Poster Child for Murphy's Law

This story ended with a test of strength. A test to see how much my sinus can handle stress. Stress from lack of sleep, long hours at work, family, the flora of sunny and warm south Florida causing allergy problems, and multiple pressurization and depressurization. And it ended like this: A full day cooped up in huge cocoon.

So that is the ending, but where to begin? Let's start with last week.

It started out with a request for me to fly out to Ft. Lauderdale for a short and quick project. It turned out that the contract for this project was open ended: 40 hours for professional services. No specific tasks, deliverables, or measurement of success or completion were identified. I sent out emails for clarification days prior to arrival, but all went unanswered. Then the customer had different expectations, which were all more than the tentative scoped tasks as described in the email proposal over a month ago. Funny how this outline of tasks in the proposal did not make it to the contract. I decided, fine, I would use that as the scope of activities, and the customer concurred.

Then problems continued to pile on. I worked over 12 hours everyday. And I had to get the contract extended, and return this week. Problems continue to pile on this week. But we did take a break this Tuesday evening though, because the client wanted to watch the Yankees game. So I left the office while there was still light out for the first time since I have arrived in Ft. Lauderdale last week.

Eventually, we worked hard and long to get to the point where we had originally set for last Friday. I didn't leave the office till 23:30 last night though. And because my hotel is a cool 30 minutes away, the drive back was usually about half hour without traffic. But what do you know? Three lanes of I-95 were closed for construction, and I was stuck in stop and go traffic. By the time I returned to the hotel, packed for my trip to Los Angeles and hit the sack, it was already 1:00 in the morning.

Suddenly I could hear a light buzzing noise, as if it was in a far distance. I woke up, but there was no sound. I looked at the alarm clock: 7:49. Holy smokes! That distant buzzing sound must have been the mental lingering of the alarm clock going off while I slept through it, which was set at 6:00. And guess what? My flight was at 8:45!

I jumped out of bed, wetted my hair, brushed my teeth, threw my laptop into my case, put on clothes, took a Zyrtec pill, and zipped up my suitcase. I was out the door by 7:56! My personal record! Incredible!

As I rushed to get onto I-95, my heart sank to new lows. My 30 minute trip to the airport would have to be longer. Rush hour traffic with all four lanes jam packed just like Los Angeles traffic. I got off on 10th Street and headed west so I could hit SR-91, the Florida Turnpike.

Amazingly, I made it to the airport and returned my rental car in record time. I made it past security, and ran towards my gate. The clock read 8:44. There was hope, I thought. Until I got to the gate. Turned out that the flight was to leave 10 minutes earlier than I remembered. And I could see my plane being pushed back from the gate.

Plan B: Get on the next flight, which would depart at 10:15. But instead of flying straight to Las Vegas then onto Los Angeles in a relatively shorter time, my new flight plan would take me to Jacksonville, Birmingham, city of Lost Wages, I mean Las Vegas, and finally Los Angeles. All for a nice total trip of nine hours! I think this was the longest domestic flight I have ever taken in my life. Isn't that longer than flying from O'Hare to Frankfurt?!?

So yeah, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Although I do admit that sleeping through the alarm clock was my own fault. I have never been easily woken up ever. Heck, I usually have three alarm clocks! Too bad I only had two while at the hotel. But despite all the things that could potentially go wrong went wrong that ended with flying four times today, there were good things out of all this.
1. On my flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Birmingham by way of Jacksonville, a strikingly beautiful woman boarded the plane. She carried a clear glass box with a crown and gently folded ribbon. I didn't know who she was, but when we landed in Jacksonville for our first layover, all the flight attendants swarmed over her and took pictures while wearing the lady's crown and all. It turned out that we had Mrs. America 2005 on the plane!
2. Tonight is my dad's 70th birthday celebration, hence the reason why I flew to Los Angeles straight from Ft. Lauderdale.

I have to admit one thing though: Despite the silver lining, I still stink from not taking a shower this morning! =)