Tuesday, June 12, 2007

It worked; I can't believe it. Usually when I fly home I’m routed through Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, etc. Well, this time I flew with Delta because the fare was considerably lower and one my choices for connecting flights was through JFK in New York. I chose that flight because I hadn't been to NYC since July 2003 and I really wanted to see my dear friend Genine who lives in uptown at 123rd & Madison.

I figured if by chance my connecting flight gets cancelled I'd rather be in New York than another, sorta random city. When I left LAX this morning I didn't really think much about it because I booked the ticket so long ago and I hadn’t heard any weather advisories....

Anyway, about 3/4 of the way through my LAX-JFK flight we were placed in a holding pattern and I got a great view of a couple of The Great Lakes.....for almost an hour. Which meant it was looking like I might not make my connecting flight.

We land nearly an hour late and I rush off of the plane...from seat 41A (I always pick seats with numbers of significance)...only to find that my flight to Virginia had been cancelled. I instantly became one of many, many people that would be staying in New York overnight.

Right about this time my commercial agent called…oops. What could this be? I wasn’t up for anything. So I answered and it was just telling me to disregard a commercial audition that had been email to me since they knew I was out of town. Cool, I’m on vacation…in an airport.

My mind started racing about what to do. Did I really "need" to get home to Virginia tonight? Nah. Did I really wanna see my friend Genine and New York? YES!!! So I surprised her with a call to tell her that I was in town and what my situation was. I didn't know what the airline would do other than book me on another flight. They wanted to book me in the morning to Atlanta to wait for hours to get back to Virginia……uhhh no! I wasn’t going to ride the train all the way to Harlem to rest for a few hours to get up to go to Atlanta when I’m really going to Virginia. That’s not gonna work for me.

So I made up a story and got them to book me on the last flight of the evening tomorrow so I:

wouldn’t have to get up really early in the morning.
could see Genine and have lunch with her tomorrow
could hang out in Manhattan for a good part of the day.

The only thing I forgot in my master plan of getting stuck in New York was that I didn’t really have anything decent to wear. I attempted to wait in line to get my checked bag, but then I thought about having to carry it around Manhattan with me. I abandoned that plan and rolled out with my backpack…at least I had my tooth brush.

OMG! It really showed that I hadn’t ridden the train in years; I felt like a tourist in the city that had been so great to me almost a decade ago. I rode the A train to the 6 to 125th Street. I was back in the Manhattan and it felt great! I even had a hooker whisper to me “what you wanna do boo?”, I was like “Nah, I’m good” and kept on walking. That was at 124th & Park Ave. I finally made it to my friend’s place and got some rest for the night.

The next day I met Genine at work for lunch and had a great conversation about several things as we usually do. It’s funny that my three brothers and I met Genine at a restaurant in Virginia Beach back in 1990 and she’s still a close friend of the family.

With the time I had left I went on little tour; things that I hadn’t thought about in years came back to me in an instant. I must say that it was a bit emotional at times. I walked by the first place I lived in New York, 450 W 46th St in Hell’s Kitchen – wow! Then I hopped on the M11 and went up to another place I lived at 244 W 61st St – wow again! From there I walked to where I used to work, The Harley-Davidson Café at 56th & 6th – it’s now a bank!

From there I made my way back through Times Square and thought about when I made a special trip to New York years ago to see myself on the Wrigley’s Jumbotron – in Times Square! That was a very special feeling because I used to walk through there all the time on my way to work and seeing myself on that screen gave me the chills.

So I made it back to JFK in plenty of time to catch my flight…little did I know I would be leaving 4 hours late. I was started to feel weird about having to rely on so many people – from getting a ride LAX, to having to call Genine at the last minute, to my brother that was supposed to pick me up last night, to not knowing if and when I was getting in tonight. So I talked to my brother and told I had no idea when I would really be arriving and if it’s too late I’ll just sleep in the airport and call him in the morning…what the Hell was I thinking? Actually, I was just trying to be super respectful of his time; he has a lot on his plate and work long hours. I got in after 1 am and slept under the courtesy phones for rental cars until 7am…well tossed and turned until 7am…in short sleeping on the floor in an airport sucks.

I left LAX at 9:30 Tuesday morning and didn’t get to home until 7:30 Thursday…and it was worth every minute to not be in LA right now AND I got a taste of New York for free. I still can’t believe my plan worked.

http://www.stephonfuller.com/consultations.html

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