i don't even know where to start...perhaps, my death experience

so, i'll start with friday afternoon. i headed up to raleigh to meet up with some of my best friends friday night for dinner to give candice a well deserved scrapbook. heather, ashley, abbie, kaleena, and myself made candice a scrapbook and wanted to surprise her with it. she needed it now more than ever. we met up at macaroni grill and it was the best. she was so surprised, and i think it meant a lot to her. proverbs 17:17 sums it all up (a friend loveth at all times)

saturday night, we celebrated michael michele's 26th birthday (we are getting old.) we went to brio's at crabtree and then to flying saucer, tobacco road, and bogarts... it was great to hang out with my friends from raleigh or as i once called them, "bayley and them." oops. we had a great time, and bogarts is always fun, except the dance floor was so crowded we could barely move, haha.

while i was on my way to raleigh, i was talking to my grandmother. she said, kelsey i got your travel plans for this week, but they don't look right. i glanced over them, but thought everything looked right and said, "mom, they are fine, no worries." grandmothers know best. i should've read over it more carefully. apparently, somehow from my original reservation to the time i got to the charlotte airport sunday afternoon - something changed. the us airways representative tells me that my bag is checked through to boston, but not to vermont, my final destination. she basically says that that leg of my travel has been cancelled. i am irritated. so, i called quintiles travel. the travel agent says that there was a schedule change, but that it has not been cancelled. i am put on hold for 16 minutes. meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and i am thinking there is no way that i am going to make my flight even to boston. finally the travel agent tells the us airways agent something and amazingly, she finds my reservation. i am good to go, except i will have to get my boarding pass for (cape air) the airline i am flying when i get to boston... so this is where things go from annoying to completely bad...

i get to boston. i realize then that i have to go out of security to get to cape air. the tsa official says, go down the escalator and out the doors, catch the bus and go to terminal C. i get down the escalator to realize there are a million buses, and none of them say terminal C, specifially. i go back inside the terminal ( i am in B at this point) and ask the information desk person. this man is nice, but cannot speak a bit of english. he is apparently trying to tell me to take bus 11, to terminal C, but what it sounds like to me is, "you need jdkajk jkajjowui wckl." he then manages to say, "did that help?" i need to remind you that i am pissed at this point, because i forgot to mention that i only had 50 minutes to get to my next flight. i said, "no it didn't, because you don't speak my language, thanks for nothing." i walk outside and wait for 15 minutes, and finally bus 11 comes....

i go inside terminal C, and the lady at the Cape Air counter (they only have one little tiny booth) says, "why are you just now getting here?" i look at her, like you've got to be kidding me. i said, um, "well, i got off of my plane, from charlotte (us airways) in terminal B and took the shuttle straight here, if you must know i didn't go to the restroom yet, and i'm about to pee in my pants." she says, oh i am sorry we had that you were flying united. united and us airways are a coshare a lot of times, not my problem. they apparently called us airway/united and they said, "i had had plenty of time to get there, as my flight landed at 8:09pm," it was now 8:39pm. need i remind them i stood outside and waited on that stupid shuttle bus forever. she said, hold on, let me call the pilot and tell him you are coming. so she did, no problems, i am still getting on my connecting flight to vermont. she then, gives me the elevator look, up and down, and says (i kid you not), "how much do you weigh?" at this point, i am about to come unglued. i said, "why do you need to know?" she said, for weight distribution on the plane. she then weighed my carry on items, and then hands me my boarding pass, that i would hardly qualify as a boarding pass, as it looked like a receipt from harris teeter. on my way i go. i get to the gate, and then gate agent says, just in time. she takes my boarding pass (receipt), and i am like, i need to know my seat assignment... she says, oh it is open seating.... interesting, i think. i get to the bottom of the stairs, and they open the door to let us outside to get on the plane, and what i see... there are really no words for.

i have been on small plane, turbo props, 10 seaters, you name it... but what i saw before me i cannot even explain. it was the smallest plane i have ever seen. think what orville and wilbur wright flew on, maybe. smaller than someone's privately owned plane... i am freaking out. i am like, we aren't really flying on that. oh but we are... they take our carry on luggage and place it in the wing... the open the window of the plane, which in turn is actually the door we are going to crawl in... and say, have a nice flight. i am thinking, or a nice death. wow!!! there are 8 seats, two of which are the pilot and co-pilot, and only four of us on the plane. the pilot turns around and says "there are three exits, a life vest under your seat, and we are expecting quite a bit of turbulence." remember that, have a nice flight that i heard.. that death thought is definitely back in my mind, haha. all of this is funny now, but at the time, it was not. seriously it was the worst flight of my life. i really thought, well, i saw all of my good friends in raleigh this weekend, i gave most of them hugs and said goodbyes, maybe i really am going down in the cesna, it was horrible. i then thought, why didn't i go to my grandparents and say bye to my family; what about crystal and lindsey (lindsey is in africa???) turbulence might be a bit of an understatement. i had to practice deep breathing treatments and put the air on full blast to keep from getting sick as a dog. i get motion sickness very easily, ask any of my friends who have traveled with me in the mountains, it is not fun. when we finally landed, i seriously prayed a prayer of thankfulness, because i had been praying that God would keep me safe, because i didn't think it was my time to go during that flight. i told God that if it was, to please let that plane go down and not let me suffer. it was that bad.

when we get inside of the lebanon airport (i'm not sure i would really call this an airport) maybe a building, they inform me that luggage unfortunately decided to hang out in boston. i don't blame my luggage, if i had had a choice i would have chosen to do the same thing. that is ok, i'll just get my rental car, sleep in my comfy yoga pants and t shirt i traveled in, and get my luggage at 7:30 AM, and be on my way... oh wait, another problem. the rental car agency is closed. what in the world. can this trip get any worse. so, i ask the very nice gentleman, the only man working the entire airport at this point, if he will call me a cab. he says, sure no problem. so, i get in the taxi, starved, because i hadn't had anything since 10AM sunday morning. so, i beg the taxi driver to take me to wendy's. he does.. i gave him an extra tip. then i get to the hampton inn in white river junction, vermont... finally to get some sleep.

monday morning i wake up, thinking that my luggage should be waiting for me at the airport or at the front desk, but no. it didn't make the early flight. so, i had to go to site visit in yoga pants, a t shirt, my northface fleece, and tennis shoes. did i mention, i didn't have a stitch of make up or a straightner? i was kind of scared of myself. there was a kohl's near my hotel, but i knew quintiles wouldn't reimburse me for a new outfit, and i didn't have time to wait on kohls to open and then go try on stuff and all that... so off i went in basically lounging clothes. i had to meet with the doctor and everything in comfy clothes, wow, that was a new one.

finally, i get back to the airport. they tell me that there is an earlier flight to boston... would i like to get on it. i say sure. it was the pilot, me, and one other passenger. basically, the pilot said i was the "co-pilot." i sat behind where the co-pilot would sit. he even moved the sit down for me, so i could see what all goes on. it was pretty cool. i was thinking, if he goes into cardiac arrest or something, we are doomed, we are both dead, meaning me and the other passenger.

to say the least this has been a trip i'd like to forget. i normally collect christmas ornaments everywhere i go, but i decided after the horrible experience that i had, i didn't want one to remember my first and hopefully last trip to vermont. sorry to my christmas tree this coming year, vermont will not be represented, unless i have a more enjoyable trip to remember.

i am about to board my plane from boston to charlotte, back in first class on a big jet, as holly just called it, a "big girl plane." thank goodness.

my friend candice just said in response to my story, "i'd be jealous if you met jesus before me" - only she would say something like this. i'm telling her all about my horrific experience and she says, she be made at me if i died before her, haha because i'd get to meet jesus first. she was trying to be positive, haha.