(no subject)
Well, I guess I should post things before I've been assimilated. :)
The flight to Seattle was definitely an experience, as it took 24 hours from the time I entered airport until I left the other one. The begining of the flight seemed to be somewhat normal, with the seating beginning before the plane was completely serviced due to the need to leave on time. And on time did we leave the gate - only to be directed to a parking lot on the runways. It seems that there was a line of thunderstorms moving through Cleveland, Ohio and there was no way to direct us around.
The interesting part was the fact that there were four outher planes waiting on the same tarmac before we joined them, but over the next hour, they all somehow left. When my mom checked the online status, it seemed to be that we were listed as in-flight, with our arrival time slowly moving. While talking to Delta, they seemed to claim that the plane was already in the air until presented with the evidence of me being on the phone as counterexample. That seemed to be extremely stupid from their point of view, as it doesn't make the customer happy to know that the CS claims he's lying.
After spending 3.5 hours on the tarmac, the thunderstorm reached Dulles and the plane shook from the strength of the wind long before any rain fell. The other weird part was that after about 10 minutes from the arrival of the storm, while it was still raining outside, the airplane received permission for takeoff. Therefore we took off while it was still storming outside. Very weird.
The delay of takeoff obviously has led to a delay in our landing, with us arriving hours after the connecting flight and within minutes of the last departing flight from the airport to Seattle. At the airport we were given the option of paying $40 for a hotel night or sleeping at the airport. I've decided that trying to make it to the airport for 8AM flight would make any sleep painful, so stayed at the airport.(photos) After arriving to Seattle, I found out that the freeway going to airport had an accident and insane traffic right after I left the airport. So I lucked out there.
So now I'm living in my brother's house with my computer properly setup. My room looks like an advertisement for Ikea, as 80% of furniture is from there. Though I gotta say, it does make the room look bright and clean. My niece - she's such a cute time sink. You can spend hours with her playing and she's still amazed that the fish will puff up and blow her in the face. Last week I've figured out that I don't really ever want to try to feed small kids. They have to be tricked to eat any food, and will make a huge mess out of all of it. Except for her eating habits - I really enjoy playing with her. I find her trying to walk around all the time to be the most interesting thing. When given a small walker - she runs with it faster than any of us can really keep up with her. (I'll stop here or else this post will turn into recount of "darnest thing kids do")
And now I've started work. The last day and a half was fairly usual boring employee orientation. The most amazing thing for me at the orientation that pretty much ANY benefit that you can extend to your spouse or dependant, you can also extend to your same-sex-partner. So anything from full coverage on your insurance to weight loss program counceling is offered equally to spouse or SSP. (Except for extra tax due to IRS not extending same benefits.)
Also, I am a proud owner of Scion tC that is sitting at the dealership until I present insurance. That is a lovely catch-22, that requires me to have a car before I can obtain insurance coverage on that car, while at the same time I can't drive my car without having an insurance.
The flight to Seattle was definitely an experience, as it took 24 hours from the time I entered airport until I left the other one. The begining of the flight seemed to be somewhat normal, with the seating beginning before the plane was completely serviced due to the need to leave on time. And on time did we leave the gate - only to be directed to a parking lot on the runways. It seems that there was a line of thunderstorms moving through Cleveland, Ohio and there was no way to direct us around.
The interesting part was the fact that there were four outher planes waiting on the same tarmac before we joined them, but over the next hour, they all somehow left. When my mom checked the online status, it seemed to be that we were listed as in-flight, with our arrival time slowly moving. While talking to Delta, they seemed to claim that the plane was already in the air until presented with the evidence of me being on the phone as counterexample. That seemed to be extremely stupid from their point of view, as it doesn't make the customer happy to know that the CS claims he's lying.
After spending 3.5 hours on the tarmac, the thunderstorm reached Dulles and the plane shook from the strength of the wind long before any rain fell. The other weird part was that after about 10 minutes from the arrival of the storm, while it was still raining outside, the airplane received permission for takeoff. Therefore we took off while it was still storming outside. Very weird.
The delay of takeoff obviously has led to a delay in our landing, with us arriving hours after the connecting flight and within minutes of the last departing flight from the airport to Seattle. At the airport we were given the option of paying $40 for a hotel night or sleeping at the airport. I've decided that trying to make it to the airport for 8AM flight would make any sleep painful, so stayed at the airport.(photos) After arriving to Seattle, I found out that the freeway going to airport had an accident and insane traffic right after I left the airport. So I lucked out there.
So now I'm living in my brother's house with my computer properly setup. My room looks like an advertisement for Ikea, as 80% of furniture is from there. Though I gotta say, it does make the room look bright and clean. My niece - she's such a cute time sink. You can spend hours with her playing and she's still amazed that the fish will puff up and blow her in the face. Last week I've figured out that I don't really ever want to try to feed small kids. They have to be tricked to eat any food, and will make a huge mess out of all of it. Except for her eating habits - I really enjoy playing with her. I find her trying to walk around all the time to be the most interesting thing. When given a small walker - she runs with it faster than any of us can really keep up with her. (I'll stop here or else this post will turn into recount of "darnest thing kids do")
And now I've started work. The last day and a half was fairly usual boring employee orientation. The most amazing thing for me at the orientation that pretty much ANY benefit that you can extend to your spouse or dependant, you can also extend to your same-sex-partner. So anything from full coverage on your insurance to weight loss program counceling is offered equally to spouse or SSP. (Except for extra tax due to IRS not extending same benefits.)
Also, I am a proud owner of Scion tC that is sitting at the dealership until I present insurance. That is a lovely catch-22, that requires me to have a car before I can obtain insurance coverage on that car, while at the same time I can't drive my car without having an insurance.