Thursday, November 16, 2006
Last night I visited the doctor to get my ears flushed. I was having blockage and hearing issues with my right ear, and I was worried that something nasty would happen like an exploding eardrum or something similar. So today I was happy when I woke up pain free and fully hearing out of my right ear. In fact, my right ear now hears better than my left ear – go figure.
Daniel took me to the airport and I arrived just in time. I checked my bag since I did not want to deal with the whole liquids-in-a-plastic-bag fiasco. I try and be as prepared as possible for the TSA security checkpoints. Nothing irritates a crowd more than someone holding up the entire line.
After checking my bag I made a surprising discovery in my backpack – a bottle of Febreze. Now I have traveled with this little travel-sized container as far back as Japan. The only problem is that this was now illegal to carry on the plane so I had to throw it out before getting to the screening area. I can’t figure out why airports like LAX have quickly moving security lines and smaller airports like Phoenix and Orange County have lines that take forever. Thankfully, I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat before I got on the plane. In the old days, a cross-country flight guaranteed some sort of food – not anymore!
The flight to Dallas was smooth and uneventful. I plugged in my iPod and tuned out the rest of the world. I did catch myself starting to snore a few times, so hopefully no one noticed. I did peruse the SkyMall catalog and found a few gift ideas for the holidays as well as something cool for myself. I always look in the catalog, but never really get anything – maybe this year will be different.
Upon landing in Dallas, I discovered that my beloved trAAm was no more. They have replaced it with an uber-modern Skylink system. It is a wonderful upgrade that makes traversing the thousands of American gates at the airport, I just think they should have kept the name. I landed at the new Terminal D, which was very nice and mall-like as all new airports tend to be. Unfortunately it made Terminal B look that much dumpier when I arrived to catch my connecting flight to Mobile. After some water I tried unsuccessfully to connect to the T-Mobile hot spot.
Apparently DFW does not believe in free wireless internet – boo!
The flight to Mobile was on a small plane that I had to duck to walk down the aisle. We were slightly delayed pushing back due to someone needing to get a sign-off card. It reminded me of being at work when the guests were ready to go onto the ride and we were still trying to get that last signature. There was one person on the plane that thought he was funny and generally annoyed most of the passengers as well as the lone flight attendant. I think it would be scary to be the only flight attendant on a flight since I would not have someone to help me if things got unruly. It was nice to have the single seat with no one around me.
I arrived in Mobile at 7:10 and had 20 minutes to make it to the Ruth Chris Steakhouse where Alex was hosting the bachelor dinner. I raced to the rental car desk and picked up the keys to my 2007 Chevy Cobalt, figuring by the time I was done, the luggage would be there. It was 7:30 and still no luggage. Finally it came at 7:45. I had tried to call Alex to tell him to save me a spot, but it rolled to voice mail. I finally got to the restaurant at 8:10 and they had just received their food. I squeezed into the table and ordered the Filet, which was great. I also had an awesome ice cream/chocolate cake dessert which was great – could have been the best ever if it had some hot fudge instead of chocolate sauce.
We then headed over to a Billards place to hang out, play billiards, video games, and air hockey. I managed to win once at both billiards and air hockey so it was a good evening all around. I wish I wasn’t driving because I would have had something to drink from the bar. We then headed back to the hotel where I got checked in and discovered that it was a nice business hotel complete with ample room and free wireless access. Soon after checking emails and such I fell fast asleep – determined to rest a bit before Saturday.
