Plane Trip: Goin back to Cali - part one

(author's note: these events occurred over a week ago, i am just getting around to posting them now)

As i type this, i am flying high in the air. After staying up all night preparing for my trip to l.a., I embarked at 3:50 a.m. to my father's house, to drop my car off before going to the airport. The snow had already started in earnest, and there was at least a couple inches of fresh unplowed snow. Driving conditions were ridiculous--on 291 west i got stuck in between two oncoming plows, narrowly escaped hitting the second one which proceeded to pass me on the right, and made my way the entire course going no more than 40 or so miles per hour. Arriving at the airport, i managed to get my boarding pass, and during the security check was totally taken by surprise when i entered a booth and was blasted by puffs of air. I set off the metal detector, and after removing more things and being cleared, i was told that my bag would be searched. my dumb ass had forgotten--there was a pocket knife in there! wow. I'm lucky not to have been in any trouble from that, and it also made me glad that airport security really works. So then, i get to where you wait, meet Greg (whom i'll be working with for the next few days) for the first time, get ready to board; we board, sit there, and then we find out that due to the nature of the particular class of plane (a smaller one), the runway is 'contaminated' and that we will not be cleared to take off. So we 'de-plane', and stand in line for 25 minutes trying to figure out what to do. They get us on a direct flight to l.a., that doesn't leave until 3:30 p.m. So, after hours of intermittent sleeping, reading, and general airport boredom, here i am, in the air, flying towards fargo n.d. to angle down to l.a.x.

postscript: what a long day. we finally arrive in L.A., and take a long cab ride to our hotel, where I get to meet other members of our A/V and Event team, and have a nice dinner before buckling down to set up the equipment. The setup goes surprisingly smoothly, and gives me positive energy looking forward to the rest of the week.