Worst Memorial Day Ever

I will start this odyssey with the preface that a flight I was on was 9 hours late and I was constantly teased throughout the trip which resulted in the worst Memorial Day of my life.

I awoke early Memorial Day to catch an early flight back to Chicago. The day was looking to be quite enjoyable, get home in time for lunch, a relaxing afternoon off of work, barbeque for dinner and perhaps renting a movie to retire a relaxing evening of fun. But little did I know that this vision of the future was impossible. Leaving at 7 am, we were an hour and a half early to catch our 9:18 flight. We even boarded on time and sat right through the 9:18 take off time with the notice that an engineer was working on our plane's radio. After nearly an hour of sitting on a plane, we were informed that the plane was offically broken and we were to deboard the aircraft. Our first notice was that the part to fix the radio would not arrive until later and then we would have a 2:15 departure. This I found not too difficult to bear. Then they even announced that there was a chance that the part would be able to be sent through another airport and we would be able to depart at about 12:30. This was great news, until 12:30 came and went with not a word from any airline employee. We did recieve a $7 meal voucher after we had ordered our lunch and then were refused a refund for the voucher. While waiting we saw two flight depart for Chicago without incident. 12:30 came and went with no notice about the status of the plane. So finally we got back on the plane at quarter to two and prepared for takeoff. The plane soared into the air as all the passanger inside foolished dreamed of an enjoyable afternoon. First we had to deal with stupid loud drunk idiots in the back of the plane making the same jokes and laughing and swearing. I had two people tell be that I should 'take care of' one of the jerks, one request from the elderly woman sitting behind me and a second from one of his buddies. Two hours later we were approaching our destination and recieved notice of this over the intercom, "The weather looks good in Chicago and we should be touching down in about 30 minutes." Only four and a half hours late...fantastic. About ten minutes later the pilot came on again, "No flights are landing in Chicago due to the weather and we do not have enough fuel to circle until the weather clears so we are going to Grand Rapids, Michigan to refuel and wait until the weather clears. No one on the plane could believe it. We were waiting for the announcement that they were just joking and we were going to touch down shortly, but no announcement ever was delievered. So we did actually land in Grand Rapids and were told that we would taxi for about 20 minutes. At this point I seriously considered renting a car and driving the rest of the way home. We were only 3 hours away by car and the way the trip was going that would probably be faster than waiting for the plane, ultimately it would have been. If it wasn't for the checked bag in the cargo hold of the plane, I am fairly sure that I would have rented a car. We were just ready to get off the plane at nearly any cost. But we were forced to bear the rest of the plane trip. The 20 minutes came and went when we were told that it'd be another 20 minutes. All the while the airline managed to cram the plane full of people, including a baby that from the sound of it was getting stabbed with a hot poker over and over again. As the baby cried, the idiots yelled, the cool air flow ceased, and my blood pressure rised, we were told that we were going to the runway and we were first in line and cleared for takeoff. Cynicism began to infest me as I had little faith in anything I was told. Both my girlfriend and I were about ready to call it a day and try again tomorrow. But after sitting on the runway in a scorchingly hot plane with loud baby and other people who were not much smarter, we actually began to move. We were in the air and headed back. The rest of the trip proceeded without incident other than the annoyance of everything that I had accepted as my life. So finally our flight that was suppose to arrive at 10:48 am got in at 7:41 pm. The adventure was finaly over and the work week was only a few hours away. It's a shame...I usually cherish my days off.