A measly 3 minutes

I left on Saturday with two hours and 15 minutes before my plane left. Or at least I thought it was 2h 15 min. It was actually only 2h and 5 min. While I was in France they changed my flight time to be ten minutes earlier. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Apparently it was. So, running ten minutes behind I got on the A train towards Howard Beach station. Oh, did I mention that the A train is an express train? Except for on weekends. And when you really need it. So it stopped at. every. single. stop.

So I'm running a little late (but I've still got an hour and 15 minutes or so) when I get on the Airtrain, which isn't super slow, but slow enough for me to want it to go faster. I get off the Airtrain with just over an hour, and walk my way to the Delta terminal. When I got there a nice man told me to go to the self check-in before I got in line. No big deal. Everything is going well and then I push the button that says I need to check my baggage and a screen comes up telling me that it's too late for me to check my baggage and to talk to an attendant. This was about 8:53.

So I talk to an attendant and he says "Oh yes. Oh yes, you are too late. You're going to have to talk to one of these ladies at the counter to get on the next flight."

I'm sorry. What?

Apparently, Delta makes you check your bags in at least an hour before your flight. So even though my flight left at 9:50, I had to wait another seven hours for the next flight to Salt Lake. But at least it was just seven hours and not thirteen, like the woman I talked to had to wait (but that was because she got to the airport a day early). Oh, and that big group (50 people) of youth from San Diego who had spent the past week volunteering in Haiti, who missed their flight and had to wait until the next day to be re-routed. I actually talked to one of the guys in charge and he told me that they were a church group who had gone down to do repainting and repair stuff. He kept saying, "the Lord's hand is in everything" and all I could think was, "Yes, I totally agree. I just don't know how me coming late three minutes was so important." I don't know if I really needed to miss my plane or not, but after that conversation I've been thinking more seriously about doing my field study in Haiti. I had thought about it before, but now I'm thinking that if I can combine it with an internship, I will. We'll see.

I'll keep you posted.