August 21

So I'm flying to Dallas at this point. I know that this is the worst part of the flight as I have a small window of time to get to my next flight to LA. Of course they say "oh no, you can't take that bag onto the plane as carry on" and take it and put it into a valet service where when they land they get it out from under the plane and bring it up. Roughly wasting 10 minutes of time that I don't have.

The good side of this flight is I sat next to a young lady who was getting a Phd in geology. Strange but true. Talked to her for quite a while, got my mind off of running to my next gate. She also helped me figure out where I had to run and how to get my not so carry on bags as well as how to get onto the Skytrain. Coming into Dallas there are horrific thunder storms, I mean really bad, like who slapped Zeus in the face bad. Our plane was even struck by lightning or so says the pilot, very turbulent weather, very sickening feeling... oh good my semester abroad is going to end on the Dallas runway.. fantastic... So we finally land after what seems like a carnival ride of a plane and the pilot parks about 100 feet away from the ramp...hmm. He comes on to the speaker:

Pilot: "Ah, we have been told we cannot dock, ah, there is a bad thunderstorm on the airfield, ah, we will have to wait here for, ah, about half an hour or so, ah, be sure to note the, ah, fasten seatbelt sign is still, ah, lite so hold tight for a bite."

Pilot: "Ah folks, the ground crew has been given the all clear, ah, we should be able to unload luggage, ah, but currently not able to, ah, dock yet, ah, and as a reminder, ah, the fasten seatbelt sign is still, ah, lite so please stay in your seats, and,ah we will,ah, be clear, to ah, dock."

Ughh thats frustrating pilot talk for you. After that long and ridiculous fiasco finally allowed to leave the plane and get my carry on which has been sitting outside the plane for 45 minutes now. I step off the plane onto the little boom ramp thing and spot my luggage on a fork lift. As I reach for it my passport/travelers checks/all my ID/and boarding pass slip out and land inches from falling down to the run way.... I push my heart out of my throat and back to where it belongs and start running for the Skytrain. Took about 2 minutes but got to my gate and found out its been delayed for 2 hours........ ughh frustrating, but I did get to see an unusually large rainbow so thinks may be looking up.