Update

JAMM's supervisor never called me to apologize. Am I surprised? I think not. Add the supervisor to the jackass list.

I was going to call back the lady who said she would have JAMM's supervisor call me and tell her that no one called me. However, I think it would just piss me off more so I am going to write a letter to United and try to let this one go. If I ever see JAMM again, I might have to tear him a new one. Hopefully, we will never have to fly out of this small airport again.

I just googled "united airlines complaints" and there are about 848,000 site dedicated to this. Ridiculous. Don't fly United!

Flying sucks part II

** WARNING** This is a ranting post, but I tried to make it humorous so read on if you also think that flying and customer service in general, has gotten significantly worse.

So it turned out that the idiots at United never delivered my bag yesterday so I went to the airport to pick it up. This literally would have taken me less than 5 minutes if the jackass meter maid wasn't such a jerk. As most of you know, I am pregnant so I didn't want to park in the garage far away from the airport and I didn't want to have to pay for parking to pick up my damn bag that should have been delivered anyway. There is a short term/cell phone parking area where you can park as long as your car isn't left unattended to wait for passengers to arrive. It was only me so the car was unattended. The baggage office I had to go to was right inside the door next to this parking area so I parked there. I made the mistake of asking JAMM (Jackass meter maid) if he was going to give me a ticket if I let my car there. He said that if I entered the building he would give me a ticket (he said this not so nicely while stepping between me and the building). So I said fine and left that area, went around the airport and parked at the curb. He again came up to me and said if I left the car he was going to give me a ticket. I said I literally have to run in for 30 seconds to get my bag. JAMM said he was still going to give me a ticket. I told JAMM if he wanted to give me a ticket , fine, I went in the building and of course, no one was in the stupid office. So now I had to go down to the other end of the airport (it's not that big of an airport, but remember, I am pregnant and had to walk all the way down there) to the ticketing booth to get someone to let me into the damn office. As I came out of the building JAMM was writing my ticket. I told him I now had to go down to ticketing so it would take me about a minute. JAMM said that if I left he would call the towing company. I asked him if he was serious and he said he was, so I left the curb and parked in the short term parking garage where I had to freaking walk all over the place to get my damn bag. So I get to the ticketing booth and see the same guy who I gave my form to last night and he, DABG (Dumb Ass Bag Guy), asked me my name and after I told him, he said, oh yeah, we called and left a message. To which I replied, yes, I had gotten the message, and I called right back (literally 4 minutes after the message was left), left a message to make sure they had the correct address and no one ever called me back. I continued to call EIGHT times throughout the afternoon to see if SOMEONE would pick up the damn phone. I also called the 800 United baggage number twice to make sure they knew the correct address, figuring they could get the message to DABG. It seems they had the same luck I had. I then asked DABG if the airline was going to pay my ticket and parking fee because I had to go all the way to the airport to get my damn bag and they messed up delivering it and he just shrugged his shoulders and said nope. I then asked if there was any petty cash since the garage was only going to be $2 and again he shrugged his shoulders. DABG never gave me an apology. Finally I got the stupid bag and I saw JAMM again and asked him for the name of his supervisor. He said he was the supervisor on duty (which I totally didn't buy) and I said that there must be someone above him and he said he guessed I could call the airport and I told him I would absolutely do that. He was so rude and obnoxious to be I couldn't believe it. It was like he had nothing better to do than harass the pregnant lady. What a jackass.

This morning I did indeed call the airport to complain about JAMM. The woman I spoke to was quite apologetic (finally!) and said she would look at the video tape and talk to JAMM and his immediate supervisor and have him call me to apologize. I told her I had no interest in ever talking to JAMM again and she said that the supervisor, not JAMM would call me. She was also surprised I had to pay $1 for parking since I was only in there for 12 minutes. 12 minutes to walk all the way from the garage to the terminal, get my bag and back out!! If JAMM had just left me alone I would have been in and out of there in less than five which is less time that those other people sitting in the passenger pick up lot had been waiting. It's not like the airport was busy and I was taking up space. What a jackass. Flying sucks. I have decided I am never going anywhere I have to check a bag again if it involved this small town airport.

Flying sucks

The past few days, Sean and I were in the DC area visiting family and Sean took a class. It was a wonderful trip. I got to see my sister and her husband, saw some friends who had their baby in July, saw some friends who just got engaged, played mini golf and generally hung out. The days were relaxing and fun only to be up-ended by crappy air travel. Our flights were on time, however, once on the plane, we were stuck on the plane on the runway FOR AN HOUR before we left the ground. Luckily, the AC was still on so it didn't get too uncomfortable. Finally, we got off the ground and landed. However, once we landed, we were stuck on the plane for at least 20 minutes since there was only ONE baggage handler. OK, so fine, we finally got off the plane. I had to check a bag since we were gone for more than a weekend. Yup, you guessed it, my bag didn't show up. So then I had to wait in line with the other passengers whose bags were also still in DC to fill out a form. Now, I am waiting for them to show up with my bag, but since I put my home address on the form and not my work address I am wondering if they will just leave the bag at my home or actually deliver it to my work since I did call this morning to tell them to deliver it to my work. We will see. Flying sucks.

Great trip!

A few weeks ago Sean and I took a trip to Paris. We figured it would be a good time to go before I couldn't walk or fly anymore. We left on a Tuesday evening from Portland to Newark then to Paris. It was a little tricky leaving from Portland because we were delayed about three hours so we were very nervous that we wouldn't make our connection in Newark. Luckily, we got into Newark just as our plane was boarding so we made it. After breathing a sigh of relief once on the plane, out flight was fairly uneventful and we arrived in Paris around 12:30 pm on Wednesday. We bought our train tickets to get into the city and got to our hotel around 3 or so. That afternoon we went to the Louvre since I knew it was open late on Wednesdays.
It was really cool. It is an amazingly huge museum with lots of stuff you've seen in movies and in books, but to see it in person is really cool. Even the Mona Lisa, which, even behind glass, has such a quality to it, you can't help but stare at it for a while. That night we had a crappy dinner as some bistro near our hotel.

Our hotel was great. It was near the Arc de Triomphe. It was nice to see the Arc every day on our way to the metro. The next day we went to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. It was a great day and we did lots of walking. Notre Dame was beautiful. I think it was my favorite thing we saw while we were there. It has such an amazing history and such beautiful architecture. Notre Dame has wonderful stained glass windows, cool gargoyles and a huge bell called "Emmanuel," (the one that Quasimodo rang in the story) and it weighs something ridiculous like 3 tons.

The Eiffel tower was also a cool building with amazing architecture. You get great views of the city from the tower and you get to be 900 feet high.








The next day we went to Versailles. It too was spectacular. The space of it is huge and the paintings and architecture of it are beautiful. We saw the Hall of Mirrors, the doors which Marie Antoinette escaped through to safety for one night, her Hamlet with a mill and farm. The gardens are extravagant, there are statues everywhere.

The next day we went up to Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre. Another beautiful church and area, although there were a lot of annoying street vendors. We also saw Moulin Rouge and ate at a nice little cafe for brunch.

All in all, we saw a lot of great stuff, walked a lot and had a nice relaxing trip (except for the start of the trip when we were delayed). The food, honestly, wasn't that great. We went out to one nice dinner, but mostly, we just ate bistro food. We also finally made it up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe - on the third try. Each other time we tried to go there, it was closed, and finally on the last night, we made it. I liked going up the top of the Eiffel tower, but going to the Arc at night, was really worth it. I would highly recommend it if you ever go. We had a great time!

Our weekend

Last weekend we traveled to the warmer nether regions of our country to be total tourists in DC. We had great weather on Saturday, saw lots of monuments and met up with a couple of old friends. It was really fun. Lots of walking, ice cream and water. Sean and I took the train down as the plane tickets were ridiculous. Plus, that way, he could get some work done. We took the train from home to Boston, then the Acela from Boston to Baltimore. It took 9.5 hours total - a little less than it would've taken to drive, but we didn't have to drive. It was actually pretty cool to watch the season change from just starting to be spring up here to spring in full bloom down there. We got to go through our hometown and the surrounding hometowns of our friends. We even saw people on the beach in some places! I only have a few suggestions for the Acela: get drink holders - those stupid trays suck. Get satellite radio - how hard can that be? Get better snacks.

It was beautiful when we arrived. We got picked up and headed to Annapolis where we hung out for a while, then had a very nice dinner in town (thanks to Reed) and headed back to get ready for Saturday.

Saturday we headed to the metro to get into DC. It was pretty straightforward to drive to the metro and get into the heart of the city. We walked around for a while and finally met up with one of my friends from college and her boyfriend at the WWII memorial and then we all walked around checking out the monuments. At one point we noticed lots and lots of riot police and people lined up along the street like it was going to be a parade or something. We soon found out it was an Aryan nation rally. As soon as we learned that, we took off, wanted to not be anywhere near such a disgusting cause, especially when the riot police put their face masks down, it was a clear sign to be to book the hell out of there.

At about 5, my friend had to take off so the rest of us headed into Georgetown to hang out and get some pre-dinner snacks. It was a busy place, but we found a cute little bar to get some apps and rest for a little while before heading to my other friend's show. At about 8 or so we got back on the metro to head into Arlington to get to the club. At this point we were all pretty tired from being out in the sun all day, but I was so excited to see my friend it didn't matter to me. We had some dinner at the club (not the greatest food, but it sufficed) and at about 10 or so I finally met up with my friend. I thought I had seen him earlier, but I think it was someone from another band who was playing that night. It was great to see him, but it was really loud so we couldn't really talk much. I got to meet his wife, who is really nice. So we hung out for a while and then his band, Honor By August, went on around 11:30 or so. We didn't stay very long as we didn't have any earplugs (I didn't notice how loud it was - I guess my hearing is already shot) and Sean was wicked tired. It was really fun to see my friend and his band. He just looked so happy playing, it made me really glad for him.

Sunday we had a Segway tour booked for 12:30 so we drove into the city this time, since it's really not that bad on a Sunday, checked in for the tour, got the little tutorial and practiced around in the little courtyard for a bit. Finally, we decided it was raining too much and the tour would suck so we canceled. So, then we headed to ESPN zone for some lunch and games, then headed to the International Spy Museum. It was pretty cool. We walked through the museum and then did an interactive exhibit. At that point it was about 6 or so, so we headed back, had some dinner, then went to the airport. Our flight was delayed about an hour because of the rain, but that wasn't too bad. It's a quick flight so we got home about 12 am I think. The only thing that sucked was that the cabby acted like he knew where he was going, but really didn't - seriously, if you don't know where you're going, just ask!

All in all, we had a great weekend. We had great company and lots of fun. We'll hit the museums next time, and maybe get a tour of the White House.