Airport Idiots

Seems to me that in airports, everyone's problems are always bigger and more important than everyone else's. I'm certainly no different, I mean I guess it's just natural to be selfish about travel mishaps cause really no one is there to look out for you except yourself, right?

As I was headed to Madison on Wednesday for an all day demo meeting, I was asked to stay and do another demo the same day while I was there. So, first (before I even get to the airport part) it's really cruel to ask someone to tack on another demo when you know they will have just spent 7 hours presenting at another one. Second, I make no guarantees of how coherent I am after a day-long demo as it is. And Third, this would mean a very tight schedule to catch my return flight home. So, after having a brief demo-related meltdown I agreed to do it (didn't really have a choice, but it' took me awhile to come to terms with that). And off I went to Madison.

Thursday morning started early with a prep call. In my opinion day-of prep meetings are a waste of time because it's not like you really have time to change your plan or react to any significant changes that may come up. After the call, I was off to the marathon demo meeting. While exhausting, it went well. Then it was off to the other meeting, which was actually sort of comical. Various attendees were rotating in and out of the meeting, so I got a lot of, "Sorry, Shorey, but do you think you could start over from the beginning so that XXXX can see?" This happened about 4 times in an hour.

My taxi, scheduled for 4:50pm (thanks to my idiot colleague who demanded this demo in the first place) to get me to my 5:30 flight (!!) never showed. Someone else decided to drive me and as I got to the ticket counter the agent said I had 8 minutes before they closed the door. I'm never really a big sprint-through-the-airport-and-cut-in-line-while-yelling person, but I was NOT going to stay another minute in Madison, and no one else is really looking out for me, right? So (as politely as I could) I asked everyone in the security line if they were trying to catch flights also departing at 5:30. I was able to get almost to the front of the line when a large woman (I'm not sure why I feel it's important to mention her size here) looked right at me and said that I could NOT cut in front of her because she had to be at her gate by 5:28 because her flight would begin boarding. Begin. Boarding. What part of departing at 5:30 did she not understand??? She's an idiot. Again, no one cares about anyone else's problems at airports, so I just stepped in behind her, and as I waited I heard them call my name over the speakers saying they would close the doors in 2 minutes.

And then I turned into one of those belt-in-hand-shoes-off-laptop-in-hand-sprinting-and-yelling kind of people as I closed in on my gate. Yes, again proof that I'm an idiot. But made it just in time to break an embarrassing sweat and hear the flight attendant announcement that they were holding the flight for me. Yes, I am an idiot.

But I made it. And I got to come home to my own bed. And then I got to sleep in a bit. While it was a painful process getting to the positive side of this story, I can admit that I really could give a rat's ass if that large woman ever made it to her flight.