Many of you have been asking about my Providence experience, and although the show was fine, my experience getting home was one I'll never forget. Instead of explaining it over and over, I decided to write my story. I love to write in my spare time, and have tried to tell the experience in a story format. Keep in mind this is GBN's longest read EVER, and will take you about 15 to 20 minutes to read. I hope you enjoy reading the experience, if you so desire, if not, no biggie!



"Nicki 2 Days"



Have you ever been in a situation that really tried your patience? A type of situation that no amount of money, but only time could help you out? A situation that made you realize how much we all take for granted when it comes to our homes and our loved ones? Well, on June 15th, 2008, I was put in that sort of situation. I would like to share my story to inform people of my experience before they think about purchasing a plane ticket with the “Not so Popular” Jet Blue airlines, with their silly slogan, “Where everyone flies first class!”

I guess I should start at the very beginning, so hold on, this may be a long read. My name is Nicki, and I am an electronic music DJ here in Austin, Texas. During the week I have a graphic design job for a company in Austin called SuperCircuits, but I do my gigging on the weekends. Usually most of my gigs stay within the state of Texas, but from time to time I get booked to play out of state. On June 14th, one of these out of state opportunities was presented to me. I was booked to play in Providence, Rhode Island.

The promoter booked a direct flight from Austin to Boston with Jet Blue. Boston is about an hour from Providence, but apparently it was cheaper to fly to Boston. I also had an 8am flight the next day, which I questioned because I wouldn’t be done playing until 5am. Another DJ from Oklahoma City was also booked for this show, and their flight left at 6am. The promoter had to take her to the airport in the middle of my set. I had found someone to take me to my hotel to get my things together while I was waiting on the promoter. By the time he got back it was about 6:30 in the morning, and I was worried I was going to miss my flight. By the time he finally got me to the airport, it was 7:30, and I had to wait in the check-in line, therefore missing my flight. At this point, of course, it was mine and the promoter’s fault, and by no means Jet Blue’s fault, and I was aware of that. They told me they didn’t have a flight until 5pm that would take me to NYC to JFK and connect to Austin on an 8pm flight. They wouldn’t give me my boarding pass until 4 hours before the flight. They charged me a $100 cancellation fee. I was trying to call the promoter of the show, because ultimately it was his fault, but I think he knew that I was going to miss my flight and was avoiding me at all costs. My contract is very generic, and I don’t think it would stand up in court, but it was only $100. Is that worth it?

I made a few phone calls, and my fiancé told me to just buy another ticket with a different airline. I didn’t even think twice to tell him no. I can wait it out. It’s only 8 or 9 hours. No big deal. I hadn’t been to sleep, so I found a bench, put my purse in my bag, and tied my bag to my ankle so it wouldn’t get stolen. Thank God, I had changed my clothes, brushed my teeth and washed my face at the hotel before I took off to the airport! I set my phone alarm on vibrate for 1pm, and sure enough at 1pm it woke me up. I waited in line for about a half hour before I got my ticket and gave them my bag. And I went through security. I was selected for extra security. FUN. They took my toothpaste. No big deal. I got some food and went to my terminal and started to read a book.

It must have been about 3:30pm when the attendant got on the intercom to announce our flight was an hour and a half delayed. “OH no!” I thought. I was going to miss my connecting flight. I went to talk to the attendant. Keep in mind, I was nice every time I talked to someone, because I know it’s not their fault, and they will help me out a lot more if I’m nice. So, I asked the guy if I was going to make it to my connecting flight. He told me that they wouldn’t even put me on the flight to NYC if I was going to miss my flight to Austin. He said it looked like I would make it, but to come back and talk to him in a half hour. Ok. Nicki. Don’t. Stress. Cigarette break. Oh shit! Back through security. Oh yeah, I’m a randomly picked customer for extra security! Time number two! At least they didn’t take anything this time. And back to the attendant! “Hey!” he said, “I got great news for you!”

“Oh yeah???”

“Yeah, I looked up your connecting flight in NYC and it’s delayed two hours, so you’re going to be fine!”

“Oh! Wonderful! Thanks so much!”

A couple more hours went by. I found a place to sit and charge my phone and read my book. I was so happy when they started boarding at 6:30pm. I smiled at the attendant who had helped me and thanked him for the great news once again. He said, and I do remember, “Good luck!” I should’ve taken this more literally, had I known what was right around the corner…

I landed in NYC and was out the gate at approximately 8:30pm. JFK was big, but I had been in Chicago O Hare a million times, and the airport in Houston too, so no biggie! I immediately looked at the departures and saw that my plane had been delayed until 11pm. Great, I had about 2 hours until I needed to board. So I went outside to have a smoke. I made a few phone calls to family who by this point had all heard of my situation through my fiancé, so I needed to keep them updated so they didn’t worry. I was walking back into the airport while leaving my dad a message on his voice mail and the message sounded something like this, “Hey dad! Sorry I haven’t called you back yet. Happy Father’s Day! I’m sorry I can’t be there, but I’ll make it up. I just got to…..umm….oh no….I just got to…..oh no……ummmm….dad…..something bad…..call you back.” Click. While I was calling him, I had looked up at the Departures again to find my gate. Within those 15 minutes I was outside smoking, my flight had been CANCELLED. Funny thing is, it wasn’t raining. HA! I immediately panicked. I had never been to NYC.

I was biting my lip, feeling the sting in my eyes, trying to fight back the tears. I ran back through security. Oh crap. I’m on the EXTRA SECURITY CHECK. Time number three. At this point I was used to being felt up. Bring it on security lady! What do I do? What do I do? Ah! There is someone in a uniform walking my direction. “Excuse me? My flight was just cancelled. What do I do?”

“Mamm, you need to go to customer service and have them take care of you there.”

“Where is that at?” She pointed about 20 feet in front of me. There’s a line and about 30 people in it before it wraps around the corner where I can’t see anymore. I walk around that corner. The line continues to go down that hallway until it wraps around another corner. And then it wrapped around two more corners. I’m betting there were around 250 customers ahead of me. I was in line about an hour when someone came up and took the back half of the line to another customer service desk. All in all, I probably waited for two hours before it was my turn. Again, I was nice to them. It’s not their fault. I found out that my bag would take the 8am flight to Austin in the morning, but they only had three flights all day, and didn’t have an open seat until the 8pm flight on Monday. Apparently, there were several Jet Blue flights cancelled including an earlier flight to Austin that day. So we have two flights of people trying to get to Austin because they were cancelled! “Mamm? Can you get me another flight with another airline?”

“No. We don’t work with other airlines.”

“Can you get me a hotel?”

“No mamm. We don’t pay for hotels due to weather, only for mechanics.”

At that point I felt extremely helpless. I’m only 27, and I don’t have a lot of money. I do have a credit card and I am VERY responsible with it. Thank God, I didn’t have but a couple hundred dollars on it. I started making phone calls to three different people that were helping me out at this point. My mom, my sister, and David (my fiancé.) They were trying to help me figure out my next move. I found an outlet at the front of an airport gift shop, started charging my phone, and started writing down numbers my family was calling me with for hotels. Everyone was booked. There were so many flight cancellations. Apparently, even though it wasn’t raining, there were bad lightening storms at high altitudes that had struck some planes or came close to it. At least, that’s what was told to me. Finally, I found a hotel with a last minute cancellation and a king size room available. This room was at a Comfort Inn in Queens (it wasn’t worth the $180 it cost me.) I had to figure out where the Air Train was, take it to Federal Circle (one of the stops) and then call the hotel to send me the free shuttle. While I was on the phone, trying to figure this out, a security guy came up to me and said, “Mamm, you’ve used your time limit to charge your phone. We are going to have to charge you for that.”

“What?”

“Mamm this is a gift shop. Do you just go into other places of businesses and start charging your phone?” The tears swelled in my eyes. I gave him a horrified look, I’m sure. The girl behind the gift shop counter threw a wad of paper at the guy and said, “Leave her alone. Mamm don’t worry about him! He’s just teasing you!” I looked up at him, pointed a finger and said, “If you only knew what I’ve been through today!” Before I went to my hotel, I went into a gift shop, bought a shirt (all they had was “I love NYC T-shirts, but I managed to find one with the statue of liberty instead which was a little more discreet), some toothpaste (I had my toothbrush in my purse already) and some deodorant. The girl behind the counter had promised me she would punch the guy in the arm for me. I asked her a few questions about downtown NYC and the safest way to get around. Where can I go, see a lot in a little amount of time and not get lost. She gave me some helpful tips and wished me luck. “Thanks!”

I had also got directions from the girl at the gift shop to the Air Train and how to get to Federal Circle. I made it, it was easy. While I was waiting on the free hotel shuttle at Federal Circle (for about 15 minutes), I calmed myself. I had never been to NYC before, and if I was going to be here until 8pm the next day, I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit around the airport. At that point, I made the final decision to get up early and take a cab downtown. I was too afraid to take a subway by myself. When the shuttle got there, I talked to the driver a bit about my plans. He said, “No, NO! If you don’t want to take the subway, here’s what ya’ do.” He had a thick accent, which made me smile. Hell, I was somewhere very new and foreign to me, so it lightened my spirits. “You want to take this shuttle back to Federal Circle, and go the opposite way of the terminals on the Air Train which will take you to Jamaica Station. When you get there buy a roundtrip ticket to Penn Station. It’s only 15 bucks and it’s a train not a subway. You’ll be on 34th and Broadway about 8 blocks from Times Square. Just ask someone how to get there.” I had a blue sharpie in my purse and a demo CD someone gave me at my show in Providence, so I scribbled directions away on it. I got to my room. It was about midnight or so at this point. I took a shower, set my alarm for 7am, ordered some take out Chinese food, ate it and feel asleep by 1:30am.

I woke up the next day knowing I was going to make the most of being stuck in NYC. I checked out at 9am. (Lord knows I hit my snooze for an hour before finally getting up at 8am!) I caught the shuttle to the Air Train and headed to Jamaica Station. I bought a roundtrip ticket to Penn Station with no problem. (However it was more like $20) I was in Penn Station by 10am. I was surprised how much everyone in Penn Station was in a hurry. Well, that’s what I had heard about NYC! Everyone’s in a hurry! I went to a little News stand and bought a disposable camera and a pack of smokes. I asked the lady how to get to Times Square and she gave me directions. So far, every New Yorker had been helpful and friendly. I’m sure they’re used to tourists.

So there I was on 34th Street, headed to 8th Avenue with a disposable camera and my NYC tourist T-shirt! Rockin’ it like a tourist! All my friends and family started calling while I made the walk, so I continually took phone pictures to send to them. I got a call from my dad, who was extremely worried. Remember the last phone call I made to him??? He said he admired me for being brave enough to go to the city alone and way to make the most of it! I bought a Starbucks. I made it to Times Square. Wow. It was just like the movies and TV, but bigger, but better! I talked to the NYC cops and took pictures with them (they let me wear their hat! LOL), they were nice. They asked me to stand in the outside TRL crowd while they were filming. I looked at about 30 or so 18 year olds and decided I was too old (and I’m young!) so I kept going. I bought a Stromboli at a stand and went into Toys R Us and saw the big Ferris wheel. I talked to people from all over the world. I saw a guy in tighty whities and a cowboy hat playing the guitar. He was the naked cowboy. I took a picture of him and then ran into an Elvis! He was creepy, so I kept walking. I went into a bunch of shops, I bought a couple souvenirs. I took lots of pictures.

I finally got bored, and hailed a cab (which was easy, maybe it’s because I’m not a bad looking girl) to Central Park. It was beautiful. A nice guy (I forgot his name) was trying to get me to rent a bike, and I told him I liked to walk. But I chatted with him awhile and made my way into the park. It was beautiful. People reading, climbing, running, a guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes. There was a small carnival area for children, a lagoon, a zoo, the middle section is called the “Mall” and I knew I’d seen that before in movies. I found my way to the back (which took forever) to the big fountain in the opening credits of “Friends.” You guessed it! I took a picture! One guy took a picture of me sitting on it and as he handed my camera back he said, “Why do you have a disposable? Are you afraid someone will steal your camera?”

“That’s a long story sir.” I was a little tired to walk all the way back and I had about two or three hours before I needed to head back to the airport. I really wanted to go to Ground Zero, but I heard it was far in the financial district and I wanted to stay fairly close to Penn Station. So I decided to go to the Empire State Building. I took one of those Pedi cab bicycles to the front of Central Park. The guy steering our bike was from South Africa. He was really nice. He was in NYC going to school, majoring in marketing. I told him my plans to take a cab to Empire State and he immediately told me that he had a subway card he would give me. It was only $2 and it expired that day and he wasn’t going to be able to use it. I told him I was scared to take the subway but he reassured me I’d be safe. “Just take the D train downtown, not uptown, to 34th street.” He walked me to the subway entrance and I made my way down. There was a group of cops there, and they confirmed that yes, I needed to take the D train to 34th. So I did. And it wasn’t scary at all. And, it only took about 3 minutes!

I got off the subway and saw I was right back at Penn Station and the Empire State Building was only 3 blocks away. I passed Madison Square Garden, snapped a picture, and then it happened. My phone rang. It was my sister calling from Chicago. “Hello?”

“Nicki, it’s Cori. You gotta head back to the airport now.”

“Why? I have a few hours still.”

“Nicki, your flight has been cancelled again.”

“What?????”

So much for the 10 pics I left on the camera to take at the top of Empire State. I turned around and headed for Penn Station. What little time I had to be in a good mood all came to a halt. Anxiety, helplessness, and worry washed over my body to a point I felt sick. It took me about 45 minutes to get back to the airport. It must have been 3:30pm on Monday, June 16, when I got there. By this point, I knew the Air Train (I actually helped confused people figure out where to go), I knew my terminal, and I knew exactly what I needed to do without asking. I headed to customer service, because as soon as I saw the departures, in deed, my Austin flight, amongst about 20 other flights had been cancelled on Jet Blue. Oh and by the way, it was completely sunny outside. Apparently, a storm was coming in. I made it to customer service, and was by no means surprised to see about 200 people ahead of me in line. Here we go again. About an hour of waiting, the girl behind me tapped me on the shoulder. “Do you know why this line is so long? I’m going to miss my flight! It leaves in 40 minutes.” Sympathy rushed over me. What could I do to help this girl NOT be in my shoes? I asked her, “Will you hold my place?”

“Sure.”

I found an attendant who was keeping the customer service line in check. “Sir, this girl over here is about to miss her flight. Will you help her? Most of us in this line can’t be helped right now. I’ve been in an airport since 7:30am yesterday because of missing a flight. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. You need to help her, please.” I walked him to the girl and he took her nonchalantly to the front of the line. She thanked me. And I watched her check her bag, and walk to security. She made it. I was happy for her. Hell, I wanted to be her! But I was so happy she wasn’t stuck. And I smiled.

I waited another hour before I made it to the front. I was going to resort to pleading. The attendant was a beautiful Hispanic girl who was very friendly. The first words out of my mouth were, “I understand that there have been a lot of cancellations. But I NEED your help more than ever. I’ve been stuck since 7am yesterday.” Her mouth fell open. She asked me what happened. As I started telling her my story, the tears came and I begged her to help me. My story had gotten managers involved. There were four people at my counter trying to get me home. Funny thing is, the couple next to me was trying to get to Fort Lauderdale and their flight had been cancelled. The man was very angry with the attendant. He must had been eaves dropping on my conversation, and he turned and said, “Did you say you’ve been stuck since 7am yesterday?”

“Yes.”

His face turned from anger to sympathy. He didn’t apologize to the attendant. But he wasn’t mean to him anymore. I suppose he realized that his situation wasn’t so bad. At least he was home. At least he was only missing a day of vacation. My attendant had looked back at me and said, “All three of our flights to Austin tomorrow are booked.” My eyes widened, I felt a lump in my throat, my eyes burning again. I felt dizzy. The managers and the two attendants helping me started looking up other cities. Anything to get me home. Anything. They were coming up short. Jet Blue didn’t have a lot of cities that flew to Austin. And they didn’t have any options. I asked the attendant if she would help someone else so I could make a couple phone calls but immediately be next again with her. She said yes.

I called my mom. She told me there was a really bad storm coming in, which was why the flights were getting canceled. That was really funny to me because again, it was sunny all day in NYC. The weather was supposed to be stormy all week. I needed to get out of NYC to another city before the weather kept me there. I was desperate. I didn’t care what it cost at this point. Just get me home. “Mom, look at other airlines. Do they have any flights going to Austin?” She came up with nothing. Nothing until tomorrow morning. It was 6pm by this point. And Austin is too small to have a lot of flights going in and out. My sister called. She got her travel agent with her work to hold a seat on a 5:30am flight the next morning on Continental. But there was a Jet Blue flight flying to Chicago (where my sister is) at 11:20pm (Well it was supposed to be at 8pm, but believe it or not it was delayed!!!). So now it’s time versus reliability. If I go to Chicago, it’s going to be sunny the next day. I can buy a flight on another airline and know I’ll be good. Or I can be patient and fly Continental, get home sooner, but chance the bad weather. I wanted to think about it.

The petite Asian girl who was STILL talking to my attendant (remember I had my attendant help someone else while I made some phone calls) was trying to get to Salt Lake City. She was mad because she COULDN’T MISS HER COLLEGE CLASS TOMORROW! HA! I really was annoyed at this point and wanted to smack her. Of course, I bit my tongue. She took about a half hour and was making the attendant check every city even though the attendant was trying to tell her it wasn’t possible. Finally the attendant next to her told me he would finish up with me. “Route me to Chicago,” I told him.

“Why? We don’t have connecting flights to Austin from Chicago.”

“Yeah, but I have family and a bed there. And I won’t run into weather tomorrow.”

So that’s what he did. They normally wouldn’t do that, I don’t think, but at this point they were trying to help me as much as they could. I still hadn’t decided for sure though if that’s what I wanted to do. And there was a chance that Chicago flight could get delayed or cancelled with the storm coming in. I managed to ask him what the problem is, again I was told of the lightening storms the past few days. The funny part though was the attendant held his hands in a circle shape the size of a basketball. “Some of our planes got struck by lightening and have multiple holes in them this big!” Are you shitting me, I thought? Somehow, I didn’t believe him, but whatever, I didn’t say anything.

If you looked at Jet Blue’s departures, half of the screen was in yellow, indicating cancelled. A quarter was orange, indicating delayed. At this point I got curious to see how Continental was doing. I had a reserved seat with them in the morning (which was only reserved because my sister’s travel agent had held it. And I had a confirmation number.) I hadn’t paid for it, but it was mine. I took the Air Train to terminal 3. Super easy at this point! There were a lot of International Airlines at this terminal and a few National ones. I walked into the terminal. The only thing I needed was to look at departures. My mouth fell open. There weren’t ANY CANCELLATIONS BUT MAYBE TWO. Are you serious? What the hell is wrong with Jet Blue???? Why all the cancellations and delays??? I thought about Sunday morning back in Boston when my fiancé told me to buy another ticket. I thought about how I was being money cautious. HA! Wished I would’ve listened to him. I was at the point where money didn’t matter; I just wanted to be home.

I headed back to terminal 5/6 to Jet Blue. I went through security. And yes, I was extra searched. Again. It was raining by this point. I decided I needed a drink. Yes. An alcoholic drink. The sports bar was full, so I went to a Sushi bar. The mood in the Jet Blue terminal was a bit dark and sullen. Everyone was delayed or cancelled. Everyone had a story to tell. Hell. I had a story to tell. I sat at the bar. Ordered a drink. Talked to my boss. I had already talked to him a couple times. He was understanding and sympathetic towards my situation. Thank GOD. An older gentleman in a suit came and sat down next to me. He was from Kansas City. Nice guy. Owns a recycling business, which is very admirable. He used to live in Austin and we talked a bit about that. Of course he told me his story of being delayed and asked to hear mine. I told him it could take awhile to tell. But he asked for it. He ordered us two more drinks, toasted me and dubbed me “The Winner.” I chuckled. But maybe it was more of a smirk. He picked up my tab (which was awesome!) and went to go catch his delayed flight that was getting ready to board. When he left, a couple from DC sat down, and I chatted with them for awhile. Human interaction was great. I really think it keeps me sane. I mean you see how much I can type, now imagine how much I can talk!

While I was talking to the DC couple someone came on the intercom, “Attention JFK passengers….” Anyways, they proceeded to tell us that lightening had struck the field and that all flights were stopped until further notice. Great! Of course this has happened! Luckily, the flights were only stopped for about ½ hour. Thank God.

Time for a smoke! I knew I was going to have to go back through security, but at this point it was second nature. I smoked and needed to charge my phone to make some more phone calls. I walked into the gift shop I had been in yesterday and the girl behind the counter was there. “Hey! Remember me!!! Can I borrow your outlet?”

“Are you still here? Did you go to NYC today? Did you have fun?” I told her about my trip to NY. I asked her if she punched the guy in the arm and she told me twice. I proceeded to tell her what I had been through since she saw me yesterday. She let me know I could use their outlet as long as I needed. I charged my phone for a bit, made some calls, and headed back to security. I think I had been through security more than I’ve told you, because I’m a heavy smoker and I know I was irritated. But I know that mostly because this was the time I went through that I was dubbed, “Nicki two days.” That’s right. The people at security knew me. They sympathized for me. And they nicknamed me. “Nicki 2 Days.” They didn’t really check me to much. They didn’t go through my purse or my plastic gift bag with my book, my shirt, my toothpaste, deodorant and few souvenirs in it. (Damn I wished I wouldn’t have bought that “I love NYC” coffee mug!) They did however, ask what was going on, and I told them my new news. “Good luck Nicki2Days!”

“I’m going to need it! Thanks!”

At this point, the other bar, the sports bar had calmed down a bit. It must have been about 9pm. I was hungry and didn’t mind having another drink. It had been an hour or so since my last two, and at this point I really didn’t care if I was sober, buzzed or drunk. Well, maybe not drunk, God knows I don’t need to miss ANOTHER plane. I sat at the bar and asked the bartender to please charge my phone for me. A couple people came and went, providing me with some communication, mostly delayed guests of Jet Blue. I ate, had a drink, and then my phone started ringing on the bar. The bartender handed me the phone. This would be the phone call(s) that helped me make up my mind as to my next move. It was my mother. I don’t believe I had mentioned it earlier; however, it was my mother who had earlier in the day offered her help to buy me a plane ticket. I didn’t ask for it and I told her not to worry about it. She insisted. And in this time of need, I took it. I don’t usually take help unless I REALLY feel it’s needed, but maybe I could pay her back later or something. Anyways, so she called. Keep in mind, my mother can be a bit of a guilt tripper without knowing it. She’s a very caring and loving person, but she has her moments. “Nicki,” she said, “John and I are fighting because I told him I was going to buy your ticket.” John is my step dad.

“Well didn’t you tell him you were going to buy it before you offered it to me?” I asked.

“Well, no, but he wants you to figure it out by yourself.”

“Mom, I told you I didn’t need your help. Why would you offer it if you knew it would cause you problems? Don’t worry about it; I don’t want your help.” The conversation started to get tense with my mother pleading to tell me she didn’t mind. But, if she didn’t mind then she wouldn’t have told me about her fights with my step dad. I decided to call my sister to vent. She immediately answered, yelling at me. “Why the F*CK is mom calling here asking me to buy your ticket?”

“What? She didn’t tell me that!” The conversation basically got heated and my sis (whom is my best friend and I love very much, but we can butt heads easily) made me feel like I was going to be inconvenient if I flew to Chicago. I wouldn’t get in until almost 2am, and she’d have to miss part of work the next day to take me to O’ Hare to catch a new flight. I proceeded to tell her that I didn’t need her help out of anger and stress. I called my mom back. “Mom! Why are you guilt trippin’ Cori to buy me a ticket?”

“She wasn’t supposed to tell you that! You weren’t supposed to know, I knew it would make you upset and I just wanted to help.”

“Damn it mom!” I yelled, “I don’t need any help from you. This is a very stressful situation! I don’t F*cking need your help or Cori’s. I have enough of my own problems right now and you two want to make me feel WORSE! F*ck that!” Click. I had just snapped at my mom, which was rare these days. I was so stressed and worried and I unleashed it on her. But I was mad. Why would someone offer help then try to take it back? I know my mom loves me and wants to help me, but sometimes she thinks I’m five. Yes, I’m the baby in the family. I am 27, and I am very smart. I really could figure this out without her help. And I would. And I was leaning towards that Continental flight in the morning, and I didn’t want my mother’s money. That would be my decision. “Bartender! Another!”

During these conversations, a guy about my age sat down in the seat next to me. “Wow! Sounds like you’ve been through a lot.” I glared at him and said, “You think?” I was trying to ignore the guy because I was mad, but he kept talking and eventually I realized his talking to me was calming me down. His name was Ryan. He was 29 and he grew up surprisingly in the Indy/Chicago area like me! And he lived in Chicago and did something with banking and had a big interview in NYC and was trying to get home. He had been delayed. He was pretty nice, and he started drinking with me. He bought me a shot, and on top of the drinks I had, I was buzzin’ and decided I should stop. I looked at the time. It was about 10:40ishPM. Of course I had told my situation to Ryan and he had told me his and his delayed plane was taking off the same time as mine, but on the other end of Jet Blue’s terminal. “It was nice meeting you!” I snapped a quick picture of him unexpectedly. He gave me his card. I threw it in my purse, not even bothering to put it into my wallet.

I knew I wasn’t going to take that flight to Chicago. But I walked over there anyways. I saw that the flight had been delayed until 12pm. Really, I still had a little time to think about what I was going to do. I found an outlet down the hall from my terminal, started charging again, and I called Dave. Mainly because I wanted to know what he would do. I didn’t want to resort to calling my mom or sister at this point. I asked him if I should go to Continental and buy the flight or if I should go to Chicago. He really didn’t know what to tell me because it was a hard decision. While I was chatting it up with him, I saw Ryan walking by on his cell phone. He smiled and waved. I held up a finger indicating for him to hold on. When I got off the phone I asked what he was doing. He said his flight had been delayed even longer and thought it was going to get cancelled. Funny how he bumped into me again in such a big terminal. “Well,” I said, “I think I’m going to take that flight in the morning. I’m going to go to Customer Service and try to get a voucher for my flight.” I was only hoping that the line inside the terminal wasn’t too long. Ryan asked if he could walk with me, and I said sure. I didn’t mind the company.

When I got to customer service there was a small line of about 30 people or so. Yes, I considered this small at this point. I’m not sure if Ryan was drunk or buzzed because he didn’t seem like it, but he started about talking about purposely missing his flight to hang back with me until I left. “Why would you do that?” I asked him.

“Well, we can go downtown to the city. We have plenty of time until you need to get back.” Good thing I wasn’t drunk, because I know how quickly I can be influenced when I am. Of course, I told him no. He stood with me in the line and tried pleading with me. What really sucked is that the guy was pretty cool, and I knew I would have to resort to being mean to him. “Look,” I said, “I can’t go. Number one, I don’t know you. Number two, I’ve been trying to get home for almost two days. I need to really focus on me and only me, and no one else.” He laid off, and continued talking to me a bit before he decided to go check on his flight. About ten minutes later, he was back. “What are you doing?” I asked him.

“I just thought I’d ask one more time. You won’t miss your flight, come on lets go party in the city!”

“No. NO. NO! You need to go catch your flight!” At this point I was next in line, and Ryan just stood behind me waiting.

“Can I help you?” The attendant asked.

“Yes, I need a voucher for my flight.” She asked why, and I told her. Basically she ended up telling me that the voucher would go onto the credit card that bought the flight. I started thinking of the promoter who wouldn’t answer my calls. The promoter who had made me miss my flight. The promoter who had the credit card that bought my ticket. Son of a…. “You know, thanks anyways, I don’t want the voucher. I’ll just miss my flight.”

“Why?”

“Long story, and you got a line of people.” I turned to walk off. I noticed Ryan was nowhere to be found. Hmm. I wondered. I was hoping he decided to catch his flight. As I started walking to the front of the terminal to leave, I remembered Ryan had given me his card. I text him something along the lines of, “I’m glad you made a good decision to catch your flight. I have to worry about myself right now and nothing else. Hope you understand. Good luck.” He text me back while I was sitting on a bench outside smoking a cigarette. Saying something along the lines of my being right and hope I make it home.

As I finished up my cigarette, I leaned down to pick up my plastic bag with the stuff I’d acquired in it. But it wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything too important in it, but still, it was MY stuff. I tried to remember the last time I had it, because quite frankly I couldn’t remember carrying around that heavy bag for awhile now. I had to have left it at the sports bar/restaurant. I remembered I had laid it on the bar. But I wasn’t sure I had left it. I looked at my phone and it was about ten after midnight. Shit! My plane had left already. I wondered if my boarding pass would work to get me through security. I started running. Fast. When I got to security, I was out of breath. There was no one in line and it looked like they were closed up for the night. There was a small door nest to the area and a girl came out. The girl that dubbed me “Nicki 2 days.”

“Hey! Do you remember me!!?” I asked out of breath, in a panic.

“Nicki 2 days! What’s wrong now?”

“I think I left my bag in one of the restaurants. Can I please go see if it’s there?” Had I been anyone else, I think she may have said no. I had met her a handful of times throughout the day, and I knew she wanted to help. They had already started shutting everything down. She asked for my purse, threw it in the machine, and I don’t even think she looked.

“Go!” She said. I grabbed my purse and took off. That was the best time I’d ever been through security. Not just on this trip, but any trip I’ve taken. I didn’t take off my shoes. No one checked my ID or boarding pass; I didn’t get felt up or have my stuff rummaged through. NICE.

When I made it to the restaurant, all the chairs were up on the tables. No one was in there, except an older gentleman with glasses and a tie, sweeping the floor. He looked like he might have been the manager. “Excuse me sir? I think I may have left a plastic bag with a bunch of stuff on your bar.”

“Well, I was hoping you would come back! You have no idea how many times someone leaves something and we never see them again!” He took me into the office and there it was. My bag. Full of useless crap. My crap. “Thanks so much! You have no idea.” And he didn’t have a clue. Guess luck was on my side for a second there. I headed back to the front of the terminal to catch the Air Train. For real this time. Patiently, with ease.

When I got to terminal 3 I noticed there were hardly any people there. I got out my phone and looked at the time. It was almost 1am. I walked inside only to be more surprised that not only was the place emptied from customers, but all the desks were empty too. This terminal was HUGE compared to Jet Blue’s. There were rows after rows of desks. Jet Blue just had one row with maybe 15 counters. There must have been 100 counters for probably 10 or so airlines. But not one person stood behind any of those counters. I saw a couple people in uniforms walking my direction. I figured I’d better ask them some questions. “Excuse me!” A young boy with a thick accent I couldn’t pinpoint asked, “Can I help you?”

“Do you know where the Continental desk is and when they will be open?”

“The desks are way in the back; there are only two, so it’s kind of difficult to see.” He pointed way to the other side of the front area of terminal three. “You see those blue signs way in the back.” I struggled to see them, but finally did, and I nodded. “That’s Continental, but they don’t open until 6 in the morning.” Oh God, here comes the panic again.

“But,” I pleaded, “I have a flight reservation for 5:30am and I haven’t bought my ticket.”

“I’m sorry mamm, I don’t know….” And he walked off. I stood there, in an empty terminal with a few people asleep on the floor here and there. I plopped down on the floor right where I had been standing. This was the worst cry of all. Sobbing. Like a baby. Helpless. Homeless. Dirty. I cried and cried, and really just needed a minute by myself. I remembered I’d worn my black woven dread hat originally on Sunday morning and it was in my bag with my dirty shirt and underwear. I got it out and put it on. I just wanted to hide my face. I called my sister. I told her I didn’t know what to do. How could I make the flight? “Nicki, stop! If your plane leaves at 5:30, someone has to be there to give you your boarding pass.”

“But I need to buy it!” The conversation lead to me finding a negative response to everything she said. “I’ll call you back.” I said as I saw a tall, bigger black man in a suit walking towards me. He definitely looked like a manager of one of the airlines. I ran towards him, literally ran as fast as I could. I was still weeping and as I approached he looked a little startled. The exact words out of my mouth were, “You gotta help me!” I looked at his name tag and he was from the Caribbean Airlines. He seemed annoyed at first, because I’m sure he was on his way home, but as the tears kept flowing, his annoyance turned to sympathy I believe. “What’s wrong? What can I do?” I told him my whole story. It’s funny how the longer the story got, and the more chapters there were to tell, the eyes of my listeners seemed to grow with astonishment. He really wanted to help me now, he felt sorry for me.

He sat down at a desk and got a laptop out of a brief case he was carrying. He got onto Continentals website and told me I could buy the ticket online. By this point I had called my sister (while he was in the process of finding what he needed online) and was telling her what was going on. She was kind of wary about my buying a ticket on someone’s laptop and them possibly having my credit info. She told me to ask him to find the customer service hotline and to call her back to let her know what was happening.

“Sir, can we just call the customer service line.” He called from his phone and got where he needed to be and then handed the phone to me. The guy on the phone asked for my reservation number and I proceeded to get the now crumpled and dirty CD cover with all my notes on it out. I gave it to him and my credit card information too. There went another $350…… “One more thing? What time can I get my boarding pass?”

“Mamm we open at JFK at 3am.” Aghh…..I could’ve just waited instead of having a mental breakdown in the middle of terminal 3 and scaring the nice, helpful gentleman with Caribbean Airlines! But at least my ticket was bought and I was on my way. I handed the guy his phone and thanked him at least 20 times. “Good luck!” He yelled as I took off. Time for a cigarette.

I walked outside feeling a lot better, and I sat on bench and got out my compact mirror in my purse to make sure I didn’t look too horribly bad from my crying fit. I noticed I only had a couple cigarettes and decided to be greedy. I saw two guys a little older than me smoking about 10 feet away. “Hey! Can I bum a cigarette?”

“Sure! You stuck at the airport too?” One of the guys asked.

“Yeah, but that’s a bit of an understatement. I pretty much live here at this point.” I told them. One of the guys was tall, thin and had red hair. The other guy was a little shorter and Hispanic or Italian looking. It was hard to tell. The shorter dark haired one, whom I found out was actually Johnny, told me the pilot on his flight gave him a couple packs of cigarettes (Marlboro Reds) from a free carton and he gave me one of the packs. I hung out with them outside for awhile. They actually didn’t know each other either but were on the same flight. Johnny was trying to get home to Sacramento and the other guy was flying to Madrid, Spain. They were really cool. We swapped stories. This story of mine was getting old telling it over and over again. (I think that’s why I’ve resorted to writing, so I can just hand someone a copy when they ask! LOL) “You wanna come hang out with us down in the terminal? There’s a pizza shop still serving beer.” Johnny asked.

“I can’t. I don’t have boarding pass to get through.” I said.

“There’s no security right now and you can walk wherever you want. Plus I’m buying; you’ve had a rough time.” I walked with them right through the security checkpoint into the gated section. Are you serious? The only thing you need to do to sneak into JFK terminal 3 is wait until the middle of the night? You’ve got to be kidding. There were people everywhere asleep on the ground. People just like me. There was a huge group of about 30 in front of the pizza shop and sure enough they were selling beer!

We sat down with a group of girls that the two boys had met earlier. They were from Madrid, Spain trying to get home and their flight was the same as the red headed guy, which had been cancelled. Johnny bought a couple rounds of Corona for everyone and we all just hung out for an hour or so. I had left about 3am to go have a smoke and see if Continental was open yet to grab my boarding pass. My new friend Johnny went with me. While we were outside I took a picture with him because he was cool. I found out he was a hairdresser and worked on some famous people before. I was pretty buzzed at this point and blurted out, “Are you gay?”

“Do I look or act gay?”

“Well, you’re a little metro, but you don’t act gay!” Luckily, he didn’t seem offended. I’m sure he gets asked that a lot, being a hairdresser and all! I do have blunt and sharp tongue once I’ve been drinking! LOL

“I’m not gay.” I had to throw in this part of our conversation for my own sake because it was actually pretty funny and led into a whole conversation between us that evoked laughter and calmed my spirit. It’s funny how you run into people in a time of helplessness that can ease your temporarily broken spirit.

We walked over to Continental about 3:30am and there were two people there, and no line!!! The lady at the counter was friendly and a whole conversation was struck up about why we were at the airport so early and where we were going. Of course, I filled her in minutely about my experience. “Well, only a couple hours,” she said, “and you’ll be on your way! Don’t worry; this flight is going to make it to Houston!” Home felt so close at this point. So close. She handed me my boarding pass, and my new friend and I walked towards the gates again.

I found my gate and noticed it was in a section of gates that was closed off to a second security checkpoint that wasn’t open yet, so I just had to be patient. Johnny and I found a new group of people to sit with. An older woman (probably 40ish) was lying on a bench, from DC trying to get home and a gentleman (probably 50 or so) trying to get somewhere but I can’t remember. The lady was really friendly and I talked to her for until I saw the security opening about 4:45am.

“Wow,” I said. It’s time. I gave a hug to my new airport buddy Johnny and said bye to my two other airport buddies and made my way to security. I walked through with ease. No problems, no hassles, no extra security check. My gate was right on the other side of security. I sat and waited for about 15 minutes. The lady who gave me my boarding pass was now the attendant at my gate, and she was with three other Continental employees. She announced our plane to board and I filed into the line. She must have told the other employees my story because as she took my ticket she touched my shoulder and said, “Congratulations!” And all four of them cheered and clapped for me as I walked on the plane. That’s something that doesn’t happen to an average person every day! LOL

This plane wasn’t comfortable the way the Jet Blue plane was, and there weren’t any TVs, no credit card machines, and the seats were close and compact. But one thing this plane had, and I felt it, that Jet Blue didn’t have was reliability. And I knew I was on my way. I fell asleep before we even took off.

I woke up in Houston. My eyes burned from leaving my contacts in. I looked at my boarding pass. Sweet! My lay over was only about ten minutes. I found a bathroom. Took my contacts out, found my gate and they were immediately boarding. I looked at my phone. June 17th, Tuesday 9:30am Texas time. Only a short flight to go. And it was. Cause I fell right back to sleep.

When we landed, it didn’t sink in at first. It didn’t really feel real. Maybe it was because I was so sleepy still. Even though I had five or six hours of sleep, it WAS on a plane. Not sure if that really counts! As I stepped out of the plane and into the airport, that’s when it hit me that I was home. In one of the many phone conversations that I had with my sister, she told me I would probably cry when I got home. I asked her why I would do that. She said, “Trust me, you just will.” As I was walking down towards the baggage claim to find the Jet Blue office to get my bag, I knew my sister was right. The emotion kicked in. But it was a happy cry, and it was soft and intimate. Hidden behind my glasses and my hat.

There wasn’t anyone at the Jet Blue office so I went upstairs to the ticket desk. Hmmm..I love Austin. There was NO ONE in line. I asked the attendant to help me locate my bag and she walked me back down to the office and unlocked it. On our way down she said something along the lines of, “We have so many bags from New York, not sure what happened.” I was too tired to get into my story again, so I just replied with, “Yup. I’m one of those people.” And there it was, right in the front of the office. My bag. I was so happy it was there. I didn’t need any more crap. I grabbed it and went outside to wait on Dave who would be circling around waiting for me.

I sat there and lit a cigarette. I went back to the moment I got off the plane several minutes ago. Why did I cry? I think people don’t realize how important their lives are, their homes are. How important our loved ones are. We take so many things in our lives for granted without even second guessing why, or even knowing we did to begin with. Sometimes, we need trying times or situations to mold our character, to make us wiser, stronger and tougher. Experience molds us. It makes us who we are. You can tell a lot about a person by watching how they handle a stressful situation. And you can watch them grow from each and every one of those experiences. For some, you may not realize how important your home, loved ones, and even your job; your life you live day to day is until it’s taken away from you. Until you can’t get there, and no amount of money can help you. It doesn’t matter who you are and where you’ve been. What are you going to do to ultimately help yourself when no one else can? The road can be bumpy at times and stressful, but in my experiences with life I try to be thankful for situations like this. The hard times, the crazy times, the difficult times. Be thankful. This is how you grow, this is how you learn. Don’t take your home and loved ones for granted, for they can be taken away from you in a minute. Don’t forget to love, to forgive, and to be a good friend, wife, husband, brother, sister, father or mother. Tell the people you love that you love them all the time. But keep your head up, and be thankful for hard times, because good comes out of everything even if it’s just a lesson learned.

And here I was sitting, waiting on Dave, and I knew that this lesson made me stronger, smarter, wiser and so on and so forth. And I was ok with it. I was proud of myself for being brave and for being smart enough to figure it out, to even go into NYC by myself and conquer what little of it I could in such a small amount of time. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone or ever want it to happen again, but I would never take it back. I would never wish it wouldn’t have happened. It was something I would hold onto forever, an experience never to be forgotten.

Dave pulled up, with our dog, DJ. Both grinning ear to ear. My heart fluttered. I ran to him and gave him the biggest hug I’ve ever given. I was home. And I was never so happy to be home. And I was loved. And I was never so happy to be loved.

Nicki Prifogle

PS-

I did call my mom back, and she apologized and we made up.

and

BTW the whole trip cost me about $900 on my credit card.
Hotel: $180 + tax
Continental Flight: $350 +tax
Cancellation fee: $100
Food/ Necessities/ Trip to NYC: +$250
Getting stuck in Boston and NYC for over two days: PRICELESS….

I came here to say three things:

1. I made it all the way through!

2. Interesting story, and I'm excited you got to see a little bit of NYC. I love that place.

3. (this is the most important) I would have that shitty ass promoter's balls on a platter and serve them to DJ.

i made it through the explanation about how the story was a story.

1. Awesome! Wasn't sure if anyone would, but I can always count on you!

2. I was wondering if people would think it was an interesting or good story. I felt like Tom Hanks in the terminal. NYC was the most fun out of the whole experience for sure. Now I gotta go get my disposable cam developed. Now if I can only remember how to do that.....LOL JK

3. I still haven't been able to get ahold of him, however Kelly Trance is with At Large and they have currently put him on their blackball list. they include artists like Micro, Deepsky, Miss Lisa and many more.

It's definitely not for everyone. :)

lol my friend back home works with Miss Lisa.

Made it all the way through! What a harrowing experience that was. Well written, I felt like I was right there with you. I second Leslie's comment that you should have that promoters balls on a platter. What was he thinking having you and another dj play late slots, knowing that he'd booked super early flight times for you two at an airport an hour away no less with not enough time in between to actually make it to both?? I know, he's a cheap bastard trying to maximize his profits at your expense.
I'd say you learned a serious lesson on patience and how to handle one of the most stress inducing situations a person can go through. Who would think that flying would or could pose such a problem? You also learned a great lesson on human nature when it comes to caring or helping those in need. NYC, one of the toughest, hardest cities in the country with a reputation for being uncaring turned out to be, at least for you, to be completely the opposite! How you handled yourself played a huge role in that of course. If you'd have been the angry "get me home NOW!" traveler with a hateful chip on your shoulder, you'd have had a much worse response/experience. You also made the right decisions at the right times ie Ryan. I'm sure Daveed is proud of you!
I can empathize with your emotional response to landing at Bergstrom as I've breathed a huge "sigh of relief" each time I've returned here from travelling, and I can't say that I've ever had even half as bad a flying experience. It is indeed that feeling of knowing you're home, where your family and friends are as well as the knowledge that you'll be sleeping in your own bed with your own pillows and significant other once again.
Nice story, thanks for sharing it "Nicki 2 Days"!

W

Hey thanks a lot for the response! I've put my story up in a ton of places, and this is probably one of the best responses yet. I really love to write, unfortunately, I always want to when something crazy, traumatic, upsetting, etc. happens. It really was all the different people and conversations that kept me going. At the time it was all happening, the situation seemed traumatic, however looking back at it (and exactly two weeks ago from this very moment I was in Times square), I'm kind of glad it happened. It's very rare in life we get presented with the out of ordinary experiences. Like I said, it's something I'll never want to happen again, but something I will hold onto for the lessons, the interesting people, and I will never forget it! Thanks again for reading!

Sorry didn't make it out to the show, Nic, as it turned out I am about an hour from Providence with no car.

so i didnt have the time when you first posted, but my car is in the shop and i cant goto work at the moment so i figured i would read it now. all i can say is wow. that is a pretty crappy thing to have to go through. sounds like you handled it well though and are better for having the experience. the story was a really good read and well written. glad you made it back to texas in one peace.

That's ok, trust me it wasn't worth it. Badly promoted, shitty promoter, and only about 150 kids. It was OK.

Thanks a lot! And thanks for reading too! I love to write in my spare time. It always ends up being about one of my crazy experiences, but they always end up being the most enjoyable to read.

Wow. This is the mother of all airport delay horrors. I'll never bitch about my past experiences again.

You write really well. I've never been in JFK so I envisioned your plight with those dreary O'Hare halls. Thanks for sharing your story. Glad you made it back in one piece.

V.