Another day of travel

Got up at 5:30 to go with my mom to school. We left the house at 6:00a.m. I spent the day photocopying. At 10:15, my dad called and said he was on his way home. I drove home to pick him up.

I'm coming home and am going down the freeway with the cruise control on doing 70 and I notice a jolting feeling. I figure it is nothing- perhaps it is windy, as the branches on the trees were moving. I got off the freeway and am on surface streets. I get to a stop light and the car shuts off. I restart it and the check engine light is on. I say oh well, I'm 5 miles from home, I can make it. The car shuts off again less than a mile away at the next light. I get to a stop sign as I'm about to turn onto the highway we live off of and the car shuts off. I start the car again and there is a vibrating/jolting feeling that is making the car undriveable. I figure I can't make it home- even though I'm 3 miles away and call roadside assistance. They say they'll be there in an hour. In the meantime I call my dad and tell him to just load his car up with the suitcases and meet me at the car dealer. It made me mad- my mom's car is only 2 years old and already something is going wrong.

Roadside assitance said they would be an hour and 20 minutes. I call back nicely and say I'M GOING ON VACATION. I AM ON MY WAY TO THE AIRPORT. I NEED A TOW NOW. Within 20 minutes a tow truck arrives. I am good like that. I ride in the tow truck, check the car in, then take off back to my mom's school. We get to her school at 12:45. Pretty amazing we got there so soon after that experience.

Honestly, the car could not have broken down at a better time. My dad and I'll be gone- she'll have her choice of 2 cars to drive (my large car and my dad's small compact, which makes her claustrophobic). My mom said she'll drive my dad's car. My mom is lucky she didn't happen tommorow when my mom won't have anyone to come pick her up and she'll be dealing with all the craziness of making her hair appointment and getting my sister to and from the train station. So all is well and the trip wasn't ruined.

We get to my mom's school, then pick her up. We go to lunch at a Mexican food restauraunt.

We get to the airport and are told the flight is 1 1/2 hours late because of the thunderstorms in the area. 3:30p.m. flight and we're going to leave at 5:00p.m. to make a 6:00p.m. connecting flight. 1 hour and 5 minute trip to Phoenix. YIKE. Southwest was luckily able to swap planes and get us one that was only 55 minutes late. YAY!!! It canceled my plans. We had a couple hour stopover in Phoenix where I planned to meet up with one of my best friend's J for dinner. She is spending the summer with her mom in Phoenix. Didn't work. Oh well.

There was a woman who sat next to me on the plane ride to Phoenix who asked me when she got on if eating her spicy chicken salad would make me throw up. I looked at her and was going to laugh. Why would her eating her salad make me throw up? Oh well. I said no. She was really annoying and everytime my dad and I said something back and forth to each other she had to lean over and listen to what we were saying, then chime in. She was a nice lady though- she let us off the plane first because she was not in a hurry to switch planes.

Anyways, in Phoenix we learn our plane came from LAX and was also delayed due to the same thunderstorms in the desert and was running 40 minutes late. Enough time to grab dinner at Windys, which was underwhelming by the way. We didn't think we'd get dinner, so that was a good thing.

We're supposed to arrive in Nashville at 11:30p.m. ON TIME- the pilot says we'll make up for the lost time in the air.

On both of the flights I have been BOILING. I swear. It is not that the air condition is not running in the plane. In fact on both flights I placed my dad's air vent and mine on me, yet I am still boiling. I have been unusually warm this summer or maybe it just is the lack of air condition. My dad says he thinks I'm finally warming up after all these years. I'm always cold though... no kidding... in previous summers it was not unusual to find me sleeping under 1-2 heavy covers. The Guy has a nickname for me when he feels me and I'm really cold... Ice Queen... haha... My hands, feet, and arms are perpetually cold. I just want to pour buckets of water over me or something right now. This is ridiculous.

I'm on the plane right now writing this. Yeah... I'm cool like that.

EDIT: Plane got to Nashville at 12:15a.m. We are just now getting into the hotel at 1:33a.m.