Soooo it all started yesterday afternoon. I went to check in online to my red-eye flight from LAX to Washington DC airport (with a connection onto Raleigh) and discover it’s canceled! Of course they hadn’t notified me. No email, no phone call… nothing! Thank goodness I went to check in online that early. So with a phone call from a special helper I got a new flight with a layover in Newark. This one would leave 90 min earlier and get me in an hour later. A small sacrifice, still very doable.

Last night the flight left a touch later than expected due to excess baggage. They made the last 25% of passengers gate check their bags (including myself). But I deal with that just fine. I don’t have to pay for it and now I don’t have to lug the thing around. No big deal. We made up for the delay in the air and arrived in Newark on time (about 6:15am). Only as soon as I get there and look to the monitors to find where my Raleigh connection gate is, I discover that flight has been canceled. :( MAJOR bummer. It really feels like the floor has been taken right out from underneath you.

I get in a MONSTER of a line at customer service and when I finally get to the front they tell me that they can put me on STANDBY for a 4pm flight to Raleigh- mind you it’s 7am! I say okay (what choice do I have?) and they set me up. They also get me a ticket/seat for a 7:30pm flight in case I don’t make the 4pm. Ugh!

I walk off on my way, make a few phone calls, cry a little (yeah, whatever, I’m exhausted, deal with it). Then I look on my phone and see there’s a flight leaving Newark at 10am for Cleveland with a connection to Raleigh at 12:45pm. That’ll put me into Raleigh at 1:30pm! So I run back over the the agent and they set me up for that. They also check in on my luggage and tell me it’ll be on the 4pm flight and wait for me in Raleigh.

I get to my gate for the flight to Cleveland and everything seems to be moving on time. I’m confused why my flight to Raleigh at 9am was canceled and this one appears okay. If it’s weather, what really changed? In my humble opinion, it was BETTER when I arrived than it is now. I figure at least I’m getting out of Newark and Cleveland should be clear and good to go.

Unfortunately my luck in this whole ordeal settles in and we end up sitting on the tarmac for over an hour while other planes take off, they try to de-ice the runway, etc. It was a real joyous occasion. When we are finally cleared for take-off, it’s quite clear I won’t make that 12:45pm flight from Cleveland to Raleigh and I am correct.

I land in Cleveland at 1:15pm and go straight to customer service. I learned my lesson this time and I was the first one in line. :P

I get some new flight details from a jolly agent. I have to admit, Cleveland has been treating me pretty nice thus far, granted my scale is probably a little out of whack.

Anyway, that’s where this story ends (for now). I’m sitting in the Cleveland airport waiting for a 3:30pm flight to Charlotte (it’s 2:30 now) and then I have a connection there at 7:50pm that puts me in Raleigh at 8:42pm. There is an end in sight!

It’s time to get my boarding pass…. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

***UPDATE***

I knew it! Can’t be sure of anything these days… I went to get my boarding pass with the confirmation/schedule I was given by the customer service agent and because it was a different airline, I guess the seats didn’t show accurately because the flight was full. Arg!!

I walked back over to the customer service desk and talked to someone new. Now I’m on a 6:35pm flight to Charlotte with a connection to Raleigh that will get me in at 11:30pm. COME! ON! This time I have boarding passes for both the flights. And the lady took pity on me and gave me a meal voucher. That was nice. Gonna get dinner and probably a brew in an hour or so.

I don’t want to go without mentioning once more how thankful I am that this place has free wifi. Phew! I found an outlet and I’ve got a netflix movie loaded. Let’s kill some time!

Again, keep good thoughts for me PLEASE! With Murphy’s Law clearly in effect, I need all the help I can get.

Cleveland - looks A LOT better than Newark did

]]> http://ktothec.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/cleveland-rocks/feed/ 0 ktothec 20120121-161310.jpg http://ktothec.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/happy-new-year-barely/ http://ktothec.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/happy-new-year-barely/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:21:33 +0000 ktothec http://ktothec.wordpress.com/?p=2633 ]]> It’s the first of the year! (barely) Thank goodness I’m writing this from the pacific time zone, otherwise it’d already be the 2nd of the year and I’d be outta luck. Or I guess one could argue if I were writing this from that time zone it’d be the same time just in that time zone, because I’d have gone about my day just the same, only earlier. Right? Hmm, who knows? Hurts my brain a little to think about.

Alright so when I last left you all it was Christmas Day and I was SICK. AS. A. DOG. That hung around for the duration of my visit in Fort Lauderdale. Major bummer. And DEFINITELY NOT what I had in mind for that visit home. I was really disappointed. To make matters worse, I wound up infecting my dad too. He got sick our last day down south and prompted the Restas (Marcia and Mike) to kick us out! Haha. They didn’t technically force us to leave but merely encouraged us to take our germs out of a house with a toddler and a pregnant woman. Smart thinking really.

So, we moved on up!

On Tuesday, the 27th, we headed back up to Orlando. I started feeling a little better though the cold is still lingering with me even now. Good news it’s that it’s not NEARLY what it was. I was really laid up. Now I’ve just got some nasty congestion and some sluggishness. Hopefully some vitamin C will turn things around in a few more days.

So I was inspired to post on here this evening by a 2011 year-in-review summary from the WordPress people. They sent out this yearly report basically outlining the posts that were popular, where people came from most (aka most popular referring domains), and other fun stats that I actually found quite interesting. One such stat made me laugh and I’ve decided to share it with you all. It really needs no introduction, so here…

So there you have it. Among my 5 top commenters were 3 (THREE) of my immediate family. I guess this shouldn’t make me laugh, it’s just the fact of the matter when it comes to a personal blog. But, it made me giggle, and die a little inside, so I thought I’d share.

On another note I’d like to say a VERY special thank you to Wendy and Stephen for being the loyal blog followers and moreover, active participants, that they are. The readers truly make this thing worth writing and your comments motivate me.

That being said, if you’re out there reading this, LET ME KNOW IT! Either here on the blog or via a Facebook comment on the link that directed you here. It means the world to me. :)

Okay now I must warn you, I’m laying in bed and my lap is getting really hot from this computer so I gotta get going pretty soon. But, there is one last thing to share!

Today I went snowboarding for the first time this season and IT WAS A BLAST!

Me, syd, Evita, and Ana at Mt. High

When I say “I went,” I of course don’t mean I went alone! I took some penguins with me! Syd and Evita (above) play on the Fire Breathing Penguins (my basketball team) and Ana is E’s cousin (aka a psuedo-penguin). It was Ana’s first time and she picked it up QUICK! Meanwhile I dusted off the cobwebs early on and went right back into LOVING it! Soooo much fun! I can’t wait to get back out there again. :)

Before I go, let me leave you with one note: Tomorrow (aka in 11 hours) the Florida Gators will take on Ohio State for a bowl game that is pretty much to fight over Urban Meyer. Not that we want him back, that’s not the case at this point, we just want some retribution. He left us for “medical reasons” and we all understood. Then he signed on to coach those stupid trees/tree nuts and now it’s time to show the nation who’s better. It’s sure to be an intense game and suffice it to say the Buckeyes are GATORBAIT!

Alright, this laptop is officially burning my legs. Goodnight!

(Thanks for reading. Till next time…)

Whilst Santa made his visits delivering presents, I spent my night between bed, the couch, and the kitchen. Twas most unpleasant. Buuuut, that’s the way it goes. This morning when my family woke up, I took some NyQuil so I could pass out get get the sleep I failed to achieve the night before. I made it through breakfast and most of the present opening and then went to bed. Then I spent most of the day on the couch while my family visited Marcia’s Mike’s grandma’s house for a potluck and gift exchange and a pick up kickball game. You can imagine my disappointment at missing all of this, but I really wasn’t up for it. I slept and slept some more. Ha. And now, after being up for about 5 hours, I’m ready to go back to bed.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring my health back, at least somewhat. I’d like to hit the beach since the weather is so nice here in Flat Top. :) We shall see.

Sorry for the whole KtotheChristmas bummer here. Lol. Before I go, I’ll share a few tid bits to leave things on a higher note!

1) Nathan (my nugget nephew) made out like a bandit this year! Ha! It was funny because he had a huge pile of presents and after the first one was unwrapped, he said, “Open?” and then only wanted to play with it. Lol. He also did that for just about every other present he unwrapped. Haha. It was so cute. Goes to show you kids that young (or any age really) don’t need quite so many toys. But, we do know how (and like) to spoil him. :D

2) This year we did a “Secret Santa” deal and it turns out mine was Jennifer! I was REALLY impressed with her. :D She got me a Gator snow hat and a scarf that’ll be AWESOME to wear while snowboarding. I’m planning to go on New Years’ Day so I’ll get to try it out soon!!! Also she got me some of my FAVORITE perfume that I happen to be out of! :)

3) One of the highlights of Christmas morning was a TOTAL surprise present from one particularly special person. :) Amanda, who you all ought to know by now, sent me a present here to Marcia and Mike’s house. After contacting Marcia and setting it up to surprise me, she mailed a gift here to be presented to me on Christmas. So, as we divided up the presents into piles this morning, there it was, a present from Amanda (which I at first thought was a joke from one of my family members). Super sweet, right?!? :) I thought so too… :D

I’ll guess I’ll stop there. Three is a nice round number as far as ‘tid bits’ go. So okay, maybe this post isn’t a total bummer afterall! :) Keep an eye out for more KtotheC posts. Even though our KtotheChristmas festivities are over, I’ve quite enjoyed this last week or so and I’d like to keep my momentum! :)

I hope all your Christmases and/or any other holiday celebrations were wonderful! Thanks for reading. Till next time…

Oh! Here’s something! For hype’s sake let me announce that this blog is coming to you from the East Coast! It’s true, I’m in good ol’ Florida right now. I woke up at the [butt] crack of dawn this morning (that would be 4am Pacific Time… ugh). Now don’t give me any, “That’s only 7am Eastern Kaycee…” because that is NOT the point! The essence is that I got VERY LITTLE sleep (like 4 hours) and then traveled all day only to arrive in Fort Lauderdale and put on a smiley face for all the Christmas Eve festivities. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. But, I’ve got good news: As you can tell, my exhaustion has not stopped me from carrying on my 9 Days of KtotheChristmas. :D

So as I mentioned, I spent most of today traveling. I don’t want to sit here and complain (woe is me…) but the travel thing today- not pleasant.

When I landed in Ft. Laudy, my dad and Marcia’s Mike picked me up and brought me back to Mike and Marcia’s place. Let me clarify a few things real quick: I say “Marcia’s Mike” because both of my wonderful older sister’s are involved with Mikes. One, Marcia, is married, and the other Jennifer, is engaged. Different Mikes, obviously. Haha. So yes, I must specify. My next clarification is why I’m landed in lovely Fort Lauderdale. That’d be because we’re spending Christmas this year in Coconut Creek at Marcia and Mike’s house. It was a pretty outstanding arrival. Before I even got into the house, my mom came out to give me a hug and Nathan (my little nugget nephew) came out as well… pantsless!!! It was SO cute! He was just standing in the driveway with a polo shirt and a diaper. I couldn’t help but smile. I’d post the picture but I didn’t get clearance yet from his mommy. She’s a bit of a stickler about what goes out on the internet (aka Facebook) of that little fella, and rightfully so! :) I did however manage to get this picture of him after Christmas Eve mass tonight. :)

How cute is he!?!?!

My wonderful parents :D

Me and my lovely sisters

Alright, I skipped ahead a little there. I got home, grabbed some lunch (even though it was 4pm, it was 1pm my time). I shouldn’t say that ‘my time’ thing. I really hate that cliche. I don’t OWN time. It’s not MINE. When I arrive on the East Coast, the eastern time zone is the one I’m in. I don’t get to revert back… of course, I’ll probably never stop doing that because it’s important to get traveler’s sympathy. ;) Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.

So I got lunch, took a REALLY quick shower, and headed out to church. Afterwards, we did a Christmas Eve potluck type deal (it’s a tradition) at Marcia’s Mike’s parents’ house. :) I ate A LOT. It was glorious! Haha. Just what the holidays are about, right? Right.

Wake, fly, land, eat, shower, church, eat. That was my day. Haha. I also wrapped a few presents this evening and now I’m blogging. Blog! That’s an important one! :) But the best one… sleeeeeeeeeeep. :) I’m fixing to do that right now, just have to blow up my bed. Haha. Yeah, that’s right, I’ve been sentenced to an air mattress. (Woe is me.) ;)

Alrighty, thanks for reading… till next time (TOMORROW!!!! CHRISTMAS DAY!!!). Gnight!

1) The Grinchmas episode of OTLWK posted! Check it out HERE!!!

2) Check out this cute holiday picture of Adam the Page and I backstage at the Tonight Show. :) You can also find it on OTLWK’s Facebook (On the Lot with Kaycee) and Twitter (@KayceeOTL) should you want to comment on a more popular social media outlet ;)

Adam the Page and Kaycee the Page :)

Okay now that that is over let’s celebrate lucky number 7! It’s Day SEVENNNNN of 9 Days of KtotheChristmas! We are SO close! Can you believe it?

Right now I’ve got some Christmas music playing as I fight off the sneezes (I’ve managed to catch a cold) and anticipate a VERY hot shower. I’ve got all the traditional symptoms- issues with body temperature regulation, aches and pains, a runny nose, and IRRITABILITY! Haha. That makes me sound like I’m PMSing but I think we can all agree when you’ve got a cold, you get a little pissy. Lol.

Today was great though! I was SOOOO happy it was Friday! This week moved slower than a my finger nails grow (and I bite them, so that’s SLOW). It’s just one of those weeks I guess. OH! The Peanuts Song! Thanks Pandora Christmas station! :) This song is hard not to bounce to a little bit. :) I honestly have no idea what it’s called… let me go look at my iPad (that’s playing through some speakers in the other room- Christmas Present! Woo!)……

It says the artist is “Linus and Lucy” haha. Song is “Vince Guaraldi Trio.” Interesting.

Okay, what was I talking about? Being sick? Oh no! This week moving slow. Yes, it did. But today was great! We taped the show early so I got out a bit earlier than usual. But the mood around the show was just festive and fun. Everyone is great spirits. So after work I took Gabe and Danielle to the LAX Flyaway Station. I offered an LAX trip but they said the Flyaway was fine. I’m glad too. As a Sicky Sickerson, I really just wanted to get home, which I did, after stopping around the corner at the Grilled Cheese truck which happens to be stationed REALLY close by. I got some grilled cheese and tomato soup. I think that’s the ideal for most people when they are sick, no? Okay good. That’s my excuse. I just finished eating that and here I am. Next up is PACKING! :( Ew.

As much as I am looking forward to going home tomorrow, I HAAAATE packing! Gross gross gross. And don’t you dare say it’s better than unpacking. That is the EASIEST! Everything just goes in the laundry. It’s a breeze. No weather checking, no debating what you can/can’t fit, no THINKING! Packing stinks and you know it.

It could be worse though. I was going to have to do laundry first and that would’ve kept me up super late (no fun). Luckily though my sister/mom said it’d be no problem to do laundry upon my arrival. Sooo that’ll be quite nice. Speaking of which,  it’s time I get on this. Once I pack then I can shower. And after I shower, I can go to BED! :) 4am (the time I have to get up tomorrow morning) is going to come REALLY FAST (despite how slow this week has moved). So I’m outta here!

Thanks for reading! Till next time (CHRISTMAS EEEEEEEVE!)!!!