Snow, Snow, Snow and More Snow

I think you can guess what this post is about. This "arctic winter storm" that we're experiencing here in Seattle has been pretty impressive. We usually get snow every winter, but this year it is coming in mammoth amounts. When I got home yesterday, we had about 6 inches. None of the roads, including the freeways, were cleared. Kristine and I went out at 2 a.m. and tried to sled down the hill, but the snow was too fluffy. Today, we went out again and the snow was great for sledding. It's really nice, cause it's so cold outside that the snow doesn't have that bone-chilling-wet feeling. Anyway, so when we were out there earlier today, we must have had about 12" of the fluffy white stuff. It hasn't stopped snowing at all today. I just looked outside, and it is still falling. I love the snow, but I really need to get out to go Christmas shopping! I mean, I could go shopping with all this snow around, but it's the other drivers that scare me. Oh well, we'll see what happens. 

I'm home for Christmas

Finally!! 

Wow, this trip was so long. It seems like every year when I try to come home after a long semester at school, we get delayed with some sort of flight and/or weather problem. This year was no exception. 

This is the abridged version of the long story. I am tired of telling this story, so I am gonna keep it short. 

Thursday: School is out! We had chapel, and then I went to the campus store, The Collegian office, the dining common and then headed back to my room. I had to clean up before I left, but since I wasn't leaving until Friday, I was in no hurry. 

Friday: We left Greenville on the Amtrak. We were going to the Atlanta airport to fly home. The train ride was uneventful, and I fell asleep listening to my iPod. We arrived at the Atlanta Amtrak station, and our problems for the week began. 

We were thinking that our baggage from the train would come pretty quickly, but they kept announcing "your baggage will be here in 20-25 minutes." Grrr! We were supposed to take a shuttle to the airport at 8:35 a.m. and with the luggage delays, that would make us late for the shuttle. So I called the shuttle service and told them that we couldn't meet them until we received our luggage. Once we finally got the luggage, we met the shuttle and were on our way to the airport. 

At the airport, we quickly went to the computer kiosk to check-in. We tried our confirmation number. Rejected. We tried our ticket number. Rejected. We tried our last name. Rejected. We tried my credit card. Rejected. So after all of that, we went to stand in the LONG line. After 2 hours in line, we were still only halfway through. I remembered that we had flown first class on the way to Greenville last time, so I left that line (leaving Andy there) and proceeded to go to the first class line. It moved a lot quicker, and when I got to the front, the lady seemed to be helpful. Well, that first impression was definitely wrong! She was so rude. I told her our problem, and she said "well I can't find you on our system." Well thanks! So she got on the phone, then after being on hold for like 10 minutes, she decided that we were not worth her while. She told me to get on the phone, to stand off to the side so she could help someone else. Hello? I need to get on my flight! I can't do anything about it, so help me!! 

So I'm on the phone. On hold. Forever. The worker decided to help me, but she said "oh I found the flight, but they changed it. The flight you were going on doesn't exist anymore. They changed it, and it left at 11:05 a.m." Okay, by now it was 11:35 a.m. so what am I supposed to do? Not only was I not their system, but I had "missed" the flight that nobody told us had changed. Then what really irked me was her saying "well, if you were in line earlier you could have made the flight." Grrr!! I was in line. Forever. Since 9 a.m.! 

After that run-in with that rude person, I asked her what to do. She said she could not help me, because it was Alaska Airlines' problem (she worked for their partner airline, Delta). So I called Andy, and we went off to the side and got on the phone. Again. I was on hold for 35 minutes. Not kidding. The lady on the phone told me that I had to get Delta to give us a new flight. So we stood in a different line. Again. After being rejected by another rude worker, we got out of line and on the phone again. Finally some nice person on the phone! She felt bad, and told us that she'd try to work something out. She said to get Delta to give us permission to change the flights without charge. So in line we went. Again. For the 3rd time. This time, we had this stupid Asian person (remember, I am Asian . . . so I'm not being racist) who couldn't speak English very well. He kept saying "you missed your flight," and I was like "no, we did NOT miss our flight. Nobody would let us on any flight and now there is nothing out of Atlanta." So frustrating! All this time, I'm trying to keep my sanity and keep some sort of good Christian testimony! So he tells us to get out of line, and to get a confirmation number from Alaska (on the phone). Are you kidding me? We have been in 3 lines, talked to 3 people on the phone and now have missed every flight that day. So this time I told Andy to get on the phone, cause I probably would have made some unsuspecting person's day really bad. 

Andy got on the phone, and waited a LONG time on hold. He talked to a nice lady on the phone, and she was able to get us two seats on the last flight of the weekend. All the flights were full because of the bad weather in Seattle or because of the busyness of the holiday season. Anyway, so now our flight was scheduled non-stop (which was good, because our previous flight had a layover) from Atlanta to Seattle, but on Saturday at 7:22 p.m. At the time it was only 3:30 p.m. on Friday. So what were we going to do for more than 24 hours?!?!?! 

Then, I remembered that my roommate from my freshman year lived in Atlanta! So I texted my old roommate and she was in town and finished teaching for the semester. She asked if we needed anywhere to stay, and I told her our situation. So after Andy and I ate something at the airport, Tiffany came to pick us up. We were going to stay the night with her and her parents house. 

After she picked us up (which was amazing, by the way!) we met her parents and one of her friends at Olive Garden. We ate some amazing food and had a great time. Then we went shopping for a little bit, and went home. We watched some TV (I forgot how nice that was!) and then went to bed. 

SATURDAY: It was amazing. Such a blessing. I had my own bed, and I was able to sleep-in and get rested. After we all got up and ready for the day, they took us to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Tiffany's older sister and her family met us there. Wow, that was fun! Her little niece and nephews are so cute. 

We got back home after eating lunch, and packed up and got ready to leave for the airport . . . round two! 

They dropped us off at the airport, and we made it through the line relatively quickly. We told the lady at the counter our problem, how we had been there forever the day before, how our flight was "changed" and all that jazz. So she was really nice (first nice Delta person!) and she said that she didn't have our ticket numbers. Panic racing through my mind . . . . all I want to do is get home! So she got on the phone and she had us get on another phone to call and get our ticket numbers (they wouldn't show up on her computer, even though our names, seats and confirmation numbers did). After about 20 minutes on hold, Andy finally got through to somebody. She gave us our ticket numbers and we were on our way! FINALLY!!!! 

We made it through security and waited at the gate. We got some yummy Ben & Jerry's ice cream and I listened to my iPod. Again. The lady at the gate kept announcing that there were 70 people on the standby list and she only had 20 spots. Thank goodness that we actually had seats! So the plane came, we boarded and waited to leave. 

Once we left, they said that we will hopefully make it to Seattle. I was worried about flying home because all the weather problems. The flight was pretty uneventful. Except for some minor inconveniences: the flight attendant (okay one of them). Now, I am not saying this to be mean and I'm not trying to offend anybody who might be reading this. But I think there is a reason that airlines have regulations as to the size of their flight attendants. Well, I personally don't fit into that flight attendant size, but whatever . . . I'm not going to be trying to get a job as a flight attendant anytime soon! So anyway, I was sitting on the aisle, and every time I could fall asleep, I would feel this person walking past me and brushing my arm. Gross. I am one of those people who really appreciates her personal space!! When it is invaded, I get kinda, umm, not happy. So this happened EVERY TIME she walked by me! Ewww! She wasn't even real huge, she just shouldn't really be a flight attendant. 

So on Delta, they have a live flight tracker on the TV monitor at your seat, so I kept checking to see where we were. The time that we were to arrive in Seattle kept getting later and later. Well, once we made it to Washington state, they announced that SeaTac (the airport) had closed all three runways. So we had to wait in line up in the air and circle around twice before getting permission to land. I looked on the live map, and we were circling Arlington, Everett and Bothell. I live in Bothell. I wish they could have just dropped me out of the plane!! Okay, not really, but after 6 hours on the plane, I was ready to get off! It didn't help that I got sick during the last hour of the flight. I am pretty sure the lime that the flight attendant put in my club soda was bad or something. I hadn't eaten anything else, and I was fine until right after I drank that. So that was a horrible last hour of the trip! 

We landed. It was rough. I could hear the tires of the plane skidding on the snow covered runway. Right after we stopped, everyone started clapping (not me, but I was happy!). It was so nice to be home in Seattle. 

After our luggage arrived, we met my family outside and proceeded to leave. Now the trip from the airport back to my house is normally only about 30 minutes, but because the freeway was COVERED in snow and ice, we were going about 20 miles per hour. That was a long trip! We made it home around midnight. 

So nice to be home!! The trip was definitely long. But I am glad we were able to get on the flight, because the trips after ours were canceled. 

So Many Reasons Why I'm Finite . . .

And it's a good thing I'm finite. Pretty sure if I had control over people and circumstances, I would've destroyed everyone and everything by now. Can you guess where this post is going?!

I am so frustrated with people. I can't even put my finger on it. I could ramble on and on about several specific instances, but more than likely, it wouldn't make sense to anyone outside of the finite mind of me, myself and I.

In all of my frustration, it makes me grateful that the Lord doesn't strike down lightning on me every time I frustrate him.

"I've had just enough of the spotlight when it burns bright

To see how it gets in the blood.

And I've tasted my share of the sweet life and the wild ride

And found a little is not quite enough.

I know how I can stray

And how fast my heart could change.

Empty me of the selfishness inside

Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride

And any foolish thing my heart holds to

Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.

I've had just enough of the quick buys of the best lies

To know how prodigals can be drawn away.

I know how I can stray

And how fast my heart could change.

Empty me of the selfishness inside

Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride

And any foolish thing my heart holds to

Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.

Cause everything is a lesser thing

Compared to you, compared to you.

Cause everything is a lesser thing

Compared to you.

So, I surrender all!

Empty me of the selfishness inside

Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride

Empty me of the selfishness inside

Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride

And any foolish thing my heart holds to

Lord empty me of me so I can be

Lord empty me of me so I can be filled with you.

Oh, filled with you. Empty me."

--Chris Sligh

Done for the semester except for . . . .

Finals!

I am so excited that I am almost done for the semester. Today I turned in my last assignment for the semester. It was a feature article that I wrote for my News Writing class. My topic was "Putting Frugal on Your Christmas List." It was a fun article to write.

So I am home free right now, but I need to buckle down and study for finals. I have two finals on Monday, two on Wednesday and one on Thursday.

Right now, I am sitting in Starbucks. It has been a frequent happening this semester, but with their new Wi-Fi program, it makes it worth it . . . especially when I have giftcards from people!

I will be home in a week!!

Crazy

I can almost see the light at the end of a tunnel. Right now, it's more like I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for class assignments . . . and I haven't even entered the tunnel of final exams yet!

Currently, I am working on a big course project for public relations. It is insane. It isn't because it is long (although it is), rather, it is because I am having a really hard time connecting all the random thoughts of how to accomplish this assignment.

I'm off-campus at Starbucks, sipping a yummy peppermint white mocha . . . in a mug. It stays so much warmer in a mug!

Anyway, so I need to get back to work. Just had to do a quick update to say I'm still alive!

The Collegian

I'm so excited to say that I am now officially a Staff Writer for The Collegian! The Collegian is our weekly newspaper at school.

I start next semester, but I am so excited. I went to my first staff meeting this past week, and I think I'm gonna love it.

Quite a few of my fellow journalism friends/classmates are the other writers, so that among other things will keep it fun and interesting, I'm sure!

For those of you not associated with BJU, you can view The Collegian online at: www.collegianonline.com Obviously, I won't have any articles up there for quite a while, but check back!

Just thought I'd share a bit of my excitement.

One more week of . . . . I better not say

I am so swamped right now. I have done nothing but homework today. From 9:30 a.m. - now . . . and it is 7:40 p.m. Okay, so I squeezed in a tiny nap (15 minutes) because my head was killing me. But then it was right back to work.

I am babysitting now, but the little boy is already sleeping, so here I am doing more homework.

This is our last week of classes! Yay! But, that means finals are the week after that. I am not worried about two of my finals, but the other three . . . umm . . . yeah. It doesn't help that one of my classes I have an 89% right now (only one percent away from an "A"). I have a big verse test on Monday, which if I do well on it, will bring that grade up, but I am really paranoid about the final for that class.

All this, and two classes have big papers/articles/projects . . .

I love writing, but I am having a heck of a hard time coming up with the thoughts to organize my stories/letters/projects. I have my interviews done, but it's just not coming to me.

Oh well. 11 more days and I will be home. Thank goodness.