My Airport Bad Luck -- God's Faithfulness

So, Armand told you a short synopsis of my time with him last weekend. It was absolutely delightful. Here is a link to all of our pictures from the zoo, the air show, and Armand hitting 90,000 miles on his 2002 car. http://www.walmart.com/agt/bounce.gsp?ID=4C1AB05A18557143F618C3D17A3D7618A887&sharee=jeldnc%40yahoo.com The pictures I tried to take of him singing in the barbershop choir concert didn't turn out very well. It was pretty dark. The concert was awesome, though! They were terrific and the 4 quartets that sang after them were phenomenal as well. It was a night of very good music, lots of humor, and good food. You can't beat that. Omaha Zoo was pretty cool too. It's said to be one of the best in the world and it definitely showed. The coolest thing was what we started out, the Desert Dome. It's this huge greenhouse looking dome that they set up like a trail though different desert regions with the appropriate wildlife displayed. But it's not just one level...you go downstairs and there are all sorts of other cool things that come out at night. So they had a cave set up with bats and other nocturnal creatures and a swamp area with alligators and possums. It was so cool. We even got to see the famous giant albino alligator. Anyway, the air show was pretty awesome, too. Armand and I had never been to one before. We had a blast. It's such a great atmosphere with the static displays of the planes, the demonstrations, and the food!

Speaking of planes, I have the worst luck with flying commercially. It's like a curse. I fly pretty often, about once every month or two. Well, it has never failed that not just on every trip, but on both the there and back legs, something doesn't go as scheduled. Either my flights are delayed or they lose my luggage or both. It's crazy. Now, I understand it happens quite often in the modern world of terrorism in the commercial air business, but nobody I know has trouble EVERY single time. Anyway, on my way to Omaha, the flight was only delayed like 15 minutes. No big trouble there, but on my way back from Omaha, I was supposed to leave at 2:30. Armand and I were joking around on the way to the airport saying, wouldn't it be nice if my flight was delayed an hour so we could spend more time together. We knew it was actually pretty likely to happen with my luck, and just an hour late wouldn't make me miss my connecting flight in Atlanta. So we get to the check-in desk about 50 minutes before my flight was to take off, and guess what? It's delayed till 3:45! Yea! We checked my luggage and went to the park for a little while. When I finally went to my gate, it turns out my flights delayed till 4:30, so I go back outside security to spend more time with Armand, then I go back inside and it's delayed even later. Now I'm worried about my connecting flight, so since no one was at the desk in the gate area, I go back outside security and down to the check-in counter to get my connecting flight figured out. She said if the plane really takes off at 4:45 like it is now scheduled, I'll have 20 minutes to make my connection in Atlanta. This isn't my original connection, but the last flight out of Atlanta to Dayton. I ask if there is any way they can't send through a different city since Atlanta was having major storms and that was what the hold up was. She said no, the other flights are overbooked. I said fine, knowing that God was ultimately in control. I said a final goodbye to Armand who by now had to get back to church for choir practice and went through security for the last time. As I was waiting patiently, the flight got delayed again. My 2:30 flight was now not scheduled to leave until 5:45. This means I would miss the last flight out of Atlanta. I'm still not too worried, because this happens to me all the time, and God has never failed to work things out for me, so as I was standing in line at the counter to try to figure something out, they were announcing a last call for some guy on the 3:45 flight to Cincinnati. I didn't see anybody running over there to catch the flight, so I asked the guy behind me to save my place in line and ran over to that gate. I asked the lady to let me go to Cincinnati since that guy didn't show up and she said that the flight leaves in 45 seconds. But she printed a ticket for me, and I hopped on the plane. I wonder if that guy kept holding my place in line? Anyway, I got to Cincinnati and was on standby to Dayton, but that flight was overbooked by 2. I called my roommate to see if she might be able to come pick me up since it's only an hour and a half drive, but the ladies at the counter said there was still a chance I could make the flight, since a lot of people usually don't show up for this flight. In God's wonderful provision, I made it on the flight and landed in Dayton 30 minutes before I was supposed to arrive via my original flight plan had it been on schedule. Of course my bags went to Atlanta without me, so I got them on Monday morning, but isn't God good? He never fails me. Mo matter what the circumstances look like, God is always in control.

I know that was a pretty long story, so if you got this far, I'm proud of you. It's just that I don't have school today, so I don't know what to do with myself. I start my real classes to get my Masters in Physics on Monday. I'm pretty excited. :)

I've got Excuses

Please forgive my complete lack of blogging. I haven't even read Armand's latest post, but I decided I'd better write mine before I try catching up on everybody's. If I don't, I'll be too tired of reading blogs to post my own.
So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, LA. Well, I got back, the movers came and packed up all my stuff. It was pretty stressfull for some reason. Then Legend and I head off to Ohio in my little Beettle. It was packed to the brim with food, china, suitcases, and other misc things the movers couldn't take (or I didn't want them to take). We stopped overnight in St Louis, so I could cash in on 2 days of per diem, and then arrived in my new semi-home of Dayton (Omaha will be my real home until we move from there). I stayed in a hotel off base that had a full kitchen, but they only did room service once a week. I was only there for a week and a half, so I only got my bed made for me once. :( Oh well. During the time I was in the hotel, I inprocessed and got oriented to AFIT. Armand also came to visit for about 5 days. We had a great vacation. There are some fun things to do here in Dayton.
On Thurs before Labor Day, the movers delivered my stuff to my new house. I'm rooming with a girl that's already been here a while, but just had a new house built. It's a beautiful 4 bedroom 2 story house with a finished basement. The coolest thing is that it has an intercom system built into the alarm system and a central vacuum system with an automatic dustpan. You just sweep everything in the kitchen to a vent under the sink, kick a button, and woosh, it's gone. It's such a throw back to the 60's when my grandparents had the house I grew up in built. It had a central vacuum system and intercom, too. Of course, it's much higher tech now.
I left for Omaha as soon as the movers finished delivering my stuff. That weekend was great getting to hang with Armand and E. The drive was aweful, though. Almost 12 hours one way. Blah. I'm definitely flying next time (which is in two weeks! YEA!). I got to come back from Omaha to my new living quarters and spend the first night in ages (almost a full month) in my own bed in my new room. Since then, I've been unpacking, getting to know my new housemate, and taking refresher courses to get me prepared for when real school starts in October. I hope you can all forgive me for not keeping you up to date, but it's just so hard to keep up with the normal things in the midst of so much change. I'll probably get settled in soon, and begin blogging on a more regular basis. Until then, don't hate!

PS these are pics (floorplans) of my new house (mine has four bedrooms and 2 full baths upstairs, though, so it is completely different than the one pictured but you get an idea). Armand is afraid I'll like it better than our house, but he has nothing to worry about. Ours is much better. It's not as big, but we don't need to rent out rooms to people, unless their name is Ethan Kuhlman.