Today Jolie and I head BACK to the airport after expecting to be in Scotland by now. A major weather issue delayed flights to NYC to the point where we thought it best to go back home and try again today - on a different route.
After meeting with our group at the airport yesterday, we found out shortly things were about to get messy. It’s hard to stay calm when chaos reigns. After hours on the little black phones at three different help stations, and no humans to help, I called a former student who works in ticketing. Mari helped get us booked on a flight to Amsterdam today that will then head to Edinburgh.
I then spent the majority of this morning getting us booked on return flights a day later to make up for our missed day.
As a teacher, I’m used to monitoring and adjusting, but it’s still stressful. I also continue to look for growth opportunities - even in the chaos.
Here are the things I learned:
1. It never really pays to be a jerk to people in the service industry who have no control of the weather. Our new friends Grace and Kim behind the last Delta counter we hit up got our bags retrieved for us and gave us soft drinks and those delicious ginger biscuits. They were as frazzled as we were, and it felt good to just laugh about all the things beyond our control, rather than add more negativity to the day. At least we could make them feel better.
2. It may have been a different story if I’d been responsible for my pack of students who will be attending next year, but I’m good at taking care of myself and those around me.
3. This gave me an extra evening with my family who was visiting from NYC. We had a wonderful meal together, watched John Mulaney on Netflix, laughed incredibly hard at his Delta airlines bit, and got to see them off for n the road today.
4. My husband has unlimited patience for all of my shenanigans - and supports me in so many ways - and that’s really amazing.
We’ll start the adventure again today. Fresh start.
Peace,
GMO
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