so here's what you missed on the halley daily...

1 hour after blogging on the airplane my travel plans made an abrupt change that threw me through a bit of a loop.

Original Travel Itinerary:

7:00pm: Fly from Kenai to Anchorage
9:00pm: Fly from Anchorage to Minneapolis
7:00am: Arrive in Minneapolis (remember we are dealing with time changes here)
8:30am: Fly from Minneapolis to Cincinnati
10:30am: Arrive in Cincinnati

Actual Travel Itinerary:

7:00pm: Fly from Kenai to Anchorage
9:00pm: Fly from Anchorage to Seattle
12:45am-2:00am: Maintenance on plane in Seattle while passengers remain seated on the tarmac
2:00am: Pilot announces that he has "timed out" and cannot legally fly us to Minneapolis. Delta cannot find another pilot to resume our flight until 8am, we can get off the plane now.
2:15am: So begins a refugee camp in terminal 2C in Seattle. Meal vouchers are printed. Blankets in bags are passed out. Babies are crying. Old men with boxes of frozen fish, which are melting, are crying. Halley is crying. ha! Frantic Delta representatives are trying to rebook flights and make everyone as happy and comfortable as possible. What does a stranded, sick, girl do in the middle of the night? Call her momma, who fixed everything, aka rebooked my flights over the phone.
7:00am: Fly from Seattle to Detroit (remember time zones here..)
3:00pm: Arrive in Detroit
4:00pm: Fly to Cincinnati
4:45pm: Arrive in Cincinnati
4:46pm: Kiss the ground
5:00pm: Paged to Baggage Services only to be informed that they lost my bag. super.
5:05pm: Hug your mom! : )

So my travel plans did not go quite as planned. I was so tired and thankful to be home and just about deaf. I had started to get a cold right before I left Kenai. I didn't think much of it because it was just the sniffles and a sore throat. uh...sniffles equal drainage. drainage equals fluid near your ears. airplane rides equal pressure. Anyone catching on here, because I sure missed it! After 4 take-offs and landings I could not relieve the pressure in my ears. By the time I landed in Detroit I couldn't hear either. Being a travel novice, I thought this was normal and would go away.

Enter urgent care.

I arrived home on Tuesday and my family had planned to leave on Thursday to travel to NYC for my cousin's wedding. Wednesday morning I was downright miserable and still couldn't hear so my momma, you know the one that fixes everything, drove me to urgent care where they announced that I had ruptured my left eardrum and the right was "blood red" and that I had an upper respiratory infection (which I think is a fancy word for a cold).

4 prescriptions and 8 days later I still have about 40% hearing loss. It's like an old folks home around here! Poor D has to repeat himself like 3 times before I hear him. Just giving him a taste of our golden years! : )

Long, long, story short I am beyond happy to be home even if it was a long journey to get here.

-h