Shaky Start

I haven't left St. Louis yet and I already have something to blog about, I hope the rest of the week goes a little more smoothly.  I decided to get up early this morning (4am) to better acclimate myself to the 7 hour time difference in Sweden… good thing I did.  At 5am I got an email from Expedia saying my 10:45am flight to Toronto was cancelled and I would fly out on the same flight tomorrow… wait, tomorrow?  what?  WHAT?!?!  I immediately called Expedia, who told me everything still looked fine for my flight this morning.  Um, Expedia randomly sends flight cancellation notices for flights that aren’t cancelled?  I don’t think so.  So I call Continental Airlines, they confirm the flight is cancelled due to bad weather in Toronto and find me a flight leaving at 9:55am to Newark then to Stockholm.  Awesome!!!

So I call my buddy David (who, by the way, is like the best friend EVER) and tell him to pick me up at 7 instead of 8 to go to the airport.  No problem, he says.  So I get to the ticket counter around 7:20am and they can’t check me in because Air Canada cancelled the flight this morning so Air Canada needs to re-book me on Continental, Continental can’t do it themselves.  After talking to Air Canada for 2 hours (yes, 2 HOURS) I was finally able to get my boarding passes only to find out that my flight to Newark is delayed 3 hours for weather.  But they put me in an exit row for free and gave me a snack voucher, not quite as cool as being moved to first class, but it's something.  :)

While I waited, I started reading my book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  It's a novel about a family, except that it is narrated by the family dog.  I made it to page 4 before it made me cry, good thing I brought some tissues!