Day 10... (Going Home)
Okay. This is being written almost 2 months after the fact, but I will explain to you exactly what happened on the day I split between the City of Angels and Sweet Home Chicago. I wrote the last entry about an hour before getting some 20 minutes of sleep under a row of pay phones. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted this and I enjoyed being a vagabond for a day.I awoke around 4:30 a.m. I believe, gathered my things (Laptop case, luggage, coat and iPod) and headed toward the huge glass walls that surrounded the exit to the International Terminal. I walked the few blocks over to the terminal I needed to be at and began my final day. This day, let me tell you, was a hassle and a half.
I began in good enough shape; sitting in the terminal just after they opened their doors with a dozen other vagabonds probably in similar situations as I. A sweet lady took me step by step through exactly what I had to do to breathe the air in Chicago as soon as possible. I stepped into the line to check in and so thus began my wait. It also began my first of many headaches that I encountered over the next 7 hours. I was shuffled from line to line, manhandled by security, my belonging handled violently by ignorant airport security and so on and so forth. I waited patiently in a line to get to the gate I needed to be at by 5:45 a.m. and finally got through it only to be turned away because I didn’t check my large luggage. This was about 5:30, so I had 15 minutes to get back to the main terminal, check the luggage on the 6 a.m. flight, check back in and get through that line again. Somehow… I did it. After seeing my laptop and hard drive get thrown around for a while, I ran to the gate where a flight was leaving for Chicago in about 3 minutes. My name was 12th on the standby list. They took 4 standbys on that flight. Okay. First time I figured wasn’t going to happen anyway. Next flight was two hours later. I will say that it was nice that they basically had a non-stop flight to Chicago almost every other hour. And also that the staff at the airport got considerably nicer and more patient the further into the airport you got. So, with about an hour and 45 minutes to kick around, I went and got some breakfast.
The second flight was at 8 a.m. and I was now, due to platinum or gold members or whatever, was bumped down to 14th on the list when I thought I’d be 8th. No dice on this flight. So I bought a drink, popped in ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and waited to be turned away again in an hour. No one’s fault, but I was in the belly of the beast and was at their mercy.
The next flight was about 9:30 or so and being 24th on the standby list on that one, I figured I had no chance on that one and my day was just going to get worse…
Wow. Fourth time is a charm! The 11 a.m. flight had a bunch of openings and I was 4th on the list! I shoved my laptop into it’s case almost as hard as they had and ran into the check-in line. The lady was stern but obviously knew what I had gone through because it seemed as if she shot me the first smile she’d had in about a week. Bless her. I got on the American Boeing 767, got to seat 34 G, called my family and waited until I felt the plane taxi to the runway. Once that happened, I celebrated in my head. Tiny, imaginary champagne corks bounced around up there and some guy was singing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ for me. It was sweet. Our speed increased and we left the ground. Climbing higher and higher above L.A., I looked out the window and saw my entire trip all over again. What a great experience and a great time, but I was just happy to be on a plane heading towards home again.
I looked over my shoulder through some windows a few feet to my right and saw the landscape as the plane turned to head eastbound and thought about what it was like to finally see the Mecca for so many filmmakers. It’s just another place. Another physical piece of land that just so happens to be the homeland of what so many of us crave. I don’t know how many times I’ll go back there, but it was nice to get this first time under my belt. But this final day culminated in seeing my family pick me up from O’Hare around 4:30 p.m. I was able to get done what I needed to get done on that final day of spring break and everything worked out. Not according to plan, but then again, what great story ever does go according to plan?
Now Playing: The Arcade Fire – “No Cars Go”
posted by MikeStan @ 9:51 AM
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