Horrific Experience

Everyone knows how ready I was to get home from England. I'm not sure I could have taken another night of being there in that awful hotel. So when we arrived at the Manchester airport for our 8:05pm flight I was fully relieved that we were finally on our way home. Being that we got there several hours early we decided to grab dinner since we would be getting home way to late to eat once we got home. We picked a little airport restaurant where everything was mediocre and overpriced. I ordered a California chicken breast sandwich. All seemed good. Then our food came out. Mine was disgusting. I mean, hard to eat disgusting. I was really trying not to complain but about half way through it I couldn't take it anymore and told Deaner something was wrong with my sandwich. When he took a bite he sort of started laughing and said "Uhhh, Gleatie, that isn't chicken, it's TUNA FISH"!!!! OMG. If I had to pick the most disgusting food in the entire world, I would have picked tuna fish. I hate it. I hate all fish but tuna fish in particular makes me gag. It was pretty much the worst thing he could have told me. I was worried for hours afterwards that it was going to make me sick. Thankfully it did not. However, what happened next almost did..........

It took forever, of course, for me to get my right food. Even then I was so rattled by the tuna fish ingestion that I couldn't really eat much. We paid our bill and Deaner headed for the bathroom before we headed to our gate. Our flight was at 8:05 (or 20:05) and the person at the front desk told us that we started boarding at 7:30. I think it must have been around 7:00pm at that time. While Deaner was in the restroom I started scanning the board for what gate number we were leaving from. Horror and dread came over me as I saw at the very top of the board.......FINAL BOARDING CALL.....FRANKFURT.......GATE 24. All I could think was oh my god, how did this happen to us?? Deaner comes out of the bathroom and I am FRANTICALLY waving my arms at him pointing at our last boarding call warning. He too starts to freak out and we go RUNNING down the escalator, practically knocking people down, and sprinting towards gate 24. Girls, let me tell you, if only one of us were going to make this flight, it was going to be Deaner. He left me in the DUST. He claims now that he was just trying to get there first to hold the flight but I'm not so sure! Anyways, we dash up to the gate literally as the gate agent has closed the doors to the ramp. Here is how the conversation went:

Deaner: "WAIT WAIT!!!! HOLD THE PLANE"!!!!!!!
Gate Agent: Briefly glances thru a tiny window "Sorry sir, the plane has already pushed back".
Me: "HOW CAN THIS BE?? WE WERE TOLD IT WOULDN'T BOARD UNTIL 7:30pm"!!!
Gate Agent: Very calmly. "No, we boarded at 7:00pm"
Deaner: "DID YOU BOARD EARLY"?????
Gate Agent: "No, right on time"
Me: "WELL I AM POSITIVE THEY TOLD US 7:30pm!! YOUR FRONT DESK PEOPLE ARE TELLING EVERYONE THE WRONG TIMES"!!!

At this point, I am reaching full blown hysteria. There is only ONE flight a day from Manchester to Frankfurt and we were in the process of missing it. All I could think of was the fact that we would be stuck there another night, Deaner's boss would think we were morons (since he was on the flight too), it was going to cost us a fortune, and we would have another whole day in England!! Tears were filling up my eyes and my hands were shaking. Back to the conversation (by the way, the gate agents were walking away already as they obviously didn't give a hoot about our plight!)

Deaner: "I just don't understand, it says right here on our ticket that we don't leave until 20:05"
Gate Agent: "Let me see that ticket".
Me: "I'm just positive they said 7:30".
Gate Agent: "Sir, this is a Luftansa gate"
Deaner: "Ok but now we are never going to get home"
Gate Agent: "Sir this is a Luftansa gate and you are holding A RYAN AIR TICKET"!!!!!

Oh. My. Gosh. I have never felt so stupid. And so relieved all in one emotion. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh but I do know that I almost had 3 heart attacks. As we made our way back to the lobby area we saw Deaner's boss and our flight's gate hadn't even been announced yet. Deaner explained then to me that our flight would be listed under "Hahn" and not "Frankfurt" but I certainly didn't see him enlightening me of that during the mad dash 2009.

Looking back on it now it is REALLY funny to me. But it took almost an entire week for me to get up the nerve to write it down! (besides being sidetracked by a few other more significant events!) I'm glad it is over and I am glad that we made it home. I wish I didn't have to eat tuna fish or have a coronary in the process but at least I am over gagging when I THINK about the tuna!!

I have a friend coming in town tomorrow morning from Houston!! I can't wait to see her and the next 10 days are going to be a blast and probably leave me really worn out. Tonight is Captain Jack's visitation and tomorrow is the funeral. I just found out that it is going to be a full military burial which is REALLY cool to me. I have seen one before and there is no way to describe the feeling when Taps is played. It would give anyone goose bumps. I wish I was going to be there to honor my grandfather but I know he would be cursing me from heaven if I had flown all the way home. Keep my family in your thoughts today and tomorrow. And thanks for all the kind words this week. They have meant more than y'all will ever know!