Getting There

5:30 am: Alarm goes off.  Oh, make it stop.

6:30 am: One last hug to Emily & Claire, and we're off to the airport.

6:40 am: We are on the way to the airport when: 
Jamie: "Is this where I turn?"
Megs: :::stares hard out the window and realizes she's been chatting with winos in the backseat of the car every time Tim has dropped us off::: "I thiiiink... Yup!  That was definitely it.  Bye airport!"
Jamie: Should I turn around?
Megs: Nah, there will be another turn.

6:45 am: Jamie: "I'm turning around."
Megs: "That's a good idea."

7:10 am: We are through security, despite my pedometer having to go through twice and Jamie's request for a print out of her baby in the x-ray machine not receiving any laughs from TSA.

7:15 am: I have Starbucks now, so what oh what could go wrong?

7:16 am: Our flight is delayed, from an 8:10 take off to a 9:40.  So there's that...

7:20 am: Jamie goes off to talk to another gate agent to find out why we're delayed when suddenly she turns around and points at our gate (where there's no agent), catches my eye and mouths "Go!"  I go.

7:21 am: Our flight is announced cancelled.  Jamie arrives at my side in front of the gate, as the entire rest of the flight gets in line behind us, angrily grumbling.  I marvel at the luck that Jamie was at the right place, in the right time and got us in line.  I mean, luck.  Total luck. What could go wrong?

7:25 am: Our gate agent, Edward, has his brow furrowed as he searches flight.  It doesn't look good.  We banter with him, smile, bat eyelashes, etc... I mean, we both have read Dale Carnegie, ya know?

7:35 am: The 10:30 is full, the 12:30 is full - we're on stand by for both and confirmed on the 2:30.  Our plan to tumble into NYC at 11 am and spend the whole day traipsing around the city is now in jeopardy.  But there's still hope.  10:30 would get us in at 12... a little late lunch in the city and we'd be good to go.  We thank Edward, and hand him off to the extremely grumpy girl behind us who "absolutely has to get there by 2pm."  Gooooood luck, Edward.

7:45 am-10:30 am: If there's anyone who could make 3 hours in an airport disappear, it's me and Jboo.  We've got a lot to catch up on, and suddenly it was time for our first stand by flight...

10:40 am: And then it wasn't...  Our 10:30 flight become an 11:40.  Of course it did.  Of course it did.  But! We were first and second on the stand by list and I was totally optimistic we would get on.

11:40 am: Until we didn't.  Back to our original gate, to wait on stand-by flight #2.  We settle in with still high hopes until I check the board... and we're now #12 and #13 on the stand by list.

11:41 am: Deflated, we make an oath to the universe we'll stop judging people on Facebook if we can somehow get on the next flight.

12:00 pm: "Passengers For-ceee and Cline to the ..." We were up before they finished the sentence, wondering WHAT on Earth it could be next.  As soon as we saw Edward standing there with tickets in his hand, we were babbling.  "Are we really on this flight?  Really really? OMG, we love you, thank you."  I don't think Edward came to work that day expecting to be hugged by two overzealous girls, but that's exactly what happened.

12:30 pm: Take-off.  We. are. going. to. New. York.

12:31 pm: Thank you, Edward for making this: happen.

2:00 pm: Touch down in La Guardia, and we are off to find a taxi!

4:00 pm:

We are at Shake Shack.  I've got to hug Kathryn for the first time in real life.  I've loved on her sweet baby boy, and met her hubby.  Our bags arrived, the taxi was easy, the forecast called for sun tomorrow... what could go wrong?

And for the rest of the weekend, nothing did.