it's always an adventure!

(just to illiterate: my previous post was an april fool’s prank. i couldn’t stop quilting any more than if i decided to stop breathing. it’s who i am on such a core level. i go into withdrawals if i don’t do something quilty everyday)

i know i owe you guys a NY story. it’s here, but first, i'm ticked off a little...i was a very very good blogger and took lots! of pictures....but (there's always a 'but') when i was flying back into atl, i went to get my camera to take a picture of stone mountain (it looks like a fire-ant mound from the sky, and very nondescript which would of made a great blog pic *sigh*) and my camera told me that my memory card needed to be reformatted...huh?....so i have basically lost all my pictures from ny, but the worst of that news is that i had the tutorial for finishing up my blog's bom quilt on it too....darn it all to heck!!! i have figured out the plan B to that though....i get to make two! i already have the blocks....hey i told ya- i love samplers

okay so the ny trip. i went up there to teach two long arming classes (one - a design class for custom quilting and two- how i quilt my feathers....i will be teaching in OR in july, btw and have room let in all three classes! have your people call my people we'll do lunch!)

(grab the popcorn Bill, this is gonna be good!)

okay first, i will NEVER EVER fly with USeless Airways again. the itinerary was simple: atl to charlotte to albany. get to ny at 2:15pm....so, i get to the atl airport, and the plane taxis out and as it is leaving the gate this god awful sound comes from under the plane. it sounded like a dog was killing a cat...or two......seriously. then it stopped...okay, must be the plane 'warming up' *yeah, umhuh*....so we get out to the runway and the pilot goes to throttle the plane for take off and we hear the feline murderer noise again, then a pop.....i'm not a frequent flyer by no means, and i'm getting a little worried. so the pilot comes over the intercom and informs us that the hydraulics for the left engine basically blew up (hey better on the ground than in the air right? yup!) and we have lost all ability to steer (what's with the 'we' stuff, does he have a mouse in his pocket?) we have to sit on the tarmac waiting for something to get us back to the gate. we get back to the gate, and then we are informed that the flight has been cancelled. like i said, i'm not a big flyer (this trip was my fourth time flying) so i have no clue what that really means, but i'm a quick learner and soon figured it out. so i get in line and wait.....and wait.....and wait.....so being the little social butterfly never-met-a-stranger person i am, i start talking to my fellow linemates. seems that four other flights were also cancelled due to 'maintenance' issues.....ummmm, that's a bit unnerving. so i get up to line and make the following comment (trying that whole i'll-kill-the-frustration-in-the-room-with-humor bit): "so i hear alot of flights are being cancelled due to broken planes" i thought i was been clever and funny.....nope....the reply: "yeah the company that makes the replacement parts for our fleet has gone out of business and we can no longer fix our planes so we are having alot of maintenance cancellations" *silence* the first thought i had was, "shit, i'm getting ready to get on another one of their planes"...(okay i have to tell you this: remember the emergency landing of the plane in the hudson river last year- yup- it was an US airlines plane....one lovely traveler felt the dire need to inform us of that while waiting in line to reschedule our flights....) this is quickly becoming an adventure from hell....but a very good blog post

so i finally get to charlotte, which is a 40 minute flight and here's the highlight of that flight: the pilot comes on the intercom and does the whole spiel: we have reached our cruising altitude...the weather in charlotte...which way the wind is blowing...yada yada...then tells us that it is safe to turn on our electronic devices *bing*   then about 6 seconds later (i'm not kidding) the pilot comes back and tells us that we have begun our final descent into Charlotte and we need to turn off all our electronic devices *bing*......so it's 2:00pm....yup, i should already be in ny and i'm not even above the mason dixon line. *groan* so i get to my gate in charlotte and i'm sitting there petting a king charles spaniel (and missing my poochies) when i noticed that the flight info on the LED screen has changed....okay, i know i'm not crazy, the last time i looked it was going to albany, now it’s going to boston. *grr* so i went up the counter and asked the lady which gate the albany flight was changed to (see i'm getting good at this whole airplane travel lingo thingy, i felt very proud of myself) "oh, ma'am, that flight was cancelled." guess why.....guess!.....yup, maintenance issues. my faith is starting to waver a bit and i'm starting to wonder if these are signs to rent a car and drive...so i get to stand in another (longer) line to reschedule....

so the nice attendant informs me that the next flight to albany isn't til 10:00 that evening....8 freaking hours later....O.H  H.E.L.L. N.O.! (patience wearing thin) so she clicks some keys on her magical computer keyboard, and what do ya know- a flight to philly, then on to albany....so a trip that started with two airplanes and three airports became a four airports and five airplanes trip....and thankfully, that's where my story ends, i got to hurry up and wait all day....oh i forgot to mention the duct tape on the philly-to-albany plane that was holding the overhead compartment together....oh yeah, good times...i look forward to the west coast trip....wonder if it will be this long of a post? i couldn't image international flights!

the trip back was much smoother....i think going from smaller airports into bigger ones makes a HUGE difference. davis told me on the way home that he heard on the radio that the day i came home was the busiest travel day (as in numbers of actual passengers) that atl had had in the previous 5 years....all my flights were full

(that's me explaining my feathers) all that aside- teaching classes is fun (looking forward to doing it again, and developing more subject material) and my students were very generous with praise! i thought that my students were understanding the information in the way I was providing it (my only worrying thought) and while they were learning from me about quilting, i was learning from them. i will change one of two little things in the class…silly me though, one of my friends (she LAs, but privately) brought up a very good point- she said that if i wanted she would contact one or two of her friends and they would come take my class, that way i could work the kinks out with them. i will defiantly take them up on that offer….it would be a great opportunity to get constructive feedback too…..why didn’t i think of that?