the worst new years eve ever.

i am not sure when i last had a day like this. maybe when my grandfather died. or when i heard for the 5th time i'd been rejected for a research grant. days like this suck. the kind you really wish you could could rewind and start over, or just erase from your memory.

7:30 this morning i left for dfw airport, to catch a flight to las vegas, where i was supposed to connect to orange county, ca and then on to honolulu. i was supposed to spend new years eve in waikiki with my brother sipping drinks on the beach while fireworks went off over the water.

instead i walked up to my gate in dfw to make sure my bags were ticketed all the way to orange county, ca. they weren't, and they had no record of my reservation past las vegas. after 10 minutes on the phone all was well.

well, no it was not. we took off nearly an hour late from dfw--the reason we were late? fuel spillage while filling the plane up--putting me in las vegas 30 minutes before the departure of my connections. that's plenty of time to collect bags, change terminals, and check in again, right? nope. almost, at least for the guy who runs through the airport. i arrived at the counter only to find out that i'd missed the connection by minutes. the real kicker, i would have made the flight even with the massive delay if american airlines had not lied to me and told me that my bags were checked all the way to the oc when they weren't. so now i had to work the american counter to get me a replacement flight to the oc so that i could connect with my next flight and still chill in waikiki. instead i ran in to two females of the doggish persuasion. they were totally unwilling to help and instead started treating me like i was irrational and belligerent. so they sent me away with a 'reservation' on an u.s. airways flight. when i arrived at the u.s. airways desk they looked for this reservation, only it was never to be found. the piece of paper they gave me was useless. so, to clean up the mess american airlines made, u.s. airways worked hard to get me to waikiki on the own dime. but they couldn't. but they did all the could, calling other airlines, working standby lists, and agreeing with me that american airlines sucks. as you can probably guess by now, i am not a fan. and i will not fly them ever again. not because we were late, because they didn't care that it was going to result in me staying new year's eve in an airport. they go on the list of boycotted airlines with ryan air in europe.

after everything was finally selttled and every possibility explored i was set up to depart las vegas at 7pm, arriving in the oc at 8pm, and then the next morning finally departing to hawaii at 9am. that's twelve hours in the oc airport for those counting. on top of this, when i tried to go down on the strip i was informed that the inexpensive shuttles were only running for another hour or so, leaving me with a hefty taxi fare to get back to the airport. not really worth it when you never wanted to spend time in vegas to start with.

so, here i sit. using the free wifi in las vegas airport--the one positive so far--and writing a long overdue blog. feel sorry for me people. it's been a frustrating day, but i guess in the end i'll be better for it, if i'll turn my face towards Him. in other news, you can expect a late best of 2007 post some time in the next 18 hours, since i have an abundance of time right now.