november 2009 continued - lost...and not found.

keep in mind this entry is still an extension of what i like to call the "month of madness," starting with that last minute, unexpected trip to mikwaukee (see previous posts). that being said...i'm still in charleston at this point. we have an 8hr drive ahead of us on sunday...karen and i have to be back at work on monday morning. well, i stayed up late...which i shouldn't have bc i was sick and slept through the entire day on sunday. i left the hotel late saturday night to go stay and my very good friend will's house but failed to let ray and karen know i was leaving or where to find me when they were ready to leave to go back to tn. well, needless to say they still could not get in touch with me bc i was DEAD asleep...it was after 6pm and they HAD to leave...100% my fault. i woke up around 7...not voluntarily...matt was shaking me, trying to wake me up...said that he had fallen asleep watching football and that he had tons of missed calls from ray and karen and voicemails that they were looking for me. anyway, that had already left...about an hour before i got back in touch with them so...i immediately called into work and left a message that i wouldn't be there the next morning...next step...to figure out how i was going to get home. if you read my earlier charleston post i mentioned that flights were VERY expenive in and out of charleston...and that's in advance. this was going to be last minute and i knew it would be $600+...and that wasn't happening. LUCKILY i have a very good friend who works for delta so i called her to see if she could get me a buddy pass. buddy passes don't guarantee you on the flight you want...you are flying stand-by, which means you only get on the flight if there are any open seats available. there are no direct flights from charleston>nashville...you have to go through atlanta airport (which is horrible) so really, you have to make sure that you can get on 2 flights stand-by...not just the one. however, i did have options...dyon was driving to the atl airport the next morning and matt was going back to savannah so not only did i have the charleston airport to chose from...i had those two too. keely checked all the flights out of the three airport choices i gave her and she said that going to savannah would probably be my best bet...meaning there were more seats on those flights than any other. so, i get my stuff together and i head to savannah with matt. we stopped at a gas station on the way and i went in to get gatorade and gummy bears. i went to pay for them and guess what??? NO WALLET!!! i searched frantically all through my purse...dumped everything out, searched through my bag...dumped all the contents in the parking lot...threw some what of a fit you could say. it was no where. how was i going to fly home with no license? matt and andy somehow calmed me down...there was nothing we could do about it that late at night so we just continued on to savannah and crashed as soon as we got back to matt's place. he woke me up when he left for work the next morning. i called keely (friend with buddy pass) and told her my situation. she told me to call the savannah airport to see what their policy was on this and what i needed to do. i did that and they told me that was fine...no license...that i could just use my birth certificate...like i had that in my back pocket. i called my mom...didn't have it. called my dad...he didn't have it. finally, my dad went to the health department, had a new one made, and mailed it to me. by the time all this went down it was thursday...i had to take the whole week off work (yikes). since it was already thursday by the time i got my birth certificate i just decided to stay through the weekend. i always enjoy visiting savannah..and the company wasn't too bad either. well, sunday rolls around and guess what? no seats available for me to get on the flight. REALLY?? i got on the first flight out monday morning and FINALLY made it home monday afternoon. i did not step foot in my own home from november 20th until december 7th. i was only even in town those few hours on thanksgiving day. that is why it was the "month of madness!"