Did you know you could fly

So, I'm back from Maryland. It was a great trip. The folks and I got along fine. My dad even took me to the Library of Congress one day, which was his idea, not mine, and thus proves that he both knows me better than I thought and can be incredibly thoughtful. I'd never been, so it was an incredible experience. We took the tour, and got our readers cards so we could actually go in the reading rooms. I even requested the 1724 edition of Captain Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates from the rare book room and got to actually touch it and see the original engravings and everything. It was a book-geek's dream.

My brother and I ended up giving each other the same thing for Christmas -- a 'gift certificate' for lunch and a movie. So we had two days of lunch and a movie together, which was very nice. He and I get along great now, and I wish I could see him more often.

And I got to see danorsong, who I hadn't seen in years!

I'll have to do a separate post later detailing some of the cool stuff I got for $WINTERHOLIDAY.

So my flight out of Baton Rouge yesterday was delayed by 2 hours due to heavy fog. This meant that I missed my connection in Memphis. So I got directed to the long line of other people who had missed connections to try and get rebooked. I finally got up to the counter and gave the lady my information and she said 'oh, looks like we've already automatically rebooked you on a Delta flight to Atlanta. From there you can get another Delta flight to Baltimore. But the flight to Atlanta leaves . . . now. Run!"

So, unable to really run, I walked fast and furious to the Delta flight, where I had to wait in another line for them to print out a boarding pass for me (but at least I got on the flight). Then I had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta before finally heading to Baltimore, with the end result being that I got to Baltimore 5 hours after I was originally scheduled to.

Then, of course, my baggage didn't show up, apparently having not made the transfer to Delta along with me. They said they would most likely have it delivered to my parent's house before midnight, so we left and got some dinner and then I went home and crashed.

Woke up this morning and sure enough, they hadn't delivered my luggage. So I called the number, and it turns out they had rerouted my baggage to a Northwest flight to Detroit, and from Detroit it was supposed to arrive at Baltimore around 7pm last night. Then Northwest was supposed to contact Delta and give it to them, since they're the ones I had my claim through. According to the Delta guy, either it's still sitting in the Northwest office in Baltimore, or it never left Detroit. He's not sure which, but he promised to call back within two hours (well, one hour now) with an update. If I don't hear back from him by 11am, I'm supposed to call him back.

Oh, and since I was an idiot and packed some of my medications in my bags instead of in my purse, I had to stop by Walgreen's last night and buy a dose of two of my medications to last me the night. Two pills. $5 each. What a ripoff! I was tempted to say hell with it, but the withdrawal from those particular medications starts at about 15 hours without it and really isn't fun, so I didn't really have much of a choice.

But at least I am here safe and sound and slept in a bed last night. There were others on my flight out of Baton Rouge who weren't going to be able to say the same.

Ok, so for some reason my grandparents have decided to buy me a GPS unit for my car. I have previously indicated that I wanted one but couldn't afford it, but that was awhile ago, so I don't know what inspired this generosity but I'm not going to question it. Apparently after looking at the options they decided that the best course of action would be to let me decide what model I wanted and just have them send me a check to cover it.

So . . . Anyone have any experience with these? What should I look for/make sure to avoid? Any specific recommendations?