“Excuse me, your dog is sleeping on my carry on bag.” She said with a smile on her face. We both turned to random, blonde, LA woman like the little girl from The Exorcist and she shut the hell up.

We had been in the airport for 11 hours. We had slept at LAX on a cold, marble floor. Our bodies hurt. Our eyes red and felt as if they were going to explode from exhaustion. Our hair was greasy and stuck up in every direction, we looked awful, disheveled and smelly. We had missed 3 flights in a row due to cancellations, and now being stuck in the airport was cutting into our vacation time. Not cool.

We had our dog, Piper, with us which added an additional layer of stress. It is one thing worrying about ourselves, but now Piper’s Benadryl was wearing off and she was running amuck. Piper is an 8 pound, brown and blonde haired, scrappy asshole of a dog. I love her. She gets into everything, likes to eat trash and make bed-nest out of whatever is around that you don’t want her making a bed-nest out of…such as other people carry on bags, jackets and neck pillows. She collects them, takes them under whatever piece of furniture she can find and makes a nest. In our current situation, she found a bench in our terminal and was happily making her bed. We didn’t care, we were too tired.

The next flight was boarding and we were waiting to see if we could make it on. Piper, who was now licking some little kids face and barking at things, had to be put back into her travel carry bag just in case we made it on the flight. This is always a scene because she fights like hell against Jamie and I as one of us holds open the bag and one tries to shove her in. “Oh, she’s fine, this is completely normal!” Jamie yells to disturbed onlookers over Piper’s screaming barks, and waves them off with a smile. “Going to Philadelphia? I like your shirt!” Jamie adds for good will.

“Okay, if only one of us gets on you go first and just take all this shit with you.”We discussed as I point to all our bags. “That way everything will just be in Philly when I get there and I will only have to worry about walking on a plane, you will have tons of help at the airport when you land.” Both of our families were anxiously waiting for us on the other side of the US in Philadelphia for our arrival. She would have plenty of help to carry all the bags and Piper.

The plane boarded and was about to take off. We did not get on. This was the fourth flight in a row that we were not able to get on. The gate door to the plane was closing, solidify the defeating feeling in my gut that we were still stuck in LAX. Just as it was about to shut the gate agent busted through the door. “We have ONE SEAT AVAILABLE, which of you wants to go! Now!” We had our plan and I helped Jamie gather our things and got her on the plane. I watched it take off. Scared for her, but a little relieved that one of us was going home. Now it is time to get my ass on a plane.

The adventure in LAX continues…

-YourFriendMatt