I booked my flight for the 2nd of January in an attempt to escape before a snowstorm was due to sweep through New York City on the 3rd. As per usual the weather tends to be oblivious to its own time schedule and this time decided to arrive early, bringing with it the blizzard of the century, at precisely the time my plane was due to take-off. Needless to say my flight was delayed by an hour before American Airlines deemed it safe to fly (although by this time the storm was well underway). A panicked voice came over the tannoy ushering us "as fast as you can" to board the plane so we can take off before the conditions worsen and they grounded all planes for the night. That was enough for me, I basically ran through people to get to my seat. In the meantime the voice proceeded to hurry us explaining it was unnecessary for us to waste time placing our carry-ons in the overhead lockers before take-off, instead it was recommended we hold them to save time and organise ourselves and our baggage after take-off. I can imagine that is what it would be like if we were preparing an escape from a zombie apocalypse. I'm still not entirely sure how qualified the voice was to suggest such chaos but follow the instructions we did... At least for half an hour until it was clear the plane was still not taking off and we were given the go-head to place our carry-ons where they belong, which I can assure you is not piled on top of me. After sprinting to get on the plane we were grounded for around an hour whilst it was sprayed with some kind of snow-repellent and finally took off after a two and a half hour delay. I was just thankful we were in the air.
Arriving at Chicago O'hare in the nick of time I had half an hour to run from gate H-something to gate F-something before my connecting flight to Oklahoma left its most important passenger behind! I arrived at the gate, my laptop and camera in arms, backpack almost toppling me over, with just ten minutes left to board only to be told there was a gate change and I was obliged to run all the way back to where I came from in order to make my flight. Knowing that not even Usain Bolt would make that flight I decided to take a leisurely stroll and regain feeling in my back... However, luckily for me my flight was delayed by an hour anyway (I'd run a small marathon for no reason).
I was sat waiting for my flight watching the only TV channel available to us - Fox News - report on how Chicago was drowning in snow... I looked outside to find clear runways and cloudy skies... I'm not sure what Chicago they were looking at but it certainly wasn't the one outside my window. The consensus I came to was that JFK wanted us all out before we were forced to line the hallways in our sleeping bags whereas O'hare was trying to keep us there until the snow started failing and they could legitimately keep us hostage.
(In case you didn't sense the sarcasm, I appreciate there was a real reason for my delay however after hours of being convinced The Day After Tomorrow was finally coming true I was a little on the bitter side)
So after a total of 7 hours delay I finally arrived in Oklahoma around 3am... A week later we were also covered in snow.
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