my adventures in traveling:
So I booked a flight from Columbia SC to Boston for New Year's Eve. I was supposed to fly from Columbia at 4pm to Cincinnati, where I was to connect to Boston, arriving at 9:30 or so that night. My cousin drove me to the Columbia airport. We got there at 2 to be on the safe side, in case there were long lines. Of course, there was literally no one in the security line when we got there. We hung out until about 3, and in that hour maybe 20 people total went through security. After I went in, it turned out my flight to Cincinatti was delayed due to "maintenance" (which, a roommate pointed out, is much better than not maintenancing the plane) but that meant I'd probably miss my connection and there wasn't another Boston flight from Cincinatti that day/night. They had one seat left for an Atlanta plane, where I could connect to Boston. The Atlanta plane was running late as well, but there was a later Atlanta-Boston flight in case I missed my earlier connection.

Eventually we got on the Atlanta plane. It was then delayed because some part of the plane that helps start the engine and runs the air conditioning when the plane isn't in motion was not working. They had to bring some kind of external device to start the planes engine, though they assured us this was not affecting safety at all. The flight attendant was really nice though, and the trip itself went fine.

The connection flight left Atlanta at 6:45, which was about the same time my plane landed in Atlanta. Fortunately, they had gone ahead and put me on the later flight (leaving 9:45) instead. So I ate dinner at the airport, called some folk, listened to music, watched some football, etc. After we boarded the Boston flight, I ended up sitting in the midst of the Brown women's basketball team, who were returning from some games. It just so happened that a panel in the ceiling over the seat in front of us was missing, and the maintenance guy said we couldn't leave until it was replaced. The flight attendants looked for it for a few minutes (wondering why no one noticed or reported it on the previous flight) then the maintenance guy came to cover the space once we couldn't find the panel (the pilot also came back at one point in a "I had to see it for myself" moment). Of course, the people in my row (me, the Brown coach and a player) had to get up and stand in the aisle while he fixed it. By "fixed", I mean he took some material that looked like straps from a seatbelt and taped it over the opening. Fun stuff. So we actually took off, landing in Boston 12:30ish (the pilot wished us happy new year in the air). Went to baggage claim, waiting for half and hour or so for my bag to come out (it didn't, of course). So I filed a lost baggage thing (I would've actually been a bit surprised if it had made it given all my flight changes). It hasn't shown up yet.

It was like 1 am by this point, but a friend had told me that the T was running until 2 bc it was New Years. I went to catch the Silver line bus to take me to the subway, which didn't come. Maybe I was waiting in the wrong place, but no one was around to give information. Eventually took a cab home, which cost like $40 w/ tip. Along the way we got stopped by some drunk guys who tried to get in the cab (one of them stood in the middle of the street and stopped us from going by) but eventually gave up. Got home around 2am, tired and bagless, but with some stories to tell. Good times.