Travel

Well, last week I had a business trip... a conference, in Chicago.  Some of you know this crazy, someday- to -be -funny story of a trip gone bad because of weather and travel issues, but for those of you who don't, let me share...
I arrived at the airport after Brian dropped me off on Wednesday at 4 PM for a 6 PM flight.  I was going to be meeting 4 other co-workers there.  The first potential issue was that the security line was so long I couldnt' see the end of it and people were taking the moving walkway to get to the end quicker.  It was crazy.  Thankfully (and a good sign, I thought) the line moved quickly and after a mere 45 minutes, I was through and ready to wait for boarding.  I didn't see my friends right away, but assumed they were lost in the line somewhere down the road.  I got a bite to eat and settled into the oh-so-comfortable chairs at gate B3.  Waited awhile and finally saw one of the girls I was expecting.  I dropped my stuff with her and ran to the bathroom.  Got back in time to hear that we were delayed almost 4 hours due to storms in Chicago.  Mind you, it was beautiful and clear in Philly that day.  Oh, well.  Worse things could happen.  And, they did.  First, we boarded 10 minutes after they announced the delay, and then we sat for a bit on the plane.  We  taxied away from the gate and out onto the tarmac.  We waited.  Finally, around 7:30 they said we were going back to the gate and we could get off and stretch our legs, if we wanted to.  We were to depart around 9:45.  They said to come back at 8:15 for an update.  Ok.  Off to get a snack.  We got back to the gate at 8:15 to hear "Final Boarding Call for flight 707 to Chicago for immediate departure".  Oh, crap.  We almost missed it, but we didn't.  We got on, the pilot told us that the temp was 64 under partly cloudy skies in Chicago, but we'd be passing through some storms and there may be a little bit of turbulance.  Ok.  I don't like that, but ok.  Started out fine.  No turbulance.  A while later, an update that all was going well and that our path was taking us around the storms.  Good.  Then, after being in the air 45 minutes to an hour, the pilot informs us that we're making a U-turn, heading back to Philly, and the flight was going to be cancelled at that point.  WHAT?  We all waited for the punch line... we were certain that he was joking.  He wasn't.  We arrived back in Philly a little bit after 11 PM.  When was the last time YOU took a 2 hour ride on an airplane but didn't go anywhere?  When we got back to the gate, we were informed that the desk to re-schedule the flight was closed for the day and that our bags would be going to Chicago, where we could pick them up once we arrived, if we arrived.  We also learned that 3 flights from Philly to Chicago were cancelled earlier in the day, meaning that any and all flights on Thursday were booked solid and we had no hope of getting there the next day.  To make a painfully long story a little bit shorter, we spent time trying to figure things out in the airport that night before I finally got in a cab at 1 AM to head home, bag in hand (everyone threw a fit until they agreed to take our bags off of the plane!).  It was a very expensive cab ride, but I got home safely without having to wake Brian up in the middle of the night to come get me.  It takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to get to our house from the airport, so it would have been a 2 hour ordeal for him on a work night when he had some important things going on the next day.  We spent a few hours the next day trying to work things out... was it worth it to go to this conference two days after it started?  Would our hotel rooms be saved for us?  Could we re-book the shuttle that was to take us to the conference?  Would we have to pay the cost of the conference if we skipped it at that point?  In the end, we got up in the wee hours of Friday morning to catch a 6:45 AM flight out, got to Chicago relatively event-free, and made it to the hotel by 4 PM.  We missed all sessions that day, and just had Saturday and Sunday morning left.  While the weather was gorgeous and hot here, it was dreary, rainy, and cold there.  I didn't have time to see the city, which was disappointing as I've heard it's a great place to visit. I did eat some of their famous deep dish pizza, though, which was all that it was promised to be. 
So, while on this crazy adventure, I was thinking about Stefani, our social worker, and remembering her words "Live your life!  Go to Mexico if you want to go.  You'll be surprised at how quickly you can get home if you need to, if you're chosen by a birthmother while you're away".  Yeah, right.  If I learned anything from this trip, it's that I WILL NOT make plans to fly out of town again before the baby comes.  Not that we won't live our lives.  We will.  But we'll do it within driving distance of PA and NJ.  It was so stressful... and I was just going to a conference that in the grand scheme of things was relatively unimportant.  Add something life changing, a dream about to come true to that, and what've you got?  The biggest stress I could probably imagine, so I'm going to just imagine it and not live it.  I did imagine that the baby would make an appearance on Friday night, so that I'd have to turn around and go back after a struggle to get there.  That would have been stressful, but in the best possible way.  I would have completely embraced that!  But, it didn't happen and we continue to wait.  We've got some things planned for this summer.  We're trying to stay busy and stay optimistic. We're not sitting by the phone.  But all in all, we do hope and pray that that phone call will come soon.