a very long day

it's 5:24 am as i start writing. i have been awake for almost 24 hours and can feel my eyes start to close unwillingly and my throat close up. i want to sleep. the heaviness that comes when you haven't slept for a very long time weighs me down, deep in the blue vinyl airport seat.

we left duluth at 7:15 am Sunday morning for a 3 hour drive to the st. paul/minneapolis airport. we knew we would arrive 3 hours early for our friends who were leaving earlier than we were. but what we didn't know is that our flight (originally leaving at 2:43pm arriving boston 10:30pm) was delayed. first an hour. then two more hours. then another hour. then finally three more hours. seven hours in total. peter stood in line twice to see if we would miss our connecting flight, i stood in line for an hour once, and we changed flights back and forth, called our families, made glamorous plans and waited. when we finally board our flight to atlanta, we had been at the airport for nearly 11 hours and were informed that we would miss our connecting flight home to boston.

our flight took longer than the pilot thought and then when we landed at 1am, we had to sit on the runway for an hour. i can't explain the feeling or the sentiment that was trapped on that plane. it was like a living nightmare. i could actually imagine having that nightmare - stuck on a plane with panicked, angry, tired, self-righteous, and fed up. after going through all our possible housing options, we realized we weren't going to be able to sleep in a bed.

and then we exited the plane, finally, only to be greeted by swarms of sleeping families, panicked individuals, the smell of rotting food and human sweat, and stressed out airtran workers. peter and i looked at each other and laughed. what else was there to do? we both prayed silent prayers of thanks that we had each other, that we were still alive, and that we were still able to laugh at our incredible bad luck.

our luck turned a bit after the overwhelming scene of lost crowds (all of airtrans flight in and out of atlanta had been delayed four plus hours leaving thousands of people stranded). we were able to change our flight from 9:30am to 7:00am so we could make it to boston earlier. closer to a bed. peter snoozed for a bit, i finished some work, and tried to stay awake.

now, after a breakfast burrito and some hot chocolate, i will have successfully pulled my first (complete) all nighter. 24 hours straight. minus maybe 15 minutes on the plane ride to atlanta. i feel ill. i can't wait to get home.