DTW sucks my butt

I am on Spring Break! Hallelujah!! It's been wonderful since we've been here - mid 80's and sunny every day. I'm getting tan!! No more pasty white!! However, we had quite an ordeal getting here. Let me fill you in...

We have had reservations on Spirit Air since October 30. I actually booked the seats using Travelation - cheap, everything good. Usually, we fly right out of Lansing (lovely little airport), but it was way more to fly out of there this time, so we had to fly out of Detroit. Yuck. Not a fan of DTW. Plus, it's almost 2 hours from my house compared to just over 30 minutes to Lansing. So, we had to leave school an hour early just to get there on time. Soooooo.... we did and we actually got to Detroit in record time! :) So we wait in a nice little line and then go up to the counter and give the girl our driver's licenses. "I'm sorry but we have no record of you on this flight." Excuse me?!? It was true- they had no record of us. All that I had was a printout from Travelation with a confirmation number. So, we stepped out of line and I frantically called Travelation (sucky site - good prices, but apparently some incompetancy abounds). I was on the phone with an agent for an hour and a half - to no avail. There was absolutely no way that they could get my mom and I out of DTW that night. Ugh!! This really sucked because we had this all arranged and my aunt and uncle were also on this flight and we had a car rented for us all to go to my grandma's. Therefore, we really needed to be on that flight. However, it was totally booked. So, we got on the standby list. Never done that before. The girl at the desk told us to come back up to her a few minutes before the flight was going to close to see if there were seats left. We did, and there were two!!! Home free!! Then some little fucker comes running up to the desk and proclaims that HE is a ticketed passenger going to Orlando. ARG!!!! Thus, leaving one. My mom and I argued about it, and I won - sending her on the flight. She's not incredibly independent and I knew that I would fair far better than her being stranded in the airport. Yes, I was totally stranded - my dad had dropped us off hours ago. So, I called my cousin who is in grad school at U of M (boo hiss - he's the total misfit in our family) right now and he and a friend came and got me. The next flight I could get out was at 6:20 the next morning. I stayed at his apartment and he called me a cab the next morning - since I had to leave at 4am. I'll delve into that experience later - suffice to say, his apartment was nasty. I realize he's in college and doesn't care - but there was stuff growing in the shower. I slept on the couch and didn't walk around without shoes on. Maybe it was also my avertion to everything U of M. Yuck. Ick. Gross. I have no idea how he got this way!! I was in college too, and have seen some really bad apartments, but I really think his takes the cake. It made me want to immediately start cleaning. And I hate cleaning with a passion. Although in order for me to have even gotten started, I would have needed a haz-mat suit and industrial-strength cleaner. Okay, time for a new paragraph.

I got to the airport way early only to find a gigantic line!!! I stood in line for over an hour and a half, only to get up to the counter 15 minutes before my flight was to take off, and have the girl tell me that since I was "so late" (hello? is it my fault that you don't have enough people working?), there was a good possiblity that I wasn't going to make the flight. WHAT?!?!? You can't make me go back to the filth hole in Ann Arbor!!!! So I ran. Of couse, my gate was the farthest away, and I ran. I got up to the gate, handed the attendant my boarding pass, and she told the guy that I was the last one and to close the door. Hot damn!! I did it! To celebrate, I slept most of the way to Orlando.

We're really not sure what the hell happened that we were even in this predicament. According to Travelation, it was Spirit who dropped our reservation. According to Spirit, it was Travelation that never booked the flight. Luckily, I had brought my itinerary that Travelation had emailed me, with the price we paid, and Spirit sold us our seats for the same price - even though they could have gotten a helluva lot more out of us. I must say, I am pleased with Spirit and how they took care of us on an incredibly busy Friday night. However, we will not be flying out of DTW for a long time. If ever.

Before I close, I also wanted to share our rental car experience. I had reserved a 'Standard SUV' for us - since there would be 4 adults and lots of big luggage. Well, there was a kind of an accident at the Sanford/Orlando airport (where we usually fly into BTW), and they had redirected all their flights to Orlando. I wasn't there Friday night (I was at the dirty AA bachelor pad, remember?), but this is what was relayed to me. My mom, aunt, and uncle got to the Dollar counter and because of all the extra flights, there were a gazillion people in line. They stood in line for 2.5 hours just to get the damn car!!! And, they weren't able to get the SUV, they had to get a little Sebring because they were all out of big things. My grandma lives in Daytona (approx. 1.5 hours from Orlando) so they didn't get to her house until 2:30am. Then got up at 7am and turned around to come and get me. Today, we went and exchanged the car for a Grand Cherokee and all is now okay.

What a mess. But, you know, it's been only a few days since all this happened, but it seems like a long time. It's been sunny and beautiful everyday. We have gone to the beach everyday and it's been great. I've also been doing a good job of catching up on my sleep. I don't wear a watch and we just do things when we feel like it. We already have our arrangements to come home all set - with printed itineraries right from Spirit, so there will be no more 'snafus'. From talking to T, it sounds like the weather is really really crappy at home. I wish I could send all this sunshine up there!! I sure would if I could!!

Have a great week everyone! Next time I'll tell you all about how my mom wanted to buy a crack pipe! Seriously.