Bad Beginnings to the Second Leg of My Trip

I'm hoping things look up, but it's not promising. I should have known something was wrong the second I got in the cab to JFK. After all, the cab driver was a Nigerian guy (and many of you know my views on Nigerian men). And maybe I should have gotten out of the cab immediately. Instead, I said I needed to go to JFK and to take the tri-borough bridge to avoid the St. Patrick's Day parade. He insisted it would be better to take the 59th Street Bridge and that I'd be at the airport in plenty of time. Again, I told him to turn around and go north, but he refused. (And I really don't understand why: fares to JFK aren't metered, so he wasn't getting more money by getting me stuck in traffic. And the longer we were stuck, the less likely it was that he'd be getting a tip.). I suppose, being Nigerian, he figured that you don't have to listen to women, even when that woman is the person paying you. The asshole had the nerve to tell me to smile for only getting me to the airport 30 minutes late.

So, I got to the airport 47 minutes before my flight was scheduled to depart. Which of course meant that I was cutting it a little close in terms of baggage check. Despite telling the Delta staff that I had a flight that night out of LA and wouldn't be back in the country for months, I was told only that my luggage would "probably" make it.

Naturally, it didn't make it. It's on the next flight from JFK, which still hasn't landed. I've checked myself in on the flight to Tonga, but I'm now hanging out at Delta baggage claim. The nice ladies at Air New Zealand have informed me that my luggage "may" make it if I can bring it over in time (have I mentioned that I think LAX has the worst/slowest baggage claim in the world?), but reminded me that since there's only one Air New Zealand flight to Tonga out of LAX every week, if it doesn't make it, I'll be gone by the time my luggage arrives.

There were a lot of things I was planning on doing with my 4 hour layover: making some calls, buying an iPod charger, having dinner. Instead, I've been stuck hanging out at baggage claim and shuttling between terminals.

If my luggage arrives in time, this will all just be an irritating blip in my travels (and a formal complaint to the taxi and limousine commission--i took down that jerk's info). If not, I'm either going to be traveling around Tonga, New Zealand and India with nothing but the clothes on my back, or canceling my entire trip and moving up to Cambridge sooner than anticipated. Since there's no internet in Tonga (according to Todd), I'll be sure to post an update later tonight.