I met these two awesome guys sitting next to me on the flight home from Ketchikan. They made me laugh from the very start. A younger guy -- my age -- named Alan, and an older guy – basketball coach and mentor – named Eric. Alan is a professional ball player in Europe (never even knew there was such a thing) from Dallas, and Eric is an educator from Ketchikan. They bought me beer, and asked me to be the official time-keeper to their Sudoku races. Alan came in at around 11 minutes; Eric, about 6 ½. They invited me to go Vegas with them – all expenses paid. I’d be crazy to turn that down, right? And after having chugged two beers (not to mention the two I had at the bar in Ketchikan), it seemed like a perfect plan. I envisioned calling daddy from the Seattle airport, going “You don’t need to pick me up tomorrow morning because I’m going to Vegas with these people I just met on a plane! Byyeee!” Haaa. Once we landed in Seattle, I immediately pulled out my NOOK and dove into researching the cost of flight changes. We found a spot to sit at one of the airport bars, ordered ourselves food and beer, and I made a call to the airline’s costumer service in hopes of finding a cheap and easy adjustment. The lady on the phone, however, informed me that it would be best to talk with someone in the airport – which really was no help at all. I had no idea where to go, so I ending up sprinting halfway across the airport (leaving my bags at the bar with two almost complete strangers) to terminal D, where my connecting flight was scheduled to leave from. I got there about 15 minutes before my flight was supposed to board. The lady at the desk was extremely helpful, but unfortunately the information she gave me was not ideal. $350 (give or take) to change my flight. Ouch. My poor bank account had already been through that when I decided to fly from LA to Ketchikan instead of home, and I wasn’t sure it could survive something of that nature again. Slightly defeated, my buzz wearing off, I dashed back to where the guys were, telling them that I just couldn’t afford the trip. They hugged me and wished me good luck before I made the dash back to terminal D. At this point, I was sweating. The rest of the night is a blur of catching planes and not sleeping. Landed in Chicago around 5:30am, with a connecting flight home at 7. It was weird being in the Chicago airport, where all these people were just starting their day…and I hadn’t been to bed yet. Landed in Pittsburgh around 9:40. Daddy picked me up and drove me home, where I immediately climbed into my bed.

I still, to this day, wish I had taken those guys up on their offer.