I think I finally fell asleep last night around midnight. And the alarm went off at exactly 3:30 a.m. That gave me an hour and 20 minutes to shower, get ready, close up the suitcase, walk Aero and be prepared for the Super Shuttle to pick me up for my ride to the airport. Of course, I was ready at 4:30, so I had plenty of time to spend with Aero and console myself for leaving him for so long.
The shuttle arrived at exactly 4:53 a.m. Not bad; they're usually running in that 15 minute window they tell you about. There were already 3 other people on board when I got in; after me, the driver headed toward Foster City and another pickup.
This is when the fun began. He gets to a townhouse in a huge complex and blows the horn (the person was not outside waiting). A woman comes out on the top of the steps and starts screaming at the driver. He mutters something about not picking up her luggage as he stepped out of the van. As we watched the drama unfold, she carries a small child down the stairs and puts her down on the sidewalk, where the little girl starts screaming at the top of her lungs. The woman is yelling into her cell phone while the driver is dragging 2 very large suitcases down the stairs. As she gets into the van with the child (still yelling into the phone), the poor driver loads up her 2 suitcases, 3 carry-ons and car seat into the back of the van. Her conversation gets louder and louder: she's on the phone with the shuttle company complaining about how late the driver is and she needs extra time because she's traveling alone with the small child and why couldn't she be picked up when she wanted to and she's not paying for this trip.... It just went on and on. The lady in the seat next to me just looked at me and rolled her eyes. It was so hard not to smack that rude woman on the back of the head.
As we pull away from her place, she starts telling the drive which way to go and to not use his GPS system because it's all wrong. Now, don't forget, she's still on the phone yelling at the shuttle company. We get about a 1/2 mile from her house and she starts screaming "OMG! OMG! Where is it? Where's my pocketbook? Stop the van! Stop the van now!!" As the driver pulls over, my seatmate and I have another eye rolling session and we hear harrumphs from the men in the seat behind us. So, screaming woman gets out of the van with the driver and proceeds to start pulling out all of the luggage from the back of the van, screaming at him the whole time asking what did he do with her pocketbook. When she finally returns to the van, she tells the driver "Look, you have to turn around and take me home. I have to get my pocketbook. I can't go to the airport without my id or my money." Yes, more eye rolling from rows 2 and 3.
So, we turn around and go back to her house. She runs in and gets the pocketbook. We're back on the road at 5:25 a.m.
We're cruising up the highway in the fast lane and are about two minutes from the airport when I get a feeling of calm about me. We'll make it in pretty good time. The line for security won't be so bad. And then it happened. BAM!!!!! We all heard the noise, followed by the driver quickly crossing 4 lanes of traffic to get to the side of the road. I suddenly lost that sense of calm and quickly felt panic. The driver gets out and surveys the van. He gets back in and one of the men behind me says "it's flat, huh?" "Yes, it is flat" was the reply in very broken English. Yep, more eye rolling.
The driver got on the phone right away with the shuttle company to report the situation and request another van. Because we were so close to the airport, he assured us that it wouldn't take more than about 10 minutes for a new van to come and rescue us. Oh, miss screaming woman? Of couse she pitched a fit and fell right in it about how late she was going to be now that this happened. Yeah, carma's a bitch, lady.
So, she gets on her phone and calls the highway patrol: "I'm on a SuperShuttle van that's got a flat tire at such-and-such location and you need to send a patrolman to our location because they want us to get out of this van and walk along the highway with all this traffic in the dark to get into another van and I have a 2 year old child and it's just not safe to do that and I want a cop here to protect us." I'm thinking lady, you can stay your butt on this van as long as you want to but I'm certainly hopping onto the next shuttle when it arrives!
6:10 and the new van arrives, but no highway patrol. Guess who's the first one off the van and pushing her way into the new one? Um-hmm. Screaming woman. I found it rather comical.
We were on the road by 6:20, and pulling onto the airport property before 6:30. I breathed a sigh of relief when screaming woman said she was going to fly Continental (which was the first shuttle stop) and I'm flying American. I was afraid to be on the plane with her - afraid her bad carma would follow her onto the flight! When the gentlemen in the seat behind me got up to leave at their stop, they both laughed and said they hoped that that screaming woman would make it to her final destination ok! Even the lady sitting next to me had a good laugh.
I checked my bag at 6:40 and proceeded to the security line.
Next up: I Didn't Know I Had to Do That....
Until Next Time,
Kel
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