I stood in the CHECK IN line, not even the usually problematic security line, for nearly an hour and missed my flight "due to the incompetence of Spirit airlines employees," as my significant other has now told four different customer service employees via phone. "I've been in customer service for fifteen years and if I treated people the way she was treated I wouldn't have a job!" Despite his very valiant efforts, we've been given the telephone runaround, from India to Detroit and back, and it seems to be a lost cause. Another woman my age (who I noticed and remember by the bad bridesmaid dress she was carrying around) waited for an hour and a half in two different check-in lines and also missed the same flight.
So here I sit in my Toledo living room feeling a million emotions, all of which are heightened by tiredness.
I feel pretty stupid because my beau and I have to shoulder much of the responsibility for both believing the standard time frames were to get to the airport an hour before domestic flights and two hours before international flights. After all, I was at my gate in only twenty minutes at LAX when I flew home last week. When the unhelpful Spirit Airline employee snapped that I should have been there two to three hours early, I ironically quipped, "THREE HOURS for a domestic flight?! There's no way your website says that!" Actually... it does. Damn it.
I am obviously tired and frustrated. I've been awake since 4 a.m. and we just lost half of what we originally spent and will now have to spend more to get me back to LA. I wish I could have found a better way to handle the situation; I've taken Dale Carnegie courses! But no amount of niceness, persuasion or bitchiness helped. Both the attendant and her supervisor were utterly unhelpful and and borderline rude; they barely spoke loud enough, they did not make eye contact and had horrible grammar. "She ain't gonna make it."
Part of the problem is that all passengers had to check in on a touch screen monitor; like "you scan" at the grocery, one employee watches two or three monitors. I argue that human-to-human service is faster because most passengers took a while acclimating themselves with the machine. The other woman who missed the flight had already checked in online, but still had to wait with everyone else to print her boarding pass and check luggage.
I had to get back for my free Universal Studios acting class tonight and I am scheduled to work tomorrow... But, "what's done is done," as my dad would say, so I'm not really dwelling on what I'm missing; I'm too occupied dwelling on bigger issues.
I'm happy I get to stay longer. That's to be expected and there's nothing wrong with it, I worry though, that the longer I stay the harder and harder it will become to go back to LA. I frequently told people this week that everything about LA is indescribably difficult and that I've have ups and downs; they'd get that look on their faces and I'd quickly continue, saying it's not like I'm giving up and moving back. I'm there to stay, it's just hard. To make going back to the land of difficulty easier, I had hoped our house would just be a house, that I'd be terribly bored and wonder how I ever tolerated living in Ohio... Our house, however, is still a beautiful home full of memories, I was not bored and although it's more difficult to the stomach tacky people, hickish homesteads and small minded thinking, the places and people I prefer are still familiar and relaxing.
I am so stuck in my head right now, thinking, I should be itching to get back to LA, to my acting classes and auditions, but right now I am so tired and frustrated I just don't care. I can hear my acting teacher annoyingly saying, "your career is a ship and you are the captain, I am here to help guide you as much as you allow me to... did you bring my check?" After we drove an hour back home this morning we checked options online; we could have immediately rushed back to DTW to *hopefully* catch a flight landing in LA at 3 p.m., but there was no way I was being peeled off the couch or dragged back into that fucking airport.
Other than one lousy shift, I don't have anything on my schedule this week; I'm sure if I go back, nothing will come my way, but if I stay here a few more days all sorts of opportunities will pass me by. I hate this! I hate how geographically far away my career is. I hate how last-minute and inconsiderate the entertainment industry is to the rest of your life. Most of all, I hate my attitude right now! As happy as I am to be here a little longer, I don't want to go through the tears and torment of saying goodbye again... Everything this morning has highlighted how badly I want a magic solution to a situation that doesn't have one!
I need to get some sleep...
So here I sit in my Toledo living room feeling a million emotions, all of which are heightened by tiredness.
I feel pretty stupid because my beau and I have to shoulder much of the responsibility for both believing the standard time frames were to get to the airport an hour before domestic flights and two hours before international flights. After all, I was at my gate in only twenty minutes at LAX when I flew home last week. When the unhelpful Spirit Airline employee snapped that I should have been there two to three hours early, I ironically quipped, "THREE HOURS for a domestic flight?! There's no way your website says that!" Actually... it does. Damn it.
I am obviously tired and frustrated. I've been awake since 4 a.m. and we just lost half of what we originally spent and will now have to spend more to get me back to LA. I wish I could have found a better way to handle the situation; I've taken Dale Carnegie courses! But no amount of niceness, persuasion or bitchiness helped. Both the attendant and her supervisor were utterly unhelpful and and borderline rude; they barely spoke loud enough, they did not make eye contact and had horrible grammar. "She ain't gonna make it."
Part of the problem is that all passengers had to check in on a touch screen monitor; like "you scan" at the grocery, one employee watches two or three monitors. I argue that human-to-human service is faster because most passengers took a while acclimating themselves with the machine. The other woman who missed the flight had already checked in online, but still had to wait with everyone else to print her boarding pass and check luggage.
I had to get back for my free Universal Studios acting class tonight and I am scheduled to work tomorrow... But, "what's done is done," as my dad would say, so I'm not really dwelling on what I'm missing; I'm too occupied dwelling on bigger issues.
I'm happy I get to stay longer. That's to be expected and there's nothing wrong with it, I worry though, that the longer I stay the harder and harder it will become to go back to LA. I frequently told people this week that everything about LA is indescribably difficult and that I've have ups and downs; they'd get that look on their faces and I'd quickly continue, saying it's not like I'm giving up and moving back. I'm there to stay, it's just hard. To make going back to the land of difficulty easier, I had hoped our house would just be a house, that I'd be terribly bored and wonder how I ever tolerated living in Ohio... Our house, however, is still a beautiful home full of memories, I was not bored and although it's more difficult to the stomach tacky people, hickish homesteads and small minded thinking, the places and people I prefer are still familiar and relaxing.
I am so stuck in my head right now, thinking, I should be itching to get back to LA, to my acting classes and auditions, but right now I am so tired and frustrated I just don't care. I can hear my acting teacher annoyingly saying, "your career is a ship and you are the captain, I am here to help guide you as much as you allow me to... did you bring my check?" After we drove an hour back home this morning we checked options online; we could have immediately rushed back to DTW to *hopefully* catch a flight landing in LA at 3 p.m., but there was no way I was being peeled off the couch or dragged back into that fucking airport.
Other than one lousy shift, I don't have anything on my schedule this week; I'm sure if I go back, nothing will come my way, but if I stay here a few more days all sorts of opportunities will pass me by. I hate this! I hate how geographically far away my career is. I hate how last-minute and inconsiderate the entertainment industry is to the rest of your life. Most of all, I hate my attitude right now! As happy as I am to be here a little longer, I don't want to go through the tears and torment of saying goodbye again... Everything this morning has highlighted how badly I want a magic solution to a situation that doesn't have one!
I need to get some sleep...
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