Okay…so it was February 26th, Monday. I leave work at approximately 4:30 PM and promptly arrive at the airport at 4:50-ish. I’m through security and waiting patiently at the gate at 5:15, waiting for my ~6:30 flight which has been delayed for 20 minutes, so it would then be 6:50-ish. (a lot of -ish today, eh?)

I hear my name broadcast over the loudspeaker. Perplexed, I make my way to the desk. I’m informed that my flight is leaving late and that I’ll never make the connecting flight. I’m told to run very very quickly down to the other end of the terminal.
(and now I’m hearing my venerable host washing out my cup, which I must have forgotten to put in the sink…sorry MS!)

So I run down to the other end of the terminal, people are staring at me (I’m fat; fat guys don’t run), and I make it just in time to get checked in to the other flight to leave. I’m the only passenger leaving from Tampa to Oakland on this flight, so I’m the only one who had to change flights. My original flight path was to be:

• Tampa
• Chicago
• Oakland

But it was instead changed to:

• Tampa
• Kansas City
• San Diego
• Oakland

And on the new schedule, I didn’t even have to get off the plane to go to another gate because it was the same plane all the way through YAY!

I was lucky enough during the second and third parts of the flight (I was the only passenger traveling all the way) to have an entire row to myself, and the stewardesses (screw political correctness) encouraged me to stretch out. From KC to SD was quite turbulent…I figured it was a cheap massage

So! I arrive in Oakland at the same time I would have arrived had I stayed on the other flight, but at greater convenience. It’s raining slightly. My bag doesn’t come out of the baggage claim.

I went to the baggage claim desk and started talking to a guy there. He seemed kind of busy. MS was with me, and rerouted me to the first available agent. A rather bubbly girl she was (the agent), it being midnight and all. She gave me banana-flavored gum and told me that I MUST try it. Here is the website for the gum. Peruvian gum…who knew!

She tells me that my bag will be here tomorrow…well…today now, I guess, and that they would call me and deliver it to me. Thank goodness! I want to shower!

Since my baggage is gone, and I need to take out my contacts and brush my teeth, we stopped by a Safeway supermarket. We don’t have these in Tampa. I’m not entirely sure that we have them in all of Florida, to be honest.

Then we head to an all-night cafe somewhere in the city. Of course, I’m completely lost and have no idea where I am. The restaurant was very…unusual. But…it had the best beef stew that I’ve ever tasted (in America). Can’t argue with that!

So…good experiences so far…flight delayed, but rerouted with no running between gates. Baggage lost, but the amiable staff are delivering it soon. Strange cafe…(played Irish music?)…but GREAT food, very friendly staff.

I walk outside, and it’s HAILING. It didn’t hail for too long, but what a way to kick off the visit

To make it short and sweet after that…

1. Arrive at destination
2. Venerable host (MS) offers more-than-adequate lodgings on third floor (also happens to be a server room and an office)
3. Experience excellent night-time views of San Francisco (I’ll post pictures)
4. Wake up, head downstairs to the smell of FOOD
5. Find out that airline is delivering bag between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm
6. Post this. Time for a nap.

So…that’s that I’ll write more later. Getting sleepy. It’s 1:25 PM in Tampa right now.