Checking in from Chicago....or, six hours: the redux

So about six hours ago I woke up a few minutes before my alarm to the sound of massive thunder. Bone rattling thunder. thunder doesn't scare me, but this did because I immediately turned on the TV and lo and behold, one of our fabulous North Texas Spring storms was about to roll through.

So I leapt into the shower because since it will be a long time before I see another one, I couldn't skip that, threw the last minute stuff into my two carry-on bags (one rolling bag, one "personal item" laptop backpack that is really huge, but they seem to still allow it), and hopped in a taxi. The taxi driver was great and got around all the traffic over on 121 toward the airport that was even more of a mess because of the rain. Dude knew his Grapevine Mall side streets. Got to the check-in counter in Terminal D and they put me on the stand-by list for the 10:20 flight out of Terminal A. There wasn't hardly any line at security and I grabbed a granola bar and hopped on the Sky Link, which took me to terminal A.

There I had some time to stop and eat a fruit/yogurt thing and half a bagel and then went to the gate and I had been #5 on the stand-by list when I checked in, but now I was #7. I had very little hope but nothing else to do, so I waited.

Amazingly, they called my name and I might have hugged the lady of she hadn't been behind a counter. All stand-by folks had to check their "bag", and they had told us that beforehand. Not gate-check, check-check. We had only planned to check C's hanging bag with his suit in it, so now we have one more checked bag....and it has all my clothes in it. I made sure the backpack had all the paperwork and electronics and my knitting, just in case something like this happened. Hopefully we will be able to carry it on from Frankfurt to our region because we have to pick it up in Frankfurt and change airlines since our airlines don't have any sort of alliance. If we can't carry it on, at least I have a duty free bag I can throw some more things into, like clothes, so that if it gets lost I don't just arrive with the black pants and tee I have on right now.

I even got an aisle seat. I know. As Dawn would say, GET OUT!

While waiting to board, I called Tracey and told her the news so she could update FB and she told me about the new Russian swine flu announcement. We aren't sure what this means for us, but we aren't super worried, both because I think they are just quarantining people who show symptoms and because all Aeroflot knows about us is that we are flying in from Frankfurt and that flight should be okay...shouldn't get extra attention. But when we go through customs they will obviously see we are from the US, and mine says I was born in Texas to boot, one of the problem states. But they'll have no evidence that we came from the US today because our boarding passes and itinerary as far as they are concerned, is just from Frankfurt. I hope we don't get special attention, because we have a VERY tight (somewhat worrying) connection in Moscow. We don't have time for special attention. I mentioned it to my agency and she said she would ask the director if he knew any more about it.

As soon as I stepped out of the jetway in Chicago, my agency called and they needed me to fax the updated paperwork to them so they can fax it to the translator who will be meeting us in Moscow and travelling with us to our region.

I was very near an Admiral's Club, so I asked the lady there if she knew of a business center I could use nearby since I am not an AC member, and she said there wasn't one that she knew of, but for $50, I could buy a day pass and then pay the AC to fax the paperwork. So I paid and went in and found the desk and the lady there helped me fax the stuff to San Diego. $26. So it has been a $76 fax and I am so happy to be sitting in comfort in front of a plasma TV eating and blogging that I don't give a frak how much it cost. At this point it is totally worth it...and a drop in the bucket. Then I went out to the duty free shop to buy make-up because I apparently forgot to pack mine. I'm a Bare Essentials/Max Factor gal, but now I have foundation/powder, mascara, and blush from Clinique because it was either them or Estee Lauder...and the only reason I could shop there is because I am flying out to an international destination. They even had a sale and I got 20% off their inflated prices, so it was still a ridiculous amount, but not as ridiculous as usual.

So now I am sitting in the Admiral's Club lounge, eating a totally awesome salad with chickpeas and kalamata olives and tomates and parmesan and chicken and vinigrette....sorry for the food obsession, but this is the healthiest thing I have eaten in 7 days and it is wonderful... waiting for C. It turns out that I may have been able to get in for free, since he qualifies for it based on his FF status when he flys international, but whatever. We qualified for a club like this in Switzerland once on a layover because C was flying on an international business class ticket, but the AC has way different rules. He can ask for a refund if he wants. I have his Advantage number, but I don't have his card, so even though I am flying on his miles, I don't know that they would give me anything. But he should be able to come in and meet me here. Or he can call me from outside. He isn't flying business class this time and I think he sort of forgets that. He's used to business class nowadays. But maybe they will let him in.

The other nice thing here, other than the comfy atmosphere and food and internet and plasmas is that everyone is so freaking pleasant and accommodating. And I'm really on board with that right now. Another night of little sleep and I eventually napped for a few minutes on the way here. I was talking to C earlier and having a hard time staying on topic. Which is also happening here, in case you can't tell. I'm exhausted. And when I was shopping for make-up I had to keep squatting down with my 30lb back pack (I'm serious, I weighed it) on my back...and getting up was painful.o I've been doing squats today to top it all off. I hope this means I will sleep decently on the red-eye tonight.

Our next hurdle is the transfer in Frankfurt, which should be okay as long as our flight is not delayed and the weather here is nice right now. I wonder what it did in Dallas today, with all those storms.

Then we have that super-tight connection in Moscow, so our Frankfurt flight needs to leave on time and that is what C is most concerned about. I hate to say worried, because he doesn't worry the way I do. But I know he is concerned. It's out of our hands, though, and I just hope all this luck lasts.

Seriously. #7 on the stand-by list for a totally full flight. And I got on. I'm still amazed.

P.S. on the knitting front, I am knitting dolls from the book Knitted Babes and I have some yarn for clothes, too. (Amy, I sat down at 2am to wind off the yarn you gave me, thinking it was doubled at the time, but it wasn't. You are a doll yourself for loaning me this and for making it a single again. Finished the front of one on the way to Chicago. They go super fast.I also have a ball of Trekking XXL in case I run out of babe yarn so that I can knit socks on the same needles.