Pre-Flight....

I was cleaning the bathroom and thinking of that song - "I packed my bags last night pre-flight, zero hour 9 a.m.", but then realized I was not a "rocket man" so it didn't apply. I still haven't packed and it's 3:12 p.m. day before the flight.

And what a day it has been.

I've been sort of useless all week due to a number of little physical idiosyncrasies I have that pop up at the most inopportune moments. I don't remember when all of them happened, but they pretty much knocked me out of commission for the week.

I had this nasty heartburn, acid reflux thing going on over the weekend and early on into the week. Added to that was a flare up of meniere's, my inner-ear condition which when it flares up causes me to have vertigo and then collapse on the floor vomiting - one night this week I woke up and caught it in time to take a pill (to stop the vertigo). I could feel the race between the effects of the anti-vertigo pill and the vertigo, which once it started would have had me barfing up the little I ate before I went to bed (might have been some popcorn).

Then the acid-reflux (which would have been really nasty while vomiting) morphed into hiccups, which I get periodically from when I was 17 or so. They last on average 2-3 days, and make life SUPER miserable. My chest hurts when I hiccup, I can't eat or sleep and they are totally exhausting. I read about a guy who has had them forever. The first few times, this happened to me, after trying every home remedy that anyone knew, I went to the emergency room. Of course while there, they stopped, but then started again after I left. No one has ever been able to help me, until a few years ago when they happened on a weekend. I called my doctor and got this on-call guy who prescribed these pills for me that actually get the hiccups to stop - and then they knock me out. I guess that is how they get the hiccups to stop. So when the hiccups started this time, I took a pill. The pills I have are about 6 years old. It seemed to take a while to take effect, and then only temporarily. So I had to take several of these pills. I slept a lot, and when I was not sleeping, I was very tired.

I know that all of these things were stress reactions, but I didn't feel stressed out. After today, I see that I should have been.

Today I woke up feeling much better. No hiccups, no acid reflux and no vertigo. Ah, a good day!

I spent a long time in front of my computer this morning, just wasting time. I read some articles, checked e-mail, and just took my good old time getting moving. When I finally did move, it was to Bed, Bath and Beyond, after first making a stop at the Credit Union to get the last bit of cash I'm taking with me (no more traveler's checks after two horrid experiences in Mexico). I was going to BBB because I needed another travel adapter for my electronics - computer, toothbrush, whatever else. But really, I was going to get a new trash can, because, one of the most important things to do before a 5 month trip is buy a new trash can!

I was going to go into the full story of the trash cans, but halfway through realized it was not interesting. So off I went to leave BBB and return home.... it wasn't as easy as I thought. Traffic was crazy, streets were blocked, and on top of that, people seemed to have forgotten how to drive.

I finally got home and started with some of the chores that did not involve packing yet.

I put some laundry in the washer, started cleaning the floors and moving things into one corner of the room that needed to get packed.

In the middle of all of this I checked my e-mail.

I looked at some great pictures from Marcia's wedding. OH MY GOD! Marcia looks so beautiful and Frank looks so handsome. That photographer was GOOD! I wonder what kind of filters or touch-ups he used to make them look so good! Seriously though, they are amazing. Even if you don't know Marcia, check them out here. You have to scroll down to find Marcia and Frankie - look for the hillbilly wedding :)

I went on to check the rest of my mail until I got to the e-mail from United. It was a nice e-mail telling me I could check-in online. I didn't know I could do that for this flight, but I've learned that if it is possible, it is definitely worth it, as airports seem to have turned into mental wards.

So I went through the steps, filling in the forms, passport info and all that stuff to go through the online check-in, only to hit confirm and get a message that the time period of my trip exceeds the limit and I had to call a United Representative.

I called and dealt with that annoying computerized guy who likes to say, "I'm sorry, I did not understand your request". I like to curse at him because he's annoying and you can curse at him and not get into a big fight like you would with a real person.

Anyway, eventually he connected me to a live human who took a while to understand what the problem was. The problem was that because Argentina provides a 3-month visa on arrival, and it looked like I would be there for 5 months, it looked like I would be overstaying my visa. But, I had already planned on making a trip to Uruguay (and possibly other trips to other countries) so that at some point during the 5 months, I would leave Argentina, and return, and get a new visa on arrival for another 3 months. Simple, right?

Well, the agent I spoke to got it but didn't know what to do and put me on hold several times where I had to listen to that annoying United song and other announcements. I was in the middle of sweeping the kitchen floor and put the phone on speaker. Finally after being put on hold a few times I asked to speak to a supervisor. The agent apologized for not being able to help me. She was very nice.

I got the supervisor whose name was Penny or Sandy or Sally or something like that. I started off apologizing for bothering her, knowing that this was a simple problem of a computer not being able to comprehend the subtle details of my travel plans. Surely Sandy would and the problem would be solved.

First Sally started off by telling me about the visa regulations for Brasil. Since I was not going to Brasil, I stopped her right there and explained the situation - thinking that would clear things up. Penny instead told me that the regulation was that I was to have either a visa document for the entire travel period or I was to have visas for the other countries I was going to visit. When I told her that it didn't make sense to arrange the trip to Uruguay from outside of Argentina, she did not budge. Instead we got to the point where my heart was racing, I was feeling the strong desire to curse, and Suzie told me that she would refund my miles and we could cancel the trip! Or, she also said I could go to the airport tomorrow and be turned away there. She was going to make a note on my file that we'd had this conversation.

I told her I had a hard time believing she was being so cold about the whole thing. I had made arrangements for a 5-month trip, gotten a sabbatical, etc., and was not prepared to cancel it the day before. I told her I would go online and purchase my ferry ticket to go to Uruguay and bring that tomorrow. She was saying something when I hung up on her.

So, after getting my internet started again, which these days is the equivalent of starting an old lawn mower - I've been having internet connection issues and called India twice without getting them resolved, so I have to turn my modem off and wait for it to restart and hope I have a connection and if that doesn't work, I have to do it again until it does - I went on an found Buquebus, the company that runs ferries from Buenos Aires to Uruguay. I had to register for their site (which totally annoyed me) and then tried to buy a ticket to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay in late October. I was not able to do that. I tried for earlier October. Still no luck. Visions of me at the airport with all of my luggage tomorrow unable to board the flight dashed through my head. I continued to try other options and eventually when I tried Colonia, the little touristy colonial town 3 hours from Buenos Aires, I lucked out.

I found the latest date I could, which turned out to be September 24 (I can always change it in Argentina), so that I would be able to return to Buenos Aires after October 1 and be able to ensure that my new visa would not expire before December 31 when I leave. I purchased my ticket, printed it out and called United back.

First I had to reboot my modem so that I could get the number.

I spoke to the annoying computerized voice, cursed at him when he didn't understand and eventually got an agent.

He was Indian.

I don't know if he was actually in India, but he was Indian. He was the third Indian person I spoke to today. I spoke to two Indian guys earlier when I called about my internet. I was annoyed earlier, probably because I was trying to do too many things and didn't like having to add calling India about my internet connection to the list of things I needed to do (of course I needed the internet so I could sit in front of the computer and waste time). I don't have anything against Indians, but I wonder why we sent all of these good jobs over there.

Sandy was from Chicago. She wasn't very nice though.

So this Indian guy listened while I rambled on about my issue with my ticket. When I told him I had a printed confirmation of my ferry from Argentina to Uruguay he said, "oh that sounds wonderful. I wish I could take that trip." So I asked him, "is this going to be ok?" and he said, "Oh sir, don't worry about a thing." I thanked him for helping to ensure that I would sleep tonight. He responded, "there is one thing you must remember - bring sunscreen and plenty of shorts".

I didn't bother to tell him it would be winter there.