It looks as if I'll be in Florida a little bit longer than expected. Due to an evening of revelry with several friends under the guise of a going-away get together at DC's sports bar, and, more specifically, the afterparty at Benji's with George and Austin, coupled with their fairly-convincing, provocative, albeit outlandish attempts at convincing me to move back, I entirely missed my flight. I didn't really miss it, as such - I didn't have a McCallister-family style run through the Tampa airport - I just slept through my alarm (which, in hindsight, I should have seen coming since me and Austin's 5 o'clock-in-the-morning bike-peddling adventure doesn't bode well for an early departure, especially since when I collapsed on my friends futon at roughly 5:30 my bags were still scattered all over the floor). So that 8am alarm went unheard, and a grumbly voice informed my ride, when he arrived, that there was simply no way this thing was going to happen.
[A brief aside/admission: I'm glad my father is technologically impaired and cannot read this, because I told him that my ride's car broke down... a small lie, one I don't feel entirely absolved of, but one worth not having to endure that prolonged sigh/grunt of disapproval ordinarily laced with "oh boy's" and "straighten your act out's" - to him any deviation from a plan, unless entirely outside of one's hands, is nothing short of extreme negligence and immaturity, age and parental independence notwithstanding. Though, I will say, the old man isn't all that gullible; he half-jokingly accused me of lying, saying, "I bet this is all one big scam, and it has something to do with a girl." Oh,
Dad.]
Unfortunately, Southwest isn't really sympathetic to my plight of flight (ooooh... clever? ... probably not), and insists that another ticket be purchased. They will, however, put the cost of my empty seat toward the new ticket... which doesn't really amount to much unless you purchase in advance. So, looks like I'm here another two weeks. I will be missing out on a few additional weeks of my beloved autumn, but I suppose it's not all bad, there are things about Lakeland I've become quite fond of on this trip.
The only real downside is that I have already blown through all the books I brought on the trip... I do have my collection here in town, and there is probably one or two in there I haven't read yet... still, I knew I should have packed a few more.
And let it be noted: On Thursday Oct 23rd I will NOT be bamboozled into a late evening
... probably.
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