Mur·phy's Law [mərfēz] noun: A
supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popular sayings,
to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
After spending the first half of the week going to doctors appointments, running errands, sending emails to potential wedding venues, doing a million loads of laundry, and cleaning the apartment (I could hardly recognize myself- I felt like such a homemaker), K and I found ourselves preparing for our trip to Seattle. This trip was officially for the annual IADR (International and American Association for Dental Research) meeting so that I could present the research I'd done last summer, but we decided to stay for an extra 3 days and make it a legit vacation.
Unfortunately, K had midterms Wednesday evening, so even though my poster presentation was schedule for Thursday afternoon, we chose to travel at an ungodly hour so that we could arrive in Seattle, even with a lay-over, by noon the day of. So, at 4:45AM on Thursday morning, the alarm went off, and by 5AM we were en route to the airport for our 7:15AM flight.
K managed to read an entire book during our attempt to get to Seattle
We touched down in San Francisco at 9:10AM (our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 10:05, which gave us 20 minutes until boarding). Then, due to a backup on the runway, we sat for awhile before being allowed to taxi to the gate. Naturally, K and I were sitting in the back of the airplane, so it took us even more time to actually disembark. Come 9:25AM, we were briskly walking to the tram in the San Francisco airport while K pulled up the American Airlines website so we could figure out which gate our connecting flight would leave from. At 9:45AM we found ourselves at the end of a long security line. After jogging to the farthest gate in the International Terminal we arrived at the gate with 10 other people from our flight from Dallas and we were all promptly denied entry onto the plane. Face-palm. Eventually K and I were put on the next flight to Seattle, which wasn't until 1PM. The 2 hours it would take from San Francisco meant we would arrive in Seattle at 3PM... for my 3:30PM poster presentation, we were cutting it a little close. Cue Murphy's Law Part Two. At noon the plane we were supposed to get on arrived at our gate WITH A CRACKED WINDSHIELD (apparently due to a bird strike). Face-palm. We were delayed for 3 more hours...
After 12 hours worth of travel, K and I finally arrived in a rainy, dreary Seattle. Sadly, I was unable to present my research poster; I felt SO bad for the two girls I was supposed to present with, who not only paid the expense to fly out for the meeting, but were stuck there without anything to present (I was not supposed to have the poster since I was arriving the day of the meeting, but I suppose it was a little Murphy's Law prequel that it didn't finish getting printed until Wednesday evening).
The rest of our trip was amazing. No complaints. The next 3 days were sunny, we had a gorgeous view of the Space Needle from our hotel window, we walked along the Waterfront and the Underground Tour, we stuffed ourselves on such things as salami, smoked salmon, gelato, crumpets, award-winning clam chowder, and truffle oils on a FANTASTIC food tour at the infamous Pikes Market Place (for anyone who loves to eat and is planning to make the journey to Seattle, check out http://seattlefoodtours.com/tours/pike-place-market), and I got to catch up with an old friend who is currently going to school at the University of Washington. Not too shabby for my first visit to the Pacific Northwest!
