Why United Airlines sucks and why I am an idiot...oh and Dell computers sucks too.

Okay, so I'm home now. Or rather I'm in Danville VA, which has been a second home most of my life. It took me a little longer to get here than I anticipated, however.

I left for the airport in Moscow at about 11:15am, when Volodya, the guy who takes me to the airport came early because of a traffic jam on the way to Sheremetevo 2. I was all packed, but did not have a chance to scan the apartment to see if I forgot anything. (this will become important later).

Go to airport, traffic not so bad, but bad enough. Check in pretty fast, although customs wanted to see the snow shoes, so I had to unpack one bag. Passport control, fine. Flight to Frankfurt, fine. Transfer in Frankfurt, really quick (had enough time only to pee and to realize I was NOT going to pay 10 Euros for a New Yorker magazine), but fine. Flight to Washington, acceptable. Not too long (tailwind!), but it was a United flight, not Lufthansa and the food wasn't that great and the booze wasn't free (hello!?! International flight here!), but had good movies, including Lemony Snicket. Passport control and customs in Washington, fine. Check in at United counter for flight to Greensboro. NOT FINE.

E-ticket self-check in screen says that I am booked on a 9:15 am flight the next day because my evening flight was cancelled. WTF? So I ask the lady, she says, yes, the flight was cancelled. I ask why, she says for technical reasons. I ask where I am supposed to sleep (because there is no way on God's green earth that I am sleeping in the airport. I've done that before coming back from Russia - not fun). She says I will be issued a hotel voucher if I will kindly wait over on the side. I wait. A man comes to help me. He calls to ask what hotel the voucher will be issued for. Oh, turns out the flight was cancelled because of an "act of God" instead of mechanical issues (it sounded like a lightening strike). Well, United doesn't issue vouchers for acts of god, so I"m on my own. In the meantime, while I was waiting, I missed the last flight out to Greensboro that night, on Independence Air, on which they could have put me. Oh yeah, United, big bonus points from me last night. At least they let me use their phone because I had to call Becky and tell her not to drive the hour to the airport, I"m not coming yet, and to call someone in DC to put me up for the night. Dear, darling Heather and Ben came to my rescue, even though their in the middle of a move. Bless them. They're getting a BIG wedding present from me. :-)

While I"m waiting for them to get to Dulles, I'm thinking about my laptop computer when I realize that I left my AC Adapter (as in the the thing that lets my laptop run for than 3 hours) in MOSCOW. At least this is my suspicion standing in the night mist. "Fuck" is the only word that I can think of at the time. (My apologies to the more literary and polite readers out there). A later unpacking of my bag will confirm my worst fears.

I eventually make it to Greensboro, am greeted by my aunt and uncle, and after a detour to my cousin's June wedding venue, I'm in Danville, rifling through all my boxes, looking for summer clothes. And I can't find my box of shoes anywhere.

Later I call Dell, because I need to find a solution to this power supply problem. I wait on hold for about 10 minutes. Finally someone answers. Someone in CHINA. I have no problem with China, or the fact that some support networks have been outsourced overseas. Fine. But I have a problem with the fact that her English wasn't good enough for me to understand what I was saying, and that since she isn't IN America, all she could do was read me the technical specs about my AC adapter off the computer screen, but couldn't actually help me with my problem (i.e. can I use an adapter from a different laptop? Where can I buy an adapater, etc.).

United sucks, I am an idiot, and Dell sucks too. I'm tired.