Exhausted

Remember how I mentioned that I needed to find a way to stay awake when I'm fatigued beyond belief?

Soon after returning from that trip to Los Angeles, Mark brought home a case of Red Bull for me to carry in my car along with instructions that they should always sit in arm's reach just behind the passenger's seat. Waiting for me for nights like tonight.

Right now, I'm parked next to a power outlet on the floor of the Phoenix airport, wishing for a flight home.

Last night, Mark and I got in from a fantastic trip to Chicago (more on that later) at around midnight, making our way home by around 1am. The tricky thing with that situation is that I had a flight out again this morning at 6am. You may be asking why I didn't fly directly from Chicago to Phoenix. Great question, since it would have made a LOT more sense! Unfortunately, I had already purchased both sets of tickets before we decided to extend our Chicago visit by an extra day, getting us home on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Thus the back to back flights.

At around 1:30am, after prepping for this morning, I finally crawled into bed. Need I say that I wanted to cry when the alarm went off at 3:45am? I had grand plans of sleeping on the plane, but even the best made plans can easily be deterred. My flight out to Phoenix was delayed by 2-hours this morning. By the time we made it onto the plane, I had managed to make a few phone calls and answer pending e-mails, allowing the caffeine to fully kick in and prevent my morning nap.

Ridiculously that the reason that US Airways gave for the delay was "needing the plane to be in a condition to withstand de-icing". Did I mention that I was flying from San Francisco to Phoenix? Need I remind you that it is the month of August? It was 100 degrees and sunny when I landed here at 10am. Not sure why de-icing was a concern.

And nearly 12 hours later as I sit here and type, I'm delayed again (on United this time) heading home. I've been at the airport since 3:45pm waiting for my 7:37pm flight. There were no earlier flights to standby on my air carrier. I resisted the urge to buy a completely new ticket just to leave a little early. I may or may not regret that decision.

At 6:45pm, the sunny day transformed into a tremendous rainstorm that literally shut down the entire airport. At 7:07pm, in lieu of starting to board the plane as my boarding pass promised, we learned that the in-coming aircraft had been re-routed to Tuscon.

As of 9:09pm, the plane was just leaving Tuscon, expected to land here in a half hour. Best case, I'll get into San Francisco at midnight for the second night in a row.

Which is why the Red Bull will be making its debut in a few hours. Here's to hoping that it, along with a much-needed nap in seat 5F, will make all the difference.