Recipe for Disaster

6:10 Leave house, plenty of time to get to airport, find dinner and get to gate for my 7:45 flight.
6:22 Traffic is completely stopped on the highway, calling Phil frantically so he can look up traffic report. I am never going to make it on time. Evaluate other route possibilities- I still won't make it on time.
6:40 We get past the stalled truck, traffic starts to move. I can make it, barely.
7:00 Arrive to airport- garages are supposedly all full. I will do valet if it means I can make this flight.
7:02 Valet is full. I have a heart attack.
7:05 Circle back around and decide to gamble on the garage. After all, it's Wednesday night and a lot of people come back after short trips on Wednesday night. Blow right past all of the signs that warn me "GARAGE IS FULL."
7:08 Score excellent spot by doors to terminal. Run through security, run to gate (looking longingly at dinner options, bathroom, water fountain).
7:15 Arrive at gate. We will be boarding in five minutes.
7:20 We troop out to the plane in pouring rain/snow mix.
7:22 Text Phil to say "Phew! I made it!!!"
8:00 Text Phil to say "We are sitting on the tarmac and it is snowing HARD!"
9:00 Another text: "We are still in Denver." Luckily I am enjoying my book.
9:30 Another text: "Still here. Waiting to be de-iced. They said it could be an hour." However I am enjoying the chocolate chip cookies that they have provided. These may be the best non-homemade cookies I have ever had.
10:30 Still on tarmac. They decide they are going to take us back to the terminal for now but we will be able to leave in two hours.
10:45 I tiptoe through 2" of slush in ballet flats with no socks, slog through the terminal to the only open eating establishment- McDonald's.
11:00 Wander back to the gate, looking for a free outlet. Find one and realize that my power cord was shoved into my gate-checked luggage. Resign myself to one hour of battery life and french fries. At least I have a good book.
11:01 See the flight attendants from my flight walking by with their luggage. My reaction: ??? and also !!! They inform me the flight has been cancelled.
11:05 Back to gate. One frazzled woman is trying to manage two or three messed up flights and a ton of angry passengers. She keeps talking to the passengers that are pressed up against the desk, breathing down her neck but for some reason is not making any PA announcements about what the hell is going on with our cancelled flight for those of us who are trying to be calm and patient.
11:15 We are all booked on a flight tomorrow morning but they won't tell us when. They threaten us with "If you want your luggage back it's going to take a LONG TIME. Otherwise we will just keep it until tomorrow morning." I finally make it to the desk and find that the flight is booked for 8:13 which means I will miss my meeting. I chose to take a credit and am told I will have to go to the service desk upstairs. "You mean the one that's mobbed?" I ask. Yes, that one.
11:25 I stand in line for about three minutes and then realize I could be here all night. I call Frontier Customer Service and am informed that the hold time is 26 minutes. I decide I would rather fight with them on the phone tomorrow about this mess. I head towards baggage claim and thank G-d that I am not trying to entertain a young child in this situation as many parents are. Bless them, I feel so bad for them. I see a mom snap at her daughter and a nosy, well-meaning hippy try to step in saying snottily "Is everything all right here? Can I help you with something?" and I think "You stupid hippy, you just humiliated that mom and now she is going to be even more crabby with her kid. Nice work."
11:30 I stop at the desk in the terminal where there is no line to see if they can help me with a credit. They are clearly tired and want to go home. Everybody is complaining and I can't believe the crap that people say to each other. The guy behind me keeps saying that a five million dollar deal is on the line TOMORROW MORNING and he is going to lose it if he is not there. The woman next to me says that Frontier has RUINED her evening, as well as the evening of her mother, son and daughter-in-law. She finds it unreal that they will not pay for a hotel for her 82 year old mother. (The irony of this situation: she is flying to Colorado Springs, about 60 miles away. Her son reportedly started to drive up and was 30 minutes away when she was told that the flight was going to go but then it got cancelled again. I'm thinking why did you tell him to turn around???) They tell me that they will credit the flight but I will be charged a change fee. Whatever. They also tell me that my bag could take up to an hour to get upstairs. She writes the time on the ticket: 11:56 and tells me to come back if my bags don't show up in 30 minutes.
12:16 I feel like I have just won the jackpot- my bag shows up.
12:20 In the car, headed home. Yay!
12:25 Car in front of me at the garage exit seems to be having an issue.
12:27 Still more issues. The person behind me refuses to move, even though I have my back up lights on.
12:30 WE ARE NOT MOVING and all of the other lanes are flying through the garage exit.
12:35 I have a heart attack at the car behind me and start to back up anyway.
12:40 She finally takes the hint (FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) and I switch lanes, pay and am on my way home.
12:50 Really tired and having problems seeing the road due to this rain/snow mix. Nearly sideswipe the median.
1:10 Home at last. Scare the shit out of my husband. Mission accomplished (not really).