Friday the 13th - Myth or Reality

I have always heard people say that strange things happen on Friday the 13th. I always said that it was just a day like any other day. That was before this past Friday the 13th, which set up a strange series of events all weekend long.

The day started off normal enough, I went to school. Although, I wasn't with my kids, I had a sub so I could do testing for report cards. The kids were louder than normal for the sub and even the good ones seemed off, but I chalked it up to the full moon and moved on.

I left school early in a trenchal down pour to get to the MBS airport for my 3:25 flight. Other than getting extremely wet, it seemed normal.

Once I got into Detroit airport, I ate a delicious meal at Chili's and went to my gate. I noticed our time for flying out changed to about 30 minutes later than before, then it changes again so that we were flying out almost 1 hour late from Detroit. After a rather not so pleasant smell coming from the man who sat next to me , I decided to kill my hour by taking a walk. I really wanted to go in the direction of TCBY but since that was the other end of the airport, I settled on Mrs. Field's cookies. After killing 20 minutes of time, I wandered back towards my gate to find that we were suddenly boarding the plane. After 45 minutes on the run way taxing (BAHHHHH) we finally took off. Granted, I love to fly but the turbulance was so bad I almost got sick. It was a bad flight.

Finally get to Chicago and I ask a lady at the help desk where I catch the shuttle buses to hotels. She tells me there is a fire in the area where we usually catch the buses and sends me on an alternative route. Needless to say, her directions stuck and I ended up wandering around outside the airport, trying to keep myself from getting killed, for about 20 minutes. I finally found where the buses were with a swarm of several hundred other people. I saw I bus for my hotel and frantically tired to wave it down as it flew past me. After 2 calls to the hotel and 45 minutes of waiting, my fingers were numb, and I was just praying "Lord, get me out of here." Help came in the form of a very nice driver from the Hyatt (not my hotel) who, after I asked him for help to find my bus, directed me into his bus and went out of his way to drop me off at my hotel. My angel (I tipped him big time!). I was in the hotel room before my fingers fully warmed up (no joke).

On the bus I met a very nice lady who's day had been worse than mine including a delayed flight, lost luggage, and being stuck in Chicago for another 13 hours because of flight problems. Suddenly my day felt brighter. So after checking in I played phone tag with Maryann, who luckily had an easier time with the shuttle than I did, until she was there safe in sound. Phew, we went to bed.

This wasn't the end of our crazy weekend, but since I am getting long winded I will shorten up the other strange points for you.

1. Maryann locking our rental car keys in the car in the parking lot of the rental place, before we had even gone anywhere - another 20 minutes of freezing while I guy who had no clue what he was doing tired to break in our car for us
2. Stopping at 4? (at least, possibly more) exits on the way down to Congerville in search of an Olive Garden or Red Lobster (we found neither) and finally settling on Bob Evans (we were desperate), Nothing is ever as good when you have to settle.
3. Stopping at 5? (possibly more) exits on the way BACK from Congerville for the same restaurants. Finally finding a Red Lobster only to be seated too inches from the smoking section with a waiter that couldn't figure out why we weren't happy and why we were keeping him from watching his beloved Chicago Bears with our complaints (needless to say, we left without eating there).
4. Having our toilet back up Sunday night in the hotel the first time we tired to use it and having the guy fixing it discover that someone shoved a bar of soap down it!
5. Our hotel room which was HOT HOT HOT and wouldn't cool off even thought the air was on full blast.
6. Watching a pay-per-view movie on Monday before check out only to have it suddenly stop for no reason 20 minutes before the end so that I didn't get to see the end of the movie!!!!!

It's a rough life

Some good things did come out of the weekend though.
1. Time with Maryann - great memories
2. Really good pizza in our hotel Sunday night
3. Really good omelets for breakfast Saturday & Monday (thought of you Jewels)
4. The Bears lost - hee hee hee, that made me happy!
5. Something to blog about!

Well, I never was a believer in the whole Friday the 13th myth before, but just try and get me to go on a plane on Friday the 13th again. I think next time it comes around, I will take a 24 hour nap!