Things Not To Do

1 - Lose your driver's license.
2 - Do #1 while traveling.
3 - Do #2 on the outbound leg.
4 - Do #3 when you have to rent a car for a 90 mile drive.
5 - Pack a suit but not a tie.

I case there's any doubt, I managed to do these thing on Sunday. I discovered the license to be missing when I landed in Knoxville, and promptly talked to a airline agent. They called the desk in Detroit at the gate where I had waited for my connection, and told me it was found at would be on the next flight in to Knoxville. Five hours and three flights later, no license. At this point I just had to get out to Harrogate, so I got to a couple cabbies to bid on my 90 mile drive. I do recommend making the drivers compete, but I do not recommend needing a 90 mile taxi ride (it costs too much even when they have to compete with each other).

The next morning I realized I had failed to pack a tie... just plain dumb. There was a Wal-Mart across the the street from my hotel, so that turned out fine. After buying a new tie, I talked to everyone in the hotel lobby who was wearing a suit, until I found another student there for the interview and who was driving back through Knoxville. He saved me the pain of another 90 mile cab ride.

When I got back to the airport, I went to the airline desk to inquire about my license again, but they had no new news. They did give me the desk number for the gate in Detroit so I could pursue things further myself, but of course, the agent at the desk had to refer my inquiry to a supervisor and told me to call back after at least an hour. So in the mean time, I checked in for my flight home.

Apparently a student ID with picture and signature line combined with multiple credit cards can get you checked in to a flight and through security; if you agree to allow them to search you and your carry ons as though you walked up and told them your a drug camel. OK, it wasn't that bad, it was even really funny to hear the security guy tell me the S's on my ticket meant I had been 'randomly' selected for additional security measures. Yep, random.

So its at about this time that I learn my flight to Atlanta is delayed. Not a big deal. About every ten minutes they added another five minutes to our estimated departure time. By the time we get on the plane, its already going to be a close call on catching my connection to Salt Lake, so I've also been given a provisional booking on a later flight. The earlier flight would get me to Salt Lake at 8:30, the later at midnight. As I'm telling this whole story to the girl sitting next to me, she makes a joke, something about Murphy's corollaries and how there's no way our plane will get to Atlanta in time for the early connection. Sure enough, the pilot then comes on the intercom and says we're #1 for take off but can't leave because the airspace around Atlanta has no windows to add us to their traffic pattern...

Atlanta is a big airport, so landing at 6:12 for a 6:15 flight that's 3 terminals away just doesn't work out all that well. The upside of suddenly having a three hour layover is that I get to call Detroit again. The official report from the supervisor is that no one ever found my license and they have no idea why Knoxville thought they had. Lovely. I called the Detroit airport main line and talked to their lost and found, and as I should have expected, no dice there either.

So there you have it. Oh, almost forgot, the interview itself actually managed to go fairly well, and I actually got a very positive read from one of the interviewers :D