I don’t know where to even begin explaining the crazy that has been the last 24 hours, but if you bear with me I’ll try and get through it all in sequential order. So lets begin with approximately 12pm yesterday (Thursday) when I checked on my flight only to find that it had just been cancelled. Now, I know stuff happens and I’ve flown enough to know that I’ll get a new flight, but I had scheduled a few things for Friday and had planned on getting in at a certain time. After being on the phone with American Airlines, I was then transferred to British Air (I booked through AA but it was a BA flight) who I spent the next 30-45 minutes on and off hold with as they tried to book me onto an 8.45pm US Airways flight. Well I finally got my flight, but then had to call US Airways to check in and as I was doing so, was notified that this flight would be delayed until 11.25pm.. Thats fine though because my original flight would have left at 10pm.
Well, I get to the airport way early because I had nothing else to do and while normally checking a bag and going through security are a breeze, something must have been in the air as the check-in desk seemed to be on a different planet and the people going through security had lost all common sense. Again, it is what it is and I just carried on. A rare moment of positivity occurred when I got to my gate and was able to move from the back of the plane to the front and still have a window (yes I got sleep, yes it was needed). The flight left as planned at 11.25 but as we were taking off, naturally I started to feel a sore throat of sorts coming on (tbd on if this is stress/tired induced or actually something).
I had planned to try out Barry’s Bootcamp today (Friday) at 12:30pm, but when I knew my flight would be late getting in I quickly changed to later class time. Well thank goodness I changed that class because what awaited me upon arrival was yet another fun little game to play called where in the world is Arin’s bag. You know those little claim tags you get at the airport when checking a bag? Yeah, make sure it actually says your name and you hold onto it. The lovely people at the Philadelphia airport gave me a tag with someone else’s name who just happened to be on a flight to Frankfurt. Now this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if when they looked up my flight reservation, there was a bag claim attached to it, but guess what.. there wasn’t one. So yes, they took my bag, put a tag on it and my name is not attached so this bag is now floating around somewhere in the world.
But alas, I filed a missing bag report and made my way to the underground to take the tube into the city and a bus over to my hostel.. something I knew I wouldn’t mess up (and didn’t). And remember Barry’s? Well that was definitely still going to be happening, feeling 100% or not because I had some major stress to let out and just needed to do something. With a few hours to spare, I made my way down to Primark in hopes of finding a few pieces of clothing to tide me over (and was successful to an extent) and am currently sitting at Joe & The Juice drinking a carrot, apple, ginger blend hoping that things will start to turn around.
Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that plans can change and shit can hit the fan, but a positive attitude can (and does) help. While I haven’t always been smiling through this craziness and in all honestly have had a few moments where I just wanted to loose it in the middle of the street in the rain (oh yeah did I mention it’s pouring & I don’t have an umbrella, but I do have my rain coat & a rain cover for my backpack (THANK GOODNESS)), I’m trying to stay as hopeful as possible that I’ll get my bag back and things will continue on.
Until then.. Keep Calm & Carry On..
I’ll have more exciting updates soon..
– AS
