Life just got adventurous

Wow! Check it out-- two posts in one month!

THE END HAS COME! No, not that one. But falls semester is over and school is out! I had the best finals week ever. I only had four classes that had anything happen during finals week. I had one easy test and three writing assignments to submit. I had to finish the writing for two of the writing assignments the week before, so I just had to do some revising before I turned them in as my finals. That left only one big theory paper to worry about writing and I got it done in good time. As much as I hated my two 18 page theory papers this semester, I totally feel empowered to know that I really can write that much and have something to say the whole time. I wrote more pages this semester for all my classes combined than I ever have in my life. It's validating to know that I must know what I'm talking about or else I would have run out of things to say a long time ago.

All my finals were done on Wednesday and I prepared to return home on Thursday. I stayed up late packing and then I had to wake up at 4am since I had an early flight. It took me a little longer than I expected to head to the airport, and I arrived at the bag check counter at about 6:10 and my flight was supposed to leave at 6:30. Yikes! The lines were all super long like I haven't seen in years. Think post-9/11. I'd never make my flight. With the encouragement of fellow travelers, I boldly walked to the front of the line and plead for mercy. The travelers tehre let me cut to check my bag. The security line extended clear across the airport, so again I walked up as near as I could to the front of the line and asked to cut since my flight was already boarding and I really wanted to get home. A nice man let me cut there too. I felt bad cutting in front of so many people who had been waiting a long time, but I did NOT want to get stuck in Utah and complicate my life.

I hurried through the terminal and made it to my plane in time. Turns out they then decided to delay the flight for 20 minutes to allow people stuck in the security line to make it. Soon we were off and had an uneventful flight to Seattle.

It was snowing in Seattle. A large winter storm had descended upon the entire Inland Northwest. We sat and waited as airline employees told us that our flight was delayed as we waited for clearance from Spokane. Finally, they announced the flight was canceled. Nothing was flying in or out of Spokane. I jumped into the long line at the counter to try and find a spot on a later flight and simultaneously called Southwest on my phone to see which could help me faster. After 15 minutes I got an agent on the phone and she got me onto the 1:20pm flight that day. All these activities were interspersed with calls to Mom and Sarah because her father-in-law was going to pick me up at the airport. Sarah couldn't because they were snowed in at the house and Dave was the only one who could safely get out in his truck.

I killed time by eating some food and watching a movie on my laptop. I periodically checked the monitors to make sure my later flight was still on schedule. About an hour before we were to leave I checked again and the flight was canceled. I hurried back to my gate and got in an even longer line and on the phone again. There was one more flight that evening I could catch. After 20 minutes on the phone I finally got an agent, but she told me that their computers were down and she could do nothing for me; I'd have to change my flight at the airport. I don't know why the call took 20 minutes if that's all she was telling people. In the calls back and forth to home, my mom mentioned that my cousin Dusty's wife Angie was in Seattle and preparing to drive to Coeur d'Alene to meet up with Dusty either that day or the next. I gave her a call and informed her of my predicament and she became my plan B.

After waiting in line almost and hour, an airline employee came down the line to answer any quick questions we had. Someone asked her about Spokane and she announced that ALL flights to Spokane were cancelled that day and they were concentrating only on passengers that needed to go somewhere else, namely Boise and Las Vegas. Basically, if you need to get to Spokane, get out of line and don't even bother asking for help for a while until everyone else was helped. All our baggage was dropped off at baggage claim. I called Angie back as I headed to find my bag and we decided I'd come to her apartment and we'd figure stuff from there. I was worried my bag never made it to Seattle since I had checked in so late, but I eventually found it.

Angie gave me instructions on which buses to find to get me close to where she was in the city. I've never taken US public transportation before, so this was an adventure. I found the right one and hopped on. It's only 15 or so miles to downtown Seattle. It took us over 3 1/2 hours. The driver decided to take an alternative route and avoid the freeway. Bad idea. With all the snowfall traffic was horrible and often at a standstill. The first three miles took the first three hours. Finally the snow had stopped and traffic finally opened up a little. I made friends with the lady next to me on the bus. She borrowed my phone to call her boss and she told me how to navigate myself with the bus system. We had lots of interesting characters come on and off our bus. People would get on because they were stuck in the snow, then ride a while and then asked to be let off since they could walk faster than we were driving. A little girl across from me sat and played around crossing her eyes the whole time. And I mean the WHOLE time. I thought she'd get tired of it. Then I thought, well maybe she is just permanently cross-eyed, but I couldn't tell.

We finally made it to the station downtown and I caught a bus taking me up to the UofW campus. This ride was less eventful and a lot faster. It dropped me off very near where Dusty and Angie live, and Angie came and picked me up. I felt bad making her wait for me when she could have already left for Idaho, but then a guy on bus #2 informed me that all the passes had been closed all day because of the storm, so I didn't feel so bad knowing she couldn't have left anyway.

Once we get to the apartment and I am able to charge my phone so it doesn't die on me, I call Southwest again. This time they tell me that all flights to Spokane are booked through Sunday. Guess I'd be driving with Angie! We ordered a pizza and watched Gonzaga crush TSU the rest of the evening. The next day I mercifully slept in, then we packed up and headed out at noon. The passes were open again and the weather was clear. There was some ice and compacted snow over Snoqualmie, but we had no trouble but a gimpy wiper blade on the passenger side. Good thing I wasn't the one driving! After Ellensberg the roads were completely clear, and we made it to Coeur d'Alene safely and soundly. And that's how I made it home for this Christmas break. Took a little longer than I thought it would, but I made it.

Some may wonder what happened to Danny. He is going on a study abroad to Mexico next semester so he has to drive all his stuff home. He needed to stay a few extra days too, to get the last of his paperwork done. He is supposed to drive home tomorrow, Monday, but I'm not sure how that will work with another storm coming. Hopefully he makes it home by Christmas!

About that first storm: it was a recordbreaker. It snowed 30 inches in 24 hours in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. The previous record had been set in the 70's and was only 13 inches in 24 hours. It has been bitterly cold, so the snow is the fine, powdery kind. The snow has settled in the last couple days so it isn't as deep as it was, but there is still about 2 feet with more to come in the next week. This is the most snow I have seen since I was a little girl. I missed all the big snow accumulation last year since I was in Israel having the mildest winter of my life. It's fun to have so much snow again and have a decidedly white Christmas.

So that's the last week of my life. It was long, but finally exciting. It makes up for the rest of my semester when all I had to write about was how I slept, ate, went to class, went to work, and did homework. Stay tuned; maybe I'll write again before the end of the year!