Wednesday March 27, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 12:30 AM to go pee and laid awake until 2:30 AM. At 3:30 AM I got up to get ready to go to the airport. I went to check my bank account balance on my phone and my phone couldn’t read my thumbprint. My thumbs and fingers were all scratched up from all the hard labor I had done yesterday fixing the fence. Since I had enabled “stolen device protection” on my phone I wasn’t able to access any of my passwords. Even putting in my passcode wouldn’t work, it would just send me back to needing a thumbprint. I wasn’t sure how I would pay the Uber driver when they took us to the airport if I could not access my money through my phone. I was tired and frustrated thinking, “why did I enable ‘stolen device protection’?” Arggg! Angel woke up and immediately started talking and going full speed. Oh my! This was going to be a long day! I prayed for patience as packed up our stuff and folded up the blankets and sleeping mats. I took our bags downstairs and went to get my phone to see if I could resolve the thumbprint issue and turn off the “stolen device protection” setting. I couldn’t find my phone. Oh no! I looked upstairs, I looked in the bathroom, I took everything out of our luggage and put it back. I prayed to find my phone and suddenly felt it in my hoodie pocket. I had forgotten I’d put it in there. This day was not starting out well.
While waiting for our Uber, I text chatted with apple support about my thumbprint issue. The driver showed up and I wasn’t sure how paying him would go but I knew would find out. Angel talked non stop the whole way to the airport and I continued to text chat with apple support. At the airport, I saw that the app had automatically paid the Uber driver. Perfect! We got checked in with no problems and I resumed chatting with apple support. I finally got my thumbprint to work by taking the phone out of the case and had to wait an hour before “security device protection” would turn off automatically. Great! I was fine with that and I was not ever going to turn “security device protection” on again. Sheesh. Needing my thumbprint or passcode was secure enough.
Everything went smoothly going through airport security and we arrived just in time to get on our flight. I fell asleep on the flight before it even left the ground and I slept the entire flight to Denver, which was only an hour long. At Denver airport we had a four hour layover. I had thought about going out of the airport to let Little Bit use the bathroom but I changed my mind and decided he would have to use the doggie bathroom or nothing. Of course he didn’t use it because he knows not to go inside. I hadn’t fed him since yesterday and he only got a small amount of water so he wouldn’t have to pee very much. I wanted to avoid any diarrhea episodes on the plane. I think he’s been getting diarrhea from eating the other dogs food as my son’s house, so I also made sure he didn’t eat any of that.
Angel and I went upstairs in the lounge area I had found last week when we were at the Denver airport. We reclined in the zero gravity chairs and I talked to Christopher on the phone for a while. Then I was going to take a nap but I wrote my blog instead. The time went by fast and an hour before it was time to get on our flight we got some food. I got a salad to eat along with some OJ. We walked to our gate and ate, Angel sat and played with some kids sitting near us.
It seemed like a lot of time had passed, so I checked the time on my phone and saw that the plane was about to leave. Why weren’t we loading onto the plane? I jumped up and saw that the gate we were at said Knoxville. I ran up to the front counter and asked a lady working there what was going on. She looked up my flight and said its gate had changed and the plane had left early. It had departed 5 minutes ago. Oh no! I asked her what I needed to do and she sent me down the terminal to the customer service desk. I gathered up Angel and our bags and hurried to the customer service desk. My stomach was in knots.
When we arrived at customer service, there was a long line and only one agent was working. A lot of people had missed their flights because of delays and the line was moving very slowly. We stood in line an hour and a half before it was my turn. I told the agent I had missed my flight to Austin. She said I could fly to San Antonio at 5pm or I could get another flight to Austin at 5am. I told her Austin and she gave me free tickets and a hotel voucher. I asked if my luggage would be in Austin waiting for me. She looked and asked if I had come from Salt Lake City. I said yes, she asked if my flight was delayed. I said no, I had missed the gate change. She told me that I would have to pay for the flight and I wasn’t getting the free tickets or the hotel voucher because it was my error not theirs. She took my free tickets back and said it would be $398 for the flight for Angel, myself and Little Bit. Ouch! I didn’t want to fork out that money but I quickly overcame that and decided to be in acceptance of what is and have faith it would all be for the best. After all, this wasn’t a crises, no one was hurt, we were warm, we had food and water, we were safe and had shelter AND I had enough money in savings to cover the cost. So I paid her and got the tickets to fly out in the morning.
Angel and I sat down in chairs along the wall and I thought about what to do next. I thought about sleeping at the airport but that wouldn’t work with Little Bit. He still hasn’t used the bathroom and he would need to soon. I started looking at nearby hotels. Then suddenly I remembered I had a Facebook friend in Denver named Kat. We hadn’t actually officially met but we knew each other because she used to date my ex before I met him. I didn’t have her number but I called her through Facebook messenger and amazingly enough she answered. I told her my situation and asked if she could recommend a place to stay. She said she had the next 2 days off and we were welcome to come to her place but she couldn’t drive all the way to airport to come get us. I was really grateful for that and I was glad I would get to meet her. I looked up how much it would be to Uber to her place and it was $50. I looked up how long it would take to bus there and it would take 2 hours. I looked up how much it would be to rent a car and decided that would be too much of a hassle. Finally, I decided I would just pay $50 to use Uber.
On the Uber ride to Kat’s house, Angel entertained the driver by telling him one of her really long Wild Girl stories that she made up. (I really want to start writing down her stories). I attempted to nap but wasn’t able to fall asleep despite being really really tired. We got dropped off at a Handy Mart a few blocks from Kat’s house because she said it’s really hard to find her address and google isn’t accurate on how to get to her place. I called Kat when we arrived and while we were waiting for her to pick us up, Little Bit finally went pee over on some grass. He had held it a long time. Kat arrived and it was wonderful actually meeting her in person. She took us to her house, which was really cute and full of lots of plants. Kat’s daughter was there briefly before leaving and it was great meeting her too. Kat showed us around and we chatted while Angel had fun riding one of Kat’s granddaughters scooters around. Then we all watched a kids movie but I was too tired to remember what it was called. When the movie was over Kat took us to the store and I bought some raspberries to eat. My stomach was doing flip-flops and despite not eating all day, I wasn’t hungry. I had let myself get upset earlier about my thumbprint not working and missing our flight and having to buy new tickets and figuring out where to stay overnight. Despite coming to a place of acceptance that this was all part of the adventure, my stomach hadn’t recovered. I notice how every thought I have affects my physical body in some way. Our thoughts are powerful.
After arriving back from the store, we went to bed early. Kat knew I was really tired and said she would be happy to hang out in her room so we could go sleep in her living room. I appreciated how thoughtful she was and offering her home as a place for us to sleep. She gave us a bunch of blankets to use and helped us get settled in. I slept on the couch and made up a pallet for Angel on the floor next to me. We laid down and I set up an Uber to pick us up at 2:30 AM in the morning. Because it was so early in the morning, the Uber cost $60. Oh well! I allowed myself to flow with the energy of giving and receiving money. Angel fell asleep right away and I wrote my blog a while before falling asleep between 7:30 PM and 8 PM.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P.S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.