A messed-up 24 hours

Trying to get back from New York to Copenhagen, but it’s not going so well so far.

To begin with, things were going to be stressful: We were going to a wedding just 5 hours after our flight was scheduled to land. But then this Tuesday i got a call that my cousin had died. That hurt. I admired and loved her very much. So we had to go straight from the flight to the other part of the country, to go to the funeral. Then perhaps we could go back to Copenhagen to arrive late at the wedding.

When we got to Newark Airport, however, we were told that the plane would be delayed two hours, because of some turbulence it’d hit on the way in. a crew member was hurt, and they were checking the plane, to see if it was fit to fly.

So we put on the patient smiles and sat down to get something to eat, when suddenly a deafening alarm went off. We all looked out, and it was all of a sudden completely dark outside, things were flying around in the air, and everybody in the food court started panicking and running out. I certainly thought there’d been a plane crash, some people I talked with thought a plane had crashed into the terminal building or something. One dude just sat there, quietly eating his pizza while everybody around him was in panick.

It turned out it was just a thunderstorm, and it went over in less than half an hour. No announcement was made as to why the alarm had gone off, but one security guard speculated it was because the wind made doors fly open.

Time to get on the plane. We were already likely to be late for the funeral. Our tight schedule didn’t really allow for a two hour delay. Well, that’s when they announced that the flight was going to be canceled, rescheduled for the next day at 5 PM, a 22 hours and 45 minute delay. The damage done by the lightning was too severe, they had to fix things. Up to stand in line for hotel stays (we had ours exchanged for a round-trip cab fare to the city where we’re staying with a friend).

Woke up this morning a little before 7 AM and checked my mail. The funeral was at 7.30 AM US Eastern Daylight savings Time (1.30 PM Central European Summer Time), so I was thinking of that. I went to pee, when I felt the whole building shake. Was this the terrorist attack on US banks that had been announced? Could it be an earthquake? They’re quite rare on the east coast, at least one as strong as this. Yup, sure enough, it was an earth quake, the only one I’ve ever felt.

Funeral, wedding, plane hit by a lightning, tunderstorm, panick attack, flight cancellation, earthquake, all in the same day. Phew! I hope everything goes smoothly with the flight home. I hope they fixed whatever was broken by the lightning. I hope they fix it right.