Since we had two vans, we left in two groups.  I was in the early van because I was one of the earlier flights... Dr. Marchman drove and then the others were Kevin, Mel (one of the Brits), Steve, Ryan, and Adam.  I sat in the back with Ryan and Adam.  It was about a 3.5 hour drive into Chicago from Oshkosh.  Ryan got bored and started making up games to play... it was quite amusing...

We all checked in and since Ryan and Adam had a good while until their flight they left and caught the subway into downtown Chicago to eat lunch and all.  Steve and Mel were in a different terminal so they went on their way... Dr. Marchman, Kevin, and I had a bite for lunch at Cinnabon and Dr. Marchman ended up chatting with me about his days in the marching band back at NC State.  After lunch we went in our own directions...

This is where the day gets 'exciting'.  As I was walking down the hall to my gate, the voice over the intercom system was just naming flight after flight that was cancelled.  Apparently while we were eating it had begun to rain and by this point it was storming pretty well... So I was worried about my flight.  I reached the gate and the monitor just displayed "Delayed" by my flight information... so I waited around for awhile and ended up getting a call on my cell phone from US Air about the delay.  They said it was only a half hour delay and that I'd have plenty of time to catch my connecting flight in Charlotte to Reagan.  So, I decided since I had a good while until my flight, I'd walk around a bit... by the time I got back the delay had changed from 4:30 to 5:45... almost a 2 hour delay, which would cause me to definitely miss my connecting flight.

So then, the lady at the desk at my gate switched me to a united flight that was departing at 6pm going direct to Reagan.  She even put me on first class... all I had to do was go pick up my bag from the US Air baggage claim and then check in with the United desk in the other terminal.  When I got there the lady said that my name wasn't in the system... turns out that when the person gave me my new flight assignment she tried to give me a seat in first class when in fact there were none available and so, after my electronic ticket was printed, my name was kicked out of the system.  Anyway, luckily there were still a few seats available on that flight and so she gave me my ticket.

Turned out that I was then one of the 'lucky' people who are randomly chosen to go through the extra security checks... yep, take off your shoes, hold out your arms and full body search... search through my bags... got through that and made it to my gate about 10 till 5pm.  Ryan and Adam's flight left at 5pm from the next gate over and they hadn't boarded yet so I talked with them a bit... after they boarded I called my parents to give them an update and tell them it was looking good that I'd be leaving on time for this second flight...

JUST the second I hung up from that the lady at the desk came over the speaker saying that the good news is that we had a plane, but the bad news is that due to delays at other airports and such our crew hadn't arrived and we didn't have anyone to fly the plane so our flight was delayed indefinitely.  It was still only 5:30pm so I figured there was plenty of time for the crew to get there.  But as the evening wore on, the lady kept being less and less optimistic about our flight leaving... and all the rest of the reagan flights kept getting cancelled.

I decided to walk over and see if I could find Dustin and Amy over at their gate and chat with them a while.  While there another flight to Reagan popped up on the screen so I decided to walk back to my gate to see if I could get a standby ticket for that one... and by the time I made it back to my gate, Dustin and Amy's flight was boarding.... so I was officially the last one left in there in Chicago.  Anyway, I was beginning to accept the fact that I was going to most likely be stuck in Chicago for a good while... The attendant at my desk basically was telling us  at this point that it was HIGHLY unlikely that our flight would take off... she was even telling us all our options about flights for tomorrow and discounted hotels for tonight and all...  I got in line and ended up getting (in addition to my ticket for the indefinitely delayed flight) a standby ticket for the last flight scheduled to reagan for the night (at this point delayed until about midnight) and a confirmed seat on the first available seat for tomorrow... a noon flight on monday... so I was set to just camp out in the airport for however long.

I walked around a bit and picked up a magazine to read and even was making plans with my dad for him to contact my faculty advisor to tell her that I got stuck in Chicago and would be late to work at the best today.  Eventually however, they flashed an estimated departure time; they said that they had secured a captain and first officer (or whatever they're called) but were still waiting on getting flight attendants

It ended up that they started boarding about a half hour earlier than the board had estimated, but that still put us back at Reagan a little before 3 am.  After we landed, the power in the plane went out and we had to wait for the auxiliary power system to start up... it was actually humorous at this point... just another thing to add to the list of my travels.  By the time I got my luggage it was 3:30am.  so the only way I could get back to CP was to pay a fortune in cab fares...So I was like, I only have 2 hours or so until the metro starts running again.. so I just found a row of seats up near the ticketing area and camped out for the rest of the time.

I caught the metro back to CP and then a taxi back to my apt.  It was 7am by the time I made it back... I sent dad an email and Maria an email and took a 2.5 hour nap...