Up, Up and Away!!!!!

June 28 - Ooooops! Not quite ready... decided to leave to NYC on Sunday instead!

June 29 - Without the help of Mom & Charlie I Would have NEVER Departed for NYC on time! I had a stop in Utica to see my awesome, wonderful, bestest ever pooch, Timber. We had a nice walk and had some fun for a little while! Arrived in NYC, returned the rental car and headed to O'Neill's for the session. It was so great to see everyone. I even played a tune on the fabulous Darren's banjo. Yay. It was so great. We headed over to 11th Street for a bit, but I was exhausted so it was an early night.

June 30 - The original plan was to have two Sherpi (our new work for plural of Sherpa), Allison and Jess, to take me to the airport. Mass transportation, however got in the way of this plan! So, Allison and I hopped into a cab to JFK and, thank goodness, she helped me check in. We had a rocky moment in which my bags almost toppled over into some Israelis. Oh what a funny moment. Said bye :( and went through security.

And now... the best part. So I'm in the gate and met this awesome group of two couples. We were chatting and they annoucned the flight was overbooked. Yeah... I know I know... this always happens to me! So, I went up and said... "Ok, what's your offer?" $400 dollars towards Delta, night in a hotel, food, transportation and a guaranteed seat on tomorrow's flight. Neh... go back to the couples to talk. SEVERAL more announcements come in. I see a woman crying and telling someone she hasn't seen her fiance in 3 months and doesn't have a seat on the flight. I go back to the counter "$600 and you can have my seat." DEAL! yeah. That was awesome. She came and thanked me and told me how much it meant to her. I sat down next to the other gentleman who gave up his seat. He was a really nice man from Jamaica who was on business. Nairi (sp?) and sat for a while while a few people threw some very amusing hissy fits and then we were able to get all our vouchers. He got $600 too! We got on the AirTran and shuttle together and headed over to the hotel... when we arrived, we saw the line... WOWZA. An hour later we had our room keys and man was that line funny. Hardly anyone spoke english and most people were REALLY pissed off. Nairi and I just smirked at them and enjoyed the conversation with people around us.

But now, the hunger was setting in. It was almost midnight and my first thought was to head into the city and see everyone again, but I was HUNGRY and tired and just couldn't swing it. So, made my way over to the bar where I met an amusing man called John. The kitchen was about to close, but I was able to BEG the woman for some food and she got me a salad and pizza. She was REALLY cranky, but ended up being pretty nice by the end! There were two muslim women who walked in and looked distraught. John got in his car and bought them KFC. They had not eaten in 24 hours and they wouldn't even give them bread at the hotel. When John left, I looked to the other end of the bar and spotted the ONLY two faces in the place smiling. Yeah, I knew right away they were irish, moved my salad down to them and we stayed there for 4 hours having a BLAST. Neil and Aiden are their names and they were so much fun!

Had a GREAT nights sleep in a cumfy bed. Had no clothes or my bags or anything :) I sat out in the sun for a bit at the hotel and then went to the airport where I was able to go to the Delta Lounge and drink and eat for FREE all day! Neil and Aiden were there too and it was a blast. What food! The airline trip was cushy as ever, of course... I will send pictures of that in the next blog along with updates from this beautiful country! That will come tomorrow and then off to Willy Clancy on Friday!!!!

talk soon!

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