whine

So, after an 11 hr flight I pick up my 'lost' luggage at the airport in NY where it has been sitting all week. Following that, a 4 hour layover during which they change the location of the gate so the kids and I have to lug all of our heavy carryons around the winding, neverending halls of the airport. Then, the airport closes due to severe thunderstorms. After about an hour or so delay, over the loudspeaker they announce: 'All those flying to Baltimore, your flight has been cancelled. Please proceed to area D to retrieve your baggage. We will procure a bus to take you to Laguardia airport and redirect you to a flight to Washington DC Regan National Airport. Following that, we will try to find a bus to take you to BWI. Or, you may come to the counter to recieve a refund."

So, I somehow manage to get our 3 heavy luggages and struggle them onto the bus, sit around for 20 min waiting for the bus driver, and drive 20 min to Laguardia. There, I have to recheck our baggage; suddenly, they tell me that 2 of the bags are overweight and will cost $25 to ship. On the verge of tears from exhaustion and frustration, I ask how come the last 2 times I checked the bags, one of them at JFK at the Delta terminal, they didnt tell me the bags were overweight and charge me??! Of course in a professionally curt manner avoiding eye contact, the b--- tells me, 'I guess thier scales weren't properly caliprated.'

So, I pay the $25, and go with the kids to wait for another hour and half in the freezing cold waiting area for our airplane to arrive, and are repeatedly informed it hasn't even left DC yet due to the bad weather while we miserably pass around the one sweatshirt between the three of us who are dressed in shorts and short sleeves, staring longingly at the cafe counter which is closed!!!! Oh misery. Thank god V offered to pick us up in DC because we couldn't take any more airport B.S. at that point without having a nervous breakdown. We had been travelling non-stop from 10 pm July 3rd through midnight July 4th.

The only cool part was seeing the teeny tiny fireworks across 4 states from the airplane-- happy 4th of july!