Horrendous Trip Home

I went to St. Paul, MN for our annual church convention and had a wonderful time with all those fabulous people, some of whom I only see once a year. They're like an extended family to me.

My trip home was absolutely the most horrendous airline experience I've ever had in my entire life. When the Delta baggage agent remarked to me, "Hartford the hard way", he either knew how hard it was going to be for me to get home or he really had no idea how hard it was about to be.

I had a flight on Delta airlines on Sunday afternoon from Minneapolis/St. Paul at 3 p.m. that got into Milwaukee at 4 p.m.  From there I had a connecting flight to Detroit that was delayed due to weather. If I took that flight I would have missed my connecting flight to Hartford. I got on a different flight to Cincinatti with a connecting flight to Hartford. Then it was announced that the connecting flight to Hartford from Detroit was also delayed so I'd be able to get home, even if it was 1 or 2 in the morning so I re-booked for that flight. The plane that was going to Detroit got in and it was announced that the flight attendants had been working 13 hours already and it was "illegal" for them to fly so that flight was eventually canceled. I spent the night in a hotel in Milwaukee. Got a mediocre night's sleep and got up at 3:30, showered and got the shuttle to the airport by  on Monday morning by 4:45 for a 6:00 flight to Memphis and (supposedly) connecting to Boston (not my 1st choice but a decent 2nd). Got to Memphis and on the flight to Boston. The flight was about 1 hour into its 3 hour trip when it was announced that there were mechanical problems and the plane had turned around to Memphis. Landed in Memphis and was re-booked on a flight to DC  (any city on the east coast, preferably where I know someone and there was an Amtrak station was my attitude at that point) with a connecting flight on US Airways to Hartford at 6:30 p.m. that would have gotten to Hartford Monday at 7:45 p.m. The flight leaving Memphis was late and got into DC at 6:00 p.m. There was no ground crew to meet the plane and they were having technical difficulties with the jetway so we didn't actually get off the plane until 6:40 p.m. at which point my connecting flight on US Airways to Hartford had left. There were no Delta customer service agents anywhere so I called the 800 number and within no time turned into an hysterical, crying, sobbing mess. I had been traveling for over 24 hours and was still not home. Had I driven a car from Minneapolis/St. Paul I would have already been home. The next flight for Hartford was sometime on Tuesday via Detroit. There were NO direct flights to Hartford, Boston or JFK. At which point I decided I didn't want to take a chance on getting stranded in another airport and called Amtrak and made a reservation on the next train going to New Haven, CT (2 hours from home).  I took a taxi to Union Station in DC (which is gorgeous, by the way), and got on a train at 10:50 p.m. (leaving 50 minutes later than scheduled) The train got to New Haven, CT ON TIME at 4:20 a.m. Tuesday morning. Unfortunately I had to wait until about 5:10 a.m. for Trevor to pick me up since we thought it was getting in late around 5:00 a.m. He took me to a near-by diner for breakfast and by 6:05 a.m. we were on I-91 North headed for home. Got home at 7:45 a.m. and was in bed by 8:15 a.m. Slept until noonish. Got a call from US Airways at 12:30 p.m. saying they had my suitcase so we drove to Hartford to pick it up.

In total I was on 4 flights in 28 hours and was still not home. I made it as far as Washington DC on Delta. If I stayed on Delta I would have gotten home sometime on Tuesday, having left Minneapolis/St. Paul on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Amtrak was WONDERFUL! I made my reservation over the phone, printed my ticket at the station, didn't have to go through any long lines for TSA security, boarded the train, found a seat and we were off and moving. The seats are way more spacious than airplane seats, more leg room, more head room, electrical outlets to plug in your phone and/or laptop. Although the train left DC almost 50 minutes late we arrived in New Haven ON TIME! I will definitely consider taking Amtrak on my next long trip.

I will never fly Delta again.

Sort of a Big Deal

I've been asked to serve on the Board of Trustees for Hatfield Public Library. There's suddenly a vacant position on the board and Eliza (director of HPL) asked me if I would be interested. The requirements for the position are: interest in libraries (YES) and community member (YES). I told her I'd more than likely say yes but that I'd want to discuss it with Trevor... and blast it all over Facebook and Twitter and my blog before officially saying yes. It's kind of weird though because instead of being "just" a volunteer at HPL I'll be Eliza's boss! I'd better finish that project before my first trustees meeting (early September).

Miss Cataloged

One of my self-imposed tasks that I do when I'm putting in some volunteer hours at the Hatfield Public Library is to create book displays in the non-fiction room. I do this because I enjoy it, it keeps the room looking fresh as opposed to stagnant, and most importantly because it gets people to check out books! The theme of one of my recent book displays is Travel Memoirs (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is one). This week when I arrived at HPL and went downstairs to the non-fiction room I discovered that among the half-dozen travel memoirs was a book that clearly did not belong. Apparently when a patron took one of the books from the display (actually, it was Eat, Pray, Love), someone replaced it with just any old book that was nearby. I took the book out of the display and looked at it a bit closer only to discover that it was cataloged wrong. The book in question was about writer Robert Bloch, who is best known for Psycho. It was cataloged as 813 Robert, not 813 Bloch. I checked the circulation card and saw that it hadn't circulated since 1996. Hmm...I wonder why?

I asked Eliza, the library director, what I should do with the book since it was cataloged wrong. Maybe she would want to re-catalog it? So that people could actually find it? She looked it, asked me how long it had been since it last circulated. I told her 15 years ago, and even then only twice. "Let's just get rid of it." was her response. If HPL had more space it might make sense to re-catalog the book but since HPL is SO TINY it's sometimes simply not worth the bother of correcting the cataloging to keep a book on the shelves.

Farewell, Ann

Our friend Ann died. She wasn't a close friend, but a friend, nonetheless. A kind, sweet, and hilarious person. We first got to know her when she started doing stand-up comedy with our friend, Jennifer, about 4 years ago.  Ann's partner of 16 years, Linda, passed away last September after a battle with ovarian cancer. When Linda passed away I thought to myself that Ann would certainly have a few decades on her own. She was relatively young at 50. But I'm sure it was as much a surprise to her as it was to many of us when she became ill with multiple myeloma in February and was suddenly on a downward spiral. Trevor faithfully read her blog and occasionally filled me in. Being ultra-busy pursuing a MLS from Simmons College, I have little time for reading blogs that aren't written by librarians or about libraries. So sadly, I wasn't following along. On June 1st Trevor told me that Ann announced on her blog that her doctors told that she had 1 to 3 days left. My head was spinning. I really felt out of the loop. So I called Jennifer. Jennifer very nicely replied and said, yes it was true, Ann was dying. Every day, several times a day, I checked in on her blog until Saturday June 5th when it was announced that Ann had passed away.  I felt relief for her that her struggle was over and that she died peacefully at home surrounded by her friends and family.  We attended the memorial service on Sunday and it was lovely. Trevor is not one to jump at the opportunity to attend funerals but we both wanted to go to her service simply because we liked her and she was a really nice person. I knew I would see Jennifer there but it turns out there were a few other people there that we knew, including Rev. Andrea Avayzian, whom Ann affectionately called P.A. "Pastor Andrea". There were several heartfelt, touching, and funny remembrances by friends. Once the service was over Jennifer gave her remembrance and then showed a video of Ann's stand-up comedy routine. Everyone applauded like she was there in the room with us. I laughed at her jokes like I always did. It was a perfect and fitting ending to a very personal memorial service.

Down to One

This may be a bit personal but I will proceed with it anyway... I was driving home from a lovely Memorial Day extra long weekend spent in Fryeburg, Maine in a cabin on the Saco River being constantly irritated by my brassiere which was about 2 years old and falling apart. I refrained from taking it off at the White River Junction rest area on 91 South and driving the rest of the way home bra-less but I didn't. However, as soon as I got home I went right to the bedroom and took the darn thing off and tossed it in the trash. And then, to be absolutely certain I wouldn't try to fish it out of the trash, I dumped the little trash basket into the big trash can in the kitchen (who knows what's in there). Luckily, our housemate, Ilai (pronounced Ely), emptied the big trash can within a day or two. Now it's in the dumpster and I'm definitely not going to dumpster diving to retrieve this bra. Why in the world would I even consider this? Because it was one of two comfortable, well-fitting bras that I own. Now I have one. And it's brown. Which really limits my choice of top colors to dark colors. So, if you see me and the top I'm wearing is any of the following colors: dark red, orange, brown, black, dark green, or navy blue you'll know that I still only have one bra. How long will I tolerate this? Who knows...