December 27th 12:46 A.M. Well, we almost made it. Instead of ending up in Switzerland this morning, we�ll be waking up in beautiful Newark, New Jersey. Originally we thought we�d be leaving Cleveland on time. However, after taking our seats on the plane (we had to play musical chairs with a few other passengers to end up next to each other because Continental seated us about 8 rows apart) the pilot announced that we would not be leaving for another two hours. We went to the bar for a while and called customer service. The agent informed me that the flight to Geneva that we needed to catch in Newark was also delayed so there was a very good chance that we�d still make it. Well to make a long story short�we didn�t. After running through the airport to get to the departure gate, standing in line at customer service for two hours, waiting for our baggage for an hour and a half (which never showed up�that is a nightmare story in itself�we�ll see if it gets to Switzerland with us tomorrow) and then standing outside with temperatures in the �teens for about 20 minutes waiting for a cab, we are finally in a hotel room at the Wyndham and trying to warm up. When we walked into the room it felt as though they had the air conditioning on. The room and a buffet dinner were given to us compliments of Continental Airlines. The bad news is that there is no flight to Geneva out of Newark tomorrow. We have to wait until 6:45 P.M. and fly to Paris, then make a connection to Geneva. So basically, our European vacation turned out to be the bonus package which includes a 24 hour excursion to Jersey. It�s ok though�we�re �on holiday� so everything is wonderful in the world! We met a girl named Christine who is in the same boat as we are so she is hanging with us. She�s got a room across the hall and we�ll share a cab to the airport tomorrow. We�ll probably do some shopping at the airport too to kill time. Hopefully everything will go as planned tomorrow. Oh yeah, one last little fun tidbit about the day. Most of you who know me may remember what I call my �leprosy.� Well, I guess due to the stress of traveling and all of the fun stuff that happened today, I have about the worst case of it I�ve ever seen on my chin. Way to make a great first impression on the family, huh?
Waiting for our bags that never came...
Waiting in the "customer service" line
December 27, 2004, 4:21 P.M., Monday We�re checked in and waiting now, our flight leaves at 6:45 (in theory). David is fetching me a Mai Tai from the bar. Christine is off looking for a charger for her cell phone. She either forgot hers altogether, or it�s packed in her checked-in baggage, I forget which. I had an embarrassing moment on the way to the airport this morning. We were riding the hotel shuttle and the driver didn�t speak English very well. One of the passengers needed to get off and the driver kept driving, so I yelled out �Sir stop!� David nudged me and whispered, �Sir? It�s ma�am!� Yikes. I swear I kept looking at her after that and I don�t see how he could have known she was female. I felt really bad though. That had to suck for her. The man sitting next to me laughed about it, but he wouldn�t look at me when he talked to me, that�s how bad my chin is today. It�s one of those situations when you are talking to a person and there is something weird going on with their face, so you look elsewhere, but it�s really obvious. My chin is so gross. I still can�t believe that this happened on this trip! David said it looks like I fell on my face.
...Enjoying my Mai Tai
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