Unlike Jimmy's dreamy Thursday before Beyond 300, mine was chaos. In fact, my Thursday actually began on Wednesday around 7:45 p.m. when my boyfriend's father called me as I was getting off of work. He told me our party of three (my boyfriend Aaron, his best friend Jordan and myself) needed to pack and get to the airport before 9:25 p.m. or we would probably not make it to San Francisco.
Aaron's dad works for American Airlines, giving his family and privileged people on their list - like myself - the ability to pay substantially less for our plane ticket by flying standby. Flying standby means that if there is an open seat on the flight, we get on. My dad used to work for the same airline throughout my childhood. Redeye flights became my friends. While flying standby is great and makes it cheaper to travel, it makes traveling to popular destinations nearly impossible. Because of the plane crash at the San Francisco Airport on July 6, all the airlines had to cancel flights causing rollovers and delays. For a person flying standby, this is an absolute nightmare. After speeding home, I somehow managed to pack, put on new makeup and change into suitable flying attire in less than 15 minutes. Then it was off to the airport.
Out of my entire weekend, our trip to the airport was the most dangerous thing I experienced. Having less than 45 minutes to make it to an airport that was 30 minutes away plus get through security, our driver, Aaron's younger brother, was weaving in and out of traffic like a mad man. I appreciated it. Even when I was trying my best to hold back my tears when we stood before security, watching our plane load up and leave, I still appreciated it. We were just too late.
Hopeless, angry and panicked, I wondered how I was going to tell Greg that I couldn't make it to Beyond 300. All the while, Aaron and his dad were looking for every way possible for us to get into California, even if that meant us flying out to Chicago to connect to Los Angeles. Easily changing your flight itinerary is one other small benefit of flying standby. After hours of searching for possibly connections we finally devised a plan. Thursday morning we loaded up and headed back to the airport. This time our absolute last hope was a flight to Fresno, CA.
As I watched people happily board the plane, all I could think was “I wish you weren’t here. I wish you had overslept. I wish you would have gotten stuck in traffic.” Going to San Francisco was my chance to not only meet my best friend for the first time, but to finally walk through the halls of IGN. More importantly, I would get to meet the people who inspire me to keep writing this blog.
Finally, the attendant came up to our group of three and sternly said, “I have two seats open. Who’s going?”
I first felt a pang of relief, then panic. I already knew what was going to happen, but we quickly discussed our options anyways. After a few glares and a snooty comment from the attendant, we made our decision. Jordan stepped back and said, “All right, you two go. You two need to go.”
After a sorrowful goodbye, Aaron and I walk through the gate and onto the plane. I felt guilty leaving our friend behind, but I knew the only way I could pay him back was by making the most of this trip.
Three hours later we landed in Fresno, CA. After wondering around the small downtown area for two hours, we boarded a train, sat for four hours, got on a bus, sat for another thirty minutes and finally found ourselves in San Francisco.
By the time we made it to our hotel it was nearly 9 p.m., so Aaron and I took a moment to relax before leaving to hunt for food. Having visited San Francisco six months earlier for our three-year anniversary, we knew exactly what we wanted to warm our souls on that chilly night: Katana Ya.
Katana Ya is a popular ramen shop just outside of Union Square and, coincidentally, a few blocks away from our hotel. As my favorite place to get ramen in the city (so far), we waited outside the tiny shop before stuffing our faces.
I sunk into bed that night, exhausted from traveling yet excited for the events to come.
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