Friday, Jun. 17, 2005
flying, posted at 10:16 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm periodically going to update here until I feel like everyone knows about my switch. I'm now over at Epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com because it has an RSS feed and diaryland does not. Please update those links.Yesterday, I thought I could do this nifty multiple flight destination so I could travel from Baltimore to South Haven for my tenth year high school reunion, then to my training in Albuquerque on June 27-July 1, then back to Baltimore for Zack's wedding on July 2. Yesterday, that said flight pattern was $594. The school/city/foundations are reimbursing me $355 for my flight to Albuquerque, so the cost out of pocket for me wouldn't be that bad. Unfortunately, I had no money yesterday.
Today, I got paid, so sat down at the computer this morning to purchase the ticket. That same ticket is now $811. Shit.
I fiddled around a long time with a number of different websites, and nothing was better. Then, I decided to just buy the Albuquerque-Baltimore ticket, which is a requirement that I just found out about a couple of weeks ago so just now have I been able to afford it. The round trip ticket was $590. Since I'm only getting $355 back, and it's the summer and my last paycheck comes on July 1, I thought about cancelling the trip altogether. The way information has been passed on to me has been very disorganized, and I blame them for my increased ticket, and I was just going to cancel, even though I really want to go to the training.
But I decided to bid on priceline. I didn't find one for $355, but found one for $401. That's not too bad - only $50 out of my pocket. The problem is, with Priceline, you cannot name your time, and now I'm going to be flying into Albuquerque at 11pm. The training facility is two hours from the airport, and there is a free shuttle at 2pm and 4pm. I'll miss both of those, obviously, so now I'll probably have to rent a car and spend just as much as I would have anyway. That sucks, sucks, sucks.
However, I'm hoping that I might be able to camp myself in front of Delta Airlines from the morning on and beg for an earlier flight all day. We'll see if that works. I've never done this before - does anyone have experience? I have to call Erin.
Today I fly for the first time since my eyes bled in my flight home from Florida in March. The doctor informs me that it was just a coincidence that it happened on the flight, except that dehydration might have made it worse. I hope so. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. I've read about people who have gone on airplanes and come off of them blind because of the pressure. They're people without a scleral buckle holding their eyeball together, but still - it's enough to make me nervous.
I'm going to just drive and park at Dulles for my flight today to Maine for Danielle and John's wedding. It's only $15 a day, which is just $30 more total than the shuttle from the Falls Church metro stop, and I need to idiot proof my trip as much as possible by not waiting for shuttles or figuring out where they go or what they look like.
I wonder where I'll be sleeping tonight. Better pack.