"Good" Friday???

4/6 5 p.m.

I’m still in St. Paul. And I’m not going anywhere tonight. What a nightmare this day has been.

I stayed the night before in my apartment complex guest room, which was the best thing I could have done for myself. It was as classy as any 4 star hotel room. So the next morning, somewhat calm and hopeful, I go to Caribou Coffee with my laptop to check my e-mail and thought I would check the flight arrival web site. The tranquility quickly became short lived, as I saw “flights in and out of O’Hare are being delayed by one hour due to wind.” Great. That means my friends would never make their connection. I was expecting the phone to ring any time to give me the bad news, but it didn’t. Gee, maybe that meant no news was good news and their flight went off.

Nope. 11 am, when they should have landed, came and went with no word. Back into panic mode. I was scrambling for the airline phone number when the phone rang. Sharon and Kate were now on the road driving to Midway Airport from O’Hare to make it to a Northwest flight that was scheduled to leave at 2 pm and arrive at 4. They didn’t tell me because they knew I would be a basket case, which of course, I was. That’s how my family raised me--to worry about everything.

In the meantime, I had to get to the airport anyway around 2 pm to get the minivan picked up. I had to put Kate on as a driver, but couldn’t do that because she needed to be there to get added. The good folks at Alamo/National Car Rental were kind enough to let me get the minivan checked out anyway and even found the last big stow and go one they had. They also didn’t have a problem with me not letting me drive it off yet as I waited. After all, it was only a couple of hours wait.

Nope.

The 4 pm estimated arrival time then turned to 4:30 pm. Then 5:30 p.m. Then 8:30 p.m. Then 10 p.m. There was a maintenance problem with the plane, which escalated into having someone come from O’Hare to fix the plane. A few phone calls went back and forth from my friends and me, and it turned out I had more current info than they were being told on the ETA because I was sitting there watching the screens flip.

As all this was going on, I was shuffling like a zombie from the baggage claim area back onto the tram and back to the rental car area more than a few times. The folks at the rental counter were patient but I am sure very tired of seeing my upset face giving them updates and asking would it still be okay to keep the car parked and no one would take it if did, right? (For this reason alone, I recommend renting from Alamo or National Car Rental). As time wore on they were getting concerned they would have a space issue with returns coming in. So, they directed me to a tight space near their exit area. First of all, I hadn’t counted on even driving this thing at all. I was hoping Kate would be the driver. Remember, I’m a gal with a Geo Metro who never drove anything larger than a compact car. So here I was singing a hopelessly off key but earnest chorus of “Jesus Take The Wheel” as I tried to negotiate the space and not slam into the blue poles on the side. Fortunately, He did. He even got someone who had their personal car parked in the area rounded up and out of the way.

Finally, once Northwest decided to admit to my friends what I already knew, that the next time they were telling people the flight would arrive was 10 p.m., the dear souls, who even considered driving from Chicago from Minneapolis, gave up the ghost and decided to stay over in Chicago and book a flight out the next morning. Smart move. They would be more rested and they deserved to rest in comfort. After all, they had it worse than I did. And I wouldn’t have to drive the minivan again in the evening. So I took the van home while it was daylight. The good news is I think this thing is big enough to do what we need it to do. Another of my worries.

I am sure glad I paid a full month’s rent, for at least I still had a place to stay. I didn’t have any more furniture here and I would have had to stick my friends on the floor with pillows and blankets. Our caretaker here kindly lent me her cot and a few pillows she was tossing. She would have put us up in the party room if needed be. My apologies to the people below me though for the creaks from the cot.

So will Kate and Sharon get out of Chicago and make it here? It shouldn’t be so dang complicated to get from Chicago to Minneapolis! You know, they are still on Northwest, and the “S” word is in the forecast for tomorrow. But I’m letting go of that usual worry for my own sanity. Will Wendy, Sharon and Kate finally be on the road to Nashville? Stay tuned.