I thought Denver loved me

It's the beginning of a long journey and the unknown looms constantly. Having at least two months ahead of me with plenty of details left intentionally undefined, I have found myself shifting from excited and hopeful to scared and possibly regretful. The beginning of the journey is set, however, and I am following my trusty itinerary (sent to me by my travel-goddess-virgo-step-mother, from here on referred to as the TGVSM) which gets me to my first real destination: Lansdale, PA — the home of my dear friends, Andrew and Melissa. The unexpected, of course, does not always reside within my "intentionally undefined" boundaries, and will eventually decide to "do it's thing." It's like when the TGVSM would say, "So, the plan is to play it by ear, that's the plan..." That's very clever of her to expect the unexpected. Remember that the 'V' stands for Virgo, and that particular breed have a deeply rooted sense of organization. For me, a plan is just another something to remember, and I just hope that I can learn enough about organization, from the virgos in my life, in order to keep from missing too many appointments. Today, however, despite my laminated itinerary, the plan has suddenly changed. If only I had decided to "play it by ear" I could have expected this.

I'm in the Denver airport, where I have been for a couple of hours now. When I landed I noticed that my flight to Philly was delayed by almost 2 hours. That would put me there after the trains stopped running and my dear hosts would have to drive 40 minutes each way in the middle of the night to pick me up.  Luckily, my flight to Paris doesn't leave for 3 days, so I have some flexibility. I decided to start playing it by ear and that's when the magic started to happen. I asked, and it turns out that the flight is very full. I told the airline attendant that I would be willing to be bumped, and he told me that there wouldn't be another one until the morning. Fine! Will I have accommodations? Yes! They'll pay me $100 plus the price of the ticket and put me up in a hotel. You see? It all...

*  *  *  *

I got cut short there because my name was being called on the loudspeaker. I thought that maybe they had found someone who wanted my seat and that they were waiting for me. Great! I packed up my computer and dashed to the gate, but as I looked at my clock I realized that it was already 6:45, and the flight was leaving at 7. I was having so much fun hanging out in the Denver airport that I forgot to go check back at the gate. There was no one waiting to get on the plane; they were waiting for me so they could take off.

I was the last on the plane and it was a completely full flight, and with Southwest it's first-come-first-serve seating. I looked around for the empty seat, and finally I saw it ... between two very enormous men. One of them sighed and said, "It's going to be a tight squeeze!" And it was. Good thing the flight was only 3 hours, but I didn't have time to call before we took off and it made for a very late night for Andrew and Melissa and me.

It's almost 3am and I'm finally here at their place. Andrew is playing guitar and Melissa is trying to sleep. I didn't know it would be such a crazy day, especially after I thought I had it made, but I can't forget that the unknown will always be there. I am still that same appointment missing space cadet that I was before. The 'TG' stands for "travel goddess," and I still bow to her feet. Forgive me, TGVSM. I lucked out this time, but I will have to tighten up ship if I am going to make it through Europe this summer.