Flying

What a day. Cooper and I opted to fly to St. Louis because he is not a good traveler in his car seat. We got to the airport with only a little traffic and a lot of screaming from Cooper (thanks for helping out during the drive Ava V.) Got checked in and through security with no trouble, found our gate and settled in for the wait. That is when the day started going downhill. The plane was delayed at first because we had to wait on a crew. They finally showed up, we boarded and pushed back from the gate. Cooper was doing good and I thought, what a piece of cake. My mistake. We ended up sitting on the runway for over two hours, most of that time was spent standing in the aisle because Cooper was not in the mood to travel. The lady next to me was super nice and she helped me out with Cooper. I can't thank her enough for that. When he first started crying, I was so worried about how all the other people on the flight would respond, but honestly, no one complained and many even tried to make him smile. After two hours of going nowhere, the pilot announced our flight was cancelled due to weather and we headed back to the gate. We deplaned and stood in a really long line to rebook our flight. I tried calling the airline directly and the first service agent tried to book me on a 5pm flight when it was already 5:15pm. I asked why she would do that and her response was "Ma'am, I'm in Arizona. I don't know what time it is on the East Coast." in this super snotty voice. Then she told me to stop yelling at her and put me on hold and cut me off. 2nd call got disconnected (pretty sure everyone was trying to call to avoid standing in lines) and finally on the 3rd call I got a super nice lady that booked me on a flight. I rushed over to the gate only to see the door closed and the ticket agent not helping anyone because he just needed a few minutes to get himself together. (His words to another agent also not standing there.) Turns out that flight was overbooked and there was no way I was getting on that plane even though I had a confirmed seat. (How does that work?) Anyway, I must have looked desperate enough that the agent gave me a hotel room and a flight the next morning. Cooper was done for the day and so was I. We headed to the hotel without our bag and settled in for the night. Luckily for me, I have some super awesome friends that came to my rescue. They went to the store and drove over 30 minutes just to bring me all the necessary goodies to get me and Cooper through the night and make sure I wasn't a hot mess on the plane the next day. I am so thankful for my friends. I know I would have made it without them (very smelly and with awful breath), but having their support made it so much easier. Instead of spending the night frustrated with everything, I focused on the tremendous generosity of my friends and counted my blessings :)