I wish I had a pilot's license.

We live REALLY REALLY far away from Houston, Texas. Most of Dr. Nath's patients do. He sees people from all over the planet. So, we decided the best thing to do was fly. We were staying at a hotel with shuttle service, and we weren't on vacation - we weren't planning on having much fun.

We arrived at the airport the suggested 2 hours early, and we wee through security in half an hour. I changed my daughter and we found our gate. She had a little snack while we waited, and everything seemed like smooth sailing. Then, at departure time, we were informed that there was a huge storm in Atlanta and we would be delayed an hour. They assured us that our connecting flights would be delayed as well, and we all went on with our lives. All said, by the time we left Indianapolis, we had been waiting at the airport for 8 hours. Applause shook the plane at takeoff. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Atlanta safely. While deplaning, I heard an employee of the airline we were flying saying to a co-worker "They cancelled a bunch of flights to get caught up because of the delay."

The Atlanta airport was crazy. This huge building had hundreds of people camped out everywhere. You could tell that they had all been there for a very, very long time. We arrived at our gate and heard that our flight, of course, had been one of many casualties, and so we got in the appropriate line to find out how this would fixed. We were not given an answered we cared to hear. After waiting in line at the AirTran counter for over an hour (making the grand total of hours spent not travelling so far today 10), we were told, basically, to go screw ourselves. It was the single worst customer-service experience I have ever encountered. It went something like this:

**The following conversation was much more dramatic than the black and white reads. Have some fun with the dialogue. Make mama sound a bit hysterical and very, very loud in your head!

My husband: "We were on a flight to Houston, and it got cancelled, what do we do?" (From here on out, he stands helplessly, frowning at me.)

(Jerky Young Guy avoids eye contact and types stuff on his keyboard.)
Jerky Young Guy: We have no more flights to Houston. The soonest we can get you there is Tuesday.

Me: No. What are we supposed to do?

JYG: Get a hotel.

Me: Are you giving out Hotel Vouchers?

JYG: We aren't doing anything for you.

Me: It's not my fault the flight got cancelled.

JYG: It's not mine, either.

Me: Look, my daughter is getting surgery. On Tuesday. In Houston. We HAVE to be there.

JYG: Shrug

Me: You aren't being very helpful.

JYG: Shrug. Roll eyes.

Me: I would like to speak to your supervisor.

JYG: He'll tell you the same thing.

Me: I'd like to hear it from him.

JYG: Well, you'll have to find him.

Me: You go find him. He's your supervisor. I'll be right here, because I'm not moving.

JYG: Can I see your itenerary?

Husband: Here

JYG: Oh, I see you were on flight #XXX. We have reserved some seats on the last flight to Houston tonight for some of the people from that flight. Let me just print you out a ticket.

Now, had I been smart, I would have reigned in my anger long enough to learn the name of this fabulous young gentleman, but I was not of sound enough mind to do so. If I had been, I would have tried to get him fired. As it was, I was really tired and so I guess I just have to forgive the butt nugget. He decided to become human there at the end. To let my daughter get the surgery she needed. He did the right thing. I just wish he would have done it the right way.

By the time we were at the gate for the next flight, we had about 45 minutes to wait. We were so tired, and so stressed out. I don't think a single one of us ate a morsel of real food that day. And my daughter was so beautifully behaved. She was stuck in a plane or an airport for 17 hours. The only time she got upset was when she woke up at Houston Hobby Airport and I tried to make her walk to the cab. She was just too tired.

We made it to Houston. The long way.