The King of Commercial Travel

Happy holidays everybody! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, and most importantly, Happy Fetivus. …for the rest of us…

I’m blogging from Fort Lauderdale (at “home” with Mom), where I’ll be until next weekend. I gotta say I wasn’t too excited about being home for 10 days, but it has been a rough year for mom, so I wanted to stay for a while. And if I’m going to be here for 10 days, would mom really mind if I got to Florida half a day late? Naah… Why in the world would I do that? To hang out with Ali. How would I do that? ‘Cause I’m Mark Phillip: The King of Commercial Travel. Seriously people. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Ali’s parents are retired and spend most of their time putting around on their catamaran. I got to spend a couple days on the boat off the coast of Florida this past summer and it was gorgeous. Moments of “learning” how to swim on a tiny island, seeing dolphins swimming just feet from the boat, hanging off the bow trying to keep cell phone reception as I dialed into a conference call…. gorgeous. Anyways, now they’re in the Bahamas and Ali was planning to fly from Seattle to the Bahamas (via Houston and Fort Lauderdale) on Thursday. My flight was the day before on Wednesday, so the plan was we would meet on Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and we could hang out for a few hours during her layover.

Seeing an opportunity for a surprise meeting at the airport and thus, the holy grail, I made a couple calls. How much to change my flight to the next day so I could get on Ali’s flight from Houston to Fort Lauderdale? $600. Hm. What happens if I “miss my flight” 3 times? Can I just standby on tomorrow morning’s flight? No, you have to show up within two hours of your flight or you lose your ticket. Hm. <cough, cough> Hm. I think I might be coming down with something. <sniffle, sniffle>

After showing up early enough to keep my ticket, but just late enough to miss two flights, I tried to convince the woman at the ticket counter that I was too sick to get on the plane. No go. She gave me my boarding pass and told me to get on the plane. Grr. Spent 30 minutes going through security (I had…<ahem>…some extra items in my carry-on), and went to the gate. My last chance. Zipped up my fleece, jogged around a little bit to work up a sweat, and put my game sick face on. In an acting job that would make even Kobe jealous (and yes, he’s guilty), I convinced the guy behind the counter that he didn’t want me to get on the flight. He booked me on the following morning’s flight, I gave him a sickly smile and headed home. Got my flight pushed back 3 times for free. Dope.

I don’t think I’ve met or have been met by anyone more than Ali, so it was pretty cool surprising her in Houston. We’re working hard on being friends right now, so it was great to spend a few extra hours with her.

2 days down. 7 to go.