Confident Expectation

I just spent four wonderful days in Los Angeles with my friend Emily.  She is a grad student at UCLA, which made it very convenient for me to stay with her on my extended layover between Raleigh and Sydney.  Before I can elaborate on my fun time in the city of angels, I must recount the process of getting to my first destination.

Reaching Los Angeles was a bit of an adventure in itself.  My parents dropped me off at RDU an hour early.  This would normally be more than enough time for a domestic flight on a Saturday evening.  However, my suitcases were a little overweight so I had to do some last minute shuffling to balance them out.  This only took a couple of minutes, but it caused me to keep being put at the back of the line that was continually filling with new arriving passengers, including a large group of foreign students.  I reminded the desk agent what time my flight left and she tried to get the other agents to process me through a little faster.  Thirty minutes later everything was squared away and off to security I went.  The line was looooooong.  I attribute this to the fact that they were doing full body scans on every single person. At least the line never stopped moving.

When I finally got through to the other side of security I realized my gate number was literally at the far end of the terminal.  I walked as fast as I possibly to the other end.  I heard my cell phone start ringing, but I figured it was probably one of my parents or friends calling to see if I had left yet.  So I ignored it and kept speed walking.  As I approached my gate I realized that they had shut the door to the gateway.  As I got even closer, I noticed my plane through the window and watched as the ramp pulled back from the airplane door.  I swear I felt like I was in a movie, the world went into slow motion for just a minute.

Sweaty and out of breath I walked up to the gate agent.  She looked at me and said “Oh I guess you’re the one we’ve been trying to page.  We called your cell phone.  Sorry, but it’s too late to get on this plane.”  I realized that missed phone call that I had ignored was the agent trying to see if I was on my way or not.  Now wishing I had answered it, but I was literally steps away from the gate when they called.

The agent was appreciative that I was staying calm about missing my direct flight to Los Angeles.  She said there was another woman, earlier in the day, who had missed her flight and started crying and was completely inconsolable.  She quickly rerouted me through Chicago, putting me in L.A. only about three hours later than originally scheduled.  Arriving later would normally not be that big of a deal for me, except this time the plane was schedule to land at 10:55pm and the last bus from the airport to Emily’s apartment left the airport at 11pm.

The flight from Chicago to Los Angeles was very full and they were forcing everyone to gate check their carry-on luggage.  So I knew I would have to wait around for my duffel to come off the carousel.   Now here is a testimony of God’s perfect timing.  The flight actually landed a few minutes early.  My large suitcases had gotten on my original flight and were waiting for me at the baggage claim.  Then my duffel came around the carousel fairly quickly.  I arranged my bags and quickly walked through the doors outside.  My suitcases twisted on themselves and fell in the middle of the road.   I was very tired and frustrated at this point, as it would have been about 2am EST.  A kind woman helped me pick them back up and get them across the street to the bus waiting area.  As I stepped onto the curb with all of my bags, the exact bus I needed, and last one of the night, literally pulled up right in front of me.

About thirty minutes later I arrived at Emily's apartment.  Several of her friends helped carry my suitcases, which was a big blessing.  I was already sore from packing and moving all during the week before and was tired of lugging them around.  We had a snack and then I climbed into bed.