Text 13909, 91 rader
Skriven 2007-04-10 17:04:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: other trip 350
======================
UA 685 LGA ORD 1517 1709 752 2D
    originally 1500 1630

It's a short jaunt, if the weather isn't too bad, from the
US terminal to the main one, so I walked, being beaten by
the bus by only a couple minutes. Had an hour at the club,
where I determined that my flight was mostly on time and my
e-mail inbox mostly empty, both good conditions. 

Less good conditions: gusty winds at LaGuardia; dense fog
at O'Hare; tornadoes throughout the midwest. Flights were
not getting into or out of either very easily.

Lucky I didn't try to stand by for the originally-scheduled
2:00, UA685, which pushed back at 3:00 but didn't get in
until 5:25, a quarter-hour after ours (miracle of either ATC
or the flying tolerances of the 752 as opposed to the Bus).

Instead, I sat back on my originally scheduled flight,
relaxed with a double Courvoisier (the Extremely Grumpy
FA gave me a glass with a shot in it and a minibottle on the
side, telling me I could drink the second one whenever I
wanted), and snoozed for an hour. The usual song and dance
about jetbridge being tardy, so I had not a huge amount of
time to get to the hated gate F11.

Stopped at the first set of monitors and discovered that
the express flight had been delayed to 9:12. I squinted to
make sure that I hadn't misread that for 6:12 and then went
to nosh on free food at the club. Instead of a happy dinner
with friends I refreshed myself with raisins, potato chips,
and cheese and crackers.

At 8:45 I moseyed to the bus shuttle area only to find a
huge long line, so I decided to walk. 5 min to the B club,
5 min to the E-F bouche, 5 more to the end of F (this
approximately the walk taken in reverse by Dave Drum before
Hap's Dungeness crab extravaganza a few years ago). The
entire terminal was chaos: huge lines at the feedlots and
drinkeries, people sitting in all sittable locations. Of
course, F11 was chaos, with people milling about only to
thunder angrily back up to the main area when their flights
were cancelled, only to be replaced by more people, whose
flights were mostly eventually cancelled or relocated back
upstairs; so a fair amount of churn. We were delayed until
9:26 and then 9:52 and then 10:06 and then 10:12 ...
meanwhile they got out flights to Tulsa and then Moline;
each time they announced a boarding, there came a cheer from
a different corner of the room, where the passengers had
huddled together.

UA6454 ORD XNA 2306 0028 CRJ 4A
    originally 1750 1936

They loaded us up about 10:30, and then we sat and sat. They
had to clear a lot of flights. Took off after 11, got in at
about 12:30. No problem for me, as I snoozed, but Ella Lou
had been at the airport since 11:30, which the flight
information line had promised. I am told we went through
some bad weather, a line of t-storms and tornadoes and such,
as I slept.

Ella and I discussed plans for the next day: the original, if
I'd gotten in by dinnertime, had been to have a relaxed meal
with the family and an early bedtime so as to be able to
catch the whole load of Fulbright semifinal recitals. We
decided to play it by ear, as it were.

At home, collapsed into bed and hoped for a long sleep, but
for reasons unknown that was not to be. I was up at about 6,
and when Ella got up at 7, we decided to catch the whole lot
anyway. What with breakfasting (not for me), teeth brushing
(I am not from Arkansas and thus have more than one tooth),
and so on, we didn't get out until 8:30-ish and arrived at
the Walton Arts Center in due time.

The Fulbright has an interesting format. The judges winnow
down the hundreds of applicants to a semifinal field of 12,
each of whom gives a public recital; then, presumably, the
judges hear them doing their chosen concertos. The judges
choose the final three, who perform with our orchestra for
the edification of the judges and the delectation of the
audience, which has paid $40 a head for the privilege of
listening and being able to cast a vote for the $1000
audience favorite award.

I will append my notes regarding the semifinalists to
other posts, after the recipes, so people don't have to
read them in bulk if they don't feel like doing so.
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