I've had a rough travel day--please allow me to rant and rave, er, vent a bit.
Traffic was terrible getting into Boston Logan, so I ended up arriving at 1 p.m. for a 2 p.m. flight, even though I left a two-hour window. Which would have been fine, being the middle of the day and my not having any luggage to check. Except that Central Parking was full, so I got shuttled off to a satellite lot approximately 20 miles from my terminal (OK, so that's an exaggeration, but it sure felt that far). Then I had to lug my stuff over to Terminal E to catch the shuttle to my terminal, which of course took forever.
Made my flight, thankfully, even though I had a seatmate who tried to take my aisle seat and then proceeded to make several very loud calls on her cell phone (including three leaving messages for people to deposit a check for her during which she very loudly repeated her account number and the exact location of the bank. I very nicely suggested that she may want to keep that sort of information a little more private, but she just looked at me like I was a martian).
Flight was nice until about a half hour out of D.C., when the plane turned into a bucking bronco. The lower we got, the more she bucked. At one point, I was sure we were about to do a barrel roll, then it sounded like something whacked the side of the plane and we spun back the other way. The flight attendant who was deadheading on the flight across the aisle from me was even turning green, and said it was the worst she'd had!
After kissing the ground when we landed and a long shuttle from Dulles, I finally got to my beautiful historic hotel that I had searched and searched to find (I wanted something inexpensive but not gross, and that's not easy to find in D.C. in high season. Was so thrilled to find this one). And they bumped me! To a low-end chain hotel in Chinatown! Ack!
After getting checked in by what may be the rudest front desk person I've ever met while the chihuahua behind the desk had a fit of some kind, I finally got to my room (featuring a lovely view of a wall) and went to plug in my laptop and start whining at you all. Couldn't find the ethernet cable. Found a piece of paper that said you had to rent the cable at the front desk. Went back to front desk, where they informed me that they didn't have Internet access in this hotel.
At this point, even I, who generally am pretty easy going, was starting to lose it, so I decided to go for a walk and cool off. Got about four blocks away and the heavens opened up in one of those freakish little microbursts. Squelched my way back to my room, dried off, and spotted a piece of paper half buried under the trash can that proclaimed, lo and behold, that I could get tMobile wireless. Finally, something went right!
All's well that end's well: I'm on terra firma, warm and dry, and connected, so life is good. And I am looking forward to the Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum tomorrow. If it's anything like last year, it'll be one of the best conferences around. It'll be worth all the hassle, I'm sure.
But next time one of your attendees is unusually cranky, be kind. She may be having the same kind of day I had today. Ain't travel grand?