4:06pm Wednesday 18 November 1998
(transcribed from my diary)
I have just arrived at Gate 1 in a frenzy - not late, but just making sure I'm not late. The plane will be 30 minutes late according to Danny sitting with Natalie across from me. They are from Canada. She didn't say HI but remained glued to the TV. Maybe she is speaking French right now.
It's now 20 minutes later and 4:26pm. Flight leaves at 6:45pm. That puts me there at 10:15 instead of 8:50. I am writing on a damn pile of floppy looseleaf papers, and I would rather have my diary now, but my dad suggested not taking anything I don't want to lose.
5:35pm Wednesday 18 Nov 1998
I'm smiling with my new pad of yellow paper and riding around in the bouncy electric cart that drives people around inside the terminal. The man is not using a horn to warn people, but rather continuously hollering,
"'SCUSE ME, PLEASE. PLEASE EXCUSE THE CART. EXCUSE ME SIR; PLEASE EXCUSE THE CART. EXCUSE ME. THANK YOU. PLEASE EXCUSE ME.."
This is so crazy! He's just non stop belting out EXCUSE ME PLEASE for what 5, 6, 7, 8 hours????
Now we're at Gate C48 way far from IAB 5 which is where I'm going. Hey! This is the gate where I dropped off Bryan Beck on his trip to Princeton! Way Cool!
Fred and I would have so much fun with a couple of these carts. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziinngg!!!
Back to gate IAB 5 and I'm getting off.
6:pm or so. I'm in line at gate 10 after the gate 1 was changed to five, which was changed to 10. Wacky. At least the 6:45 departure time has not changed further back. I'm standin' by a man from New Zealand.
I think the display says leave at 7pm. This other guy is saying "all free drinks from here on... Once we leave the continental United States they serve ya three drinks and more if you ask."
7pm I'm on the plane. Way in the safe end (the back). "and we are going to San Jose'" has been repeated each time anyone talks on the intercom. No one yet sitting next to me.
Kris and Lori are sitting next to me now, giving me suggestions on where to go in the country.
8:30pm Still on the ground, still in Houston. Lori and Kris have been keeping me so very entertained with crazy stories and just an overview of stuff in their lives. They are antsy and now have left to go smoke.
Over the intercom they are asking for the third time that everyone return to their seats so food service can come through. The steward slipped a margarita bottle, like 4 or 6 ounces to Kris and Lori because Lori begged for it.
They showed me all kinds of different cool places in the country. Kris and Lori both live in Costa Rica, just southwest of San Jose'. We exchanged email addresses and they invited Kathryn and I to call them if we get bored in San Jose'.
It's 9:30pm now and we're not flying yet. I have french fries after declining a hamburger or cheeseburger from Wendy's. They ordered like hundreds of burgers to satiate everyone on the plane.
Kris and Lori are fascinated with Thunder Rabbit stories, but haven't heard the whole thing yet because they keep grabbing onto tangents of the conversation.
They have gotten up to go smoke again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, everything is complete and now there's just one bolt they need to finish up work on the plane. The guy just drove up so we should be on our way in a second."
Lori is handing out her business cards to everyone on the plane!
It's 9:45 now.
I just took a pic of Lori and others turned around backwards to see the commotion of a guy loading more drinks and stuff into the plane. Then we had Rachel take a pic of all three of us at the exit of the plane by the drink loading dock.
Now they're asking everyone to sit down.
10:20pm we are backing up.
FUCK! I left my diary at home and therefore do not have the snail mail addresses of any of the people that I wanted to send postcards to from Costa Rica! AAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!
We're flying now.
