voice mail saying the rental car place was giving my friend a hard time about me getting the car on her credit card. No worries, though, the hotel has shuttles to and from the airport. With Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte in hand I was ready to conquer anything. Good thing because I didn’t see my luggage on the carousel! Fortunately, when I walked into the baggage claim office, my bag was already there…waiting for me.
So here are a couple of pictures of my new home for the next few weeks…
What about you guys? Have you experienced Murphy’s law while traveling? Tell me the story… What do you do when your muse and priorities collide?
theinnerwildkat 
My muse likes to hide until I get all my chores done. I guess it works out okay like that, but… sometimes it would nice to have a “good” excuse to miss the chores from time to time. Oh well. Catching a connecting flight at DFW is the closest I’ve come to missing one… did the same thing, ran, caught the shuttle, ran again, and got to the door just as they were starting to close it. Whew!
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Lucky you! I have to say, though, they were very good about rescheduling my flight after I missed it.
Actually, I’d have to say my flight track record is pretty good considering this is my first missed flight ever and I’ve flown A LOT. (Military brat)
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Hey, you can’t help it if that’s when your muse struck. 😉
Jeez, that’s crazy! I never want to take a connecting flight. I mean really, why do they schedule them so close, knowing that there’s always a 90% chance the 1st flight will be delayed. Ugh. Glad you made it though! At least they weren’t dicks about rescheduling another flight.
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Exactly. I’ve heard horror stories about that kind of thing. At least I got my work out in early, LOL!
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I have so been there and done that, Kitt, right down to having my connecting flight on the opposite side of the airport. In my case they actually delayed and held the flight but, by that time, had given my seat away and squeezed me in somewhere else.
And then there was the time I developed a full-blown head cold the night before my flight departed. I have inner ear problems as it is, but I was actually in tears over that during take-off. It felt like someone had shoved a knife through my eardrum. I had the added joy of a small child kicking my seat for 5 hours as we flew from the west coast.
And then there was the 13 hour flight from Detroit to PA (multiple layovers due to weather). We switched planes on that one only to arrive in PA and realize our luggage was still on the original flight – three hours behind us.
I’ve got stories, LOL, and now that I think of it, they’re good for the
muse. Thanks for a spur-of-the-moment writing prompt.
Now get some sleep. You’ve got to be beat!
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You know…thanks for reminding me to be thankful that I caught my sinus and viral infections in time to get on medication before I flew…otherwise I would have been even more miserable. 🙂
I’ve been delayed in Detroit before, too…except they left us on the runway in summer heat for 90 minutes…and wouldn’t taxi back to let us off for a while!
Glad I inspired!
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I hate the travelling part of travelling.
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LOL! Succinctly put. I think as a child I used to love my plane rides… Looking out the window, so far above the ground. It was exciting. Sometimes it still can be. Occasionally I still like road trips…drive by scenery can be so beautiful!
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Cars & trains, anything with a window 🙂 Enjoy yourself, Kitt.
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I will. The view of the mountains out my hotel room window are quite beautiful.
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Actually, traveling so far has always gone rather smoothly for me. I’m really surprised haha!
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Lucky girl!
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Damn! Forgot to knock on wood 😛
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LMAO!
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Every time I fly in US – flights are later and the seams to be later by the year.
A couple of years ago when living in Belfast and flying out of Dublin, it was only a couple of days before Christmas – was so busy at work… so I worked into the last minute.
At the check-in with SAS they told me that I wasn’t on the passenger list and they check and check, so she told to talk to their customer service desk. Straight away the handsome delightful man said – you should have been here yesterday and the flight is full. There were seats on their evening departure, but that meant I had to stay at Copenhagen airport overnight, no trains for Sweden.
That will cost me £360 more – but there were still passengers that hadn’t check in for the morning flight, but even if they didn’t turn up and I could get on the flight – I had to pay the £360.
Had to wait until the check in was closed – I made on to the flight – they took me pounds .. and I made it home for Christmas. When I phone my boss and told him about me being 24 hours late for my flight – he said – put the cost on to your expenses for next month.
So now I check and double check .. and check .. and double check.
Love the look of your new home – I think staying on hotels – sexy and naughty.
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Wow! What a costly error! Good thing your boss let you expense…. And I agree about hotel rooms. 😉
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My muse is is a double edged sword. I write when the music guides me, and the music usually tends to get my head banging for long enough to prolong creative writing.
Also, you’re not kidding about Murphy’s law. I usually feel the Quantized revision of it. The second something goes wrong, everything else instantly follows.
Nice post. I’ll be keeping an eye on you!
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You write music? Or music leads you to your writing? Either is awesome, but the choir girl in me is very curious…as is the poet.
I’d love to hear about one of your quantized revised Murphy moments sometime. Commiseration can be a very cathartic thing, don’tcha know… 😉
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Heh heh, no I can’t write music. That requires a significant amount of talent, although I do sing, have been in a band that got paid to play, was in choir myself, and now I write like a madman.
I listen to Heavy Metal while writing, so distractions are bound to happen at the right riff, power chord, or bridge. I’m terrible about it, and I lose train of thought so easily during certain songs that I’m almost inclined to keep to ambient tracks while typing.
As for Murphy destroying me all at once, I worked at a Cinemark as my first job. While I was there, a storm came into my area, and since I live in the south inevitably a tornado followed. Well, I have everything under control, and the customers are calm. That is, until the wind blows open this weak, poorly secured door, causing all kinds of debris to come flooding in. Of course, the people in the lobby instinctively panic, and they begin jumping over the concession counter to escape these objects. Some of them flee into the hallways of the theater, ducking into movies they didn’t pay for. The manager begins yelling, and people come running back out from the hallway, through the lobby, and back out into the mall, knocking over posters, display cases, and queue line signs and stands. The people who raided my concession, are now taking candy from under the counter, as well as drink cups. They then evade capture by ducking out of the door that was torn asunder, and fleeing into the parking lot. My manager comes in yelling, and writes me up for allowing it to happen. All the while, the popcorn I started before the incident had already popped, and was now catching fire, causing the smoke alarms to be set off. The day ends with me being sent home in the middle of storm, all because of a world of trouble that I never saw coming.
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Oy vey! Your boss doesn’t sound like management material, no offense. Otherwise he/she would have been handling the panicking crowd and mass hysteria. He/she should have ensured the door was well secured & that the staff handling the people in the lobby with him/her knew exactly what to do. Also, whether someone has made you angry or not, the last thing you do is jeopardize their life and limb by sending them out into a storm with a tornado in the area. That’s not only dangerous but irresponsible.
I have learned that I can use music to inspire me or put me in a certain mood to match a scene I’m about to write, but I need to turn it off once the writing starts. Otherwise I get distracted singing along and lose my train of thought & momentum. I need background noise, though, so I’ll turn on something like hgtv in the other room. Something I can hear but won’t distract me from what I’m doing.
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Ooh, that’s quite the room you’ve got there!
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It’ll do in a pinch, LOL! The view out the right side of my window is actually the best part…. Beautiful mountains!
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My worst travel story takes days to tell! It was supposed to be the most luxurious trip of my life. A friend was getting married in Germany and had limos and welcome parties littered across my itinerary. Bad weather hit New York, where all the guests were supposed to congregate before jumping the pond. My husband and I were the only ones who arrived too late to catch the transatlantic flight. And of course, we almost made it. We landed in LaGuardia after a day of rerouted flights and flew to a pay phone (obviously this was a pre-mobile trip), only to be told the flight with the wedding party on it had just pulled away from the gate. The next three days were the wildest of my life as we wandered across the globe in pretty much every form of transportation imaginable. In some countries our luggage arrived with us. In others it took another route. We missed three days of celebrations in the groom’s home village, but drug into the five star resort just as the caterers picked up the trays emptied of food by the rehearsal dinner guests. And that was just the first three days – it got even crazier as we honeymooned with the bride and groom. It’s a wonder I still agree to travel, much less love it like I do.
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Wow! That’s a very hairy trip! Just glad you made it there and back in one piece.
I think my worst travel story was a cross continental, too… Can’t remember if it was from Germany to the states or from the states to the Philippines. What I do remember was that my Shuster’s eardrum ruptured on take off…(she’d had a cold and was very young…her screams of pain were blood curdling.) Then when we got on after a layover, we had just eaten our meal…when another little girl went exorcist projectile with her vomiting. Dessert had been chocolate pudding. It took me a long time before I’d eat that stuff again. After watching her, I had fears of the same thing happening to me. Oh, the smell we were stuck with…on a ten hour plus flight!
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I know you had it bad…
but this reads funny… 🙂
hope you have a more orderly time where you’re now.
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Oh, I’m okay with you being entertained at my expense. 😉
Thanks for the good wishes.
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I may have missed something… sorry 😛
but what you doing there? are you gonna stay alone in that lovely room…
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Yes. 🙂 I am helping a friend. Acting as her interim manager, grand opening her store. 😉
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cooolll 🙂
hope it goes well…
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Thanks!
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So funny! This stuff always happens, always… I’ve yet to take any trip without anything unexpected happening… I think there’s some unwritten law, like gravity or something, that any traveller must encounter at least one hurdle, otherwise it won’t count.
Hope the rest of your trip will go more smoothly!
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