That Time I Got Stuck With Justin Timberlake

Last year Michigan took me to The Vegas. We ate as much food as possible, drank a lot of beer, gambled, and saw 2 shows.  It was a fabulous weekend.  After we said our airport goodbyes, I boarded my plane for my layover in sunny Los Angeles. This is where the fabulousness stopped.

I walk back to my seat only to find it was already occupied by a small Asian woman who didn't speak English.  Her traveling companion informed me that I was about the 3rd person who was assigned to 21B. I asked the flight attendant standing closest to me what I should do and she directed me to her co-worker at the front of the plane. After squeezing my way past 50 bajillion people, I reach the next flight attendant to repeat my problem.

 "Ma'am you are going to need to take that up with the ticketing department, not me."

Umm so you want me to get off the plane?  This was in NO way happening!  I was not about to get stuck in Vegas by myself with no money (see the part above about gambling) and no hotel reservation.  After blankly staring at her for what felt like 20 minutes, she informed me that the airline always oversells flights leaving Vegas because they have so many cancellations. I was told to hang out and she would figure this out for me.  Hang out?  Where exactly do you want me to just hang out on this tiny airplane?  She came back to inform me that 21B was indeed MY seat but they didn't want to ask the person that was already there to move so they were moving me to another seat.  Yeah another seat. In the middle of 2 not-so-small men.  Awesome. So long comfy aisle seat.
United Airlines=1, Elise=0

At this point, what could I do?  I settled in to my new oh-so-roomy seat and prepare to take off in 10 minutes because that's when we were scheduled to leave.  Keep in mind, I had only a 45 minute layover at LAX.  10 minutes pass and I start frantically checking my watch only to discover that there is NO way we are going to leave on time.  An hour after our scheduled departure, we were heading down the runway.  No big deal, I thought.  There were several people on my flight that I knew were also catching my same connection. I'm sure they'll hold the plane if there's enough of us.  A few short minutes later we land at LAX and at least 15 of us line up to start running for our gate.

I wait in the longest line ever and finally hear "I'm sorry Elise, there are absolutely NO more flights from LA to Dallas tonight".  "Ok so what are my options?" After being told that I could take the 7am flight the next morning, I decided to just suck it up. At least I'll have a relaxing night to myself in a hotel and I can make it to work tomorrow. "7am will work. What hotel are you putting me up in?"

This is where I expected to be handed directions to an airport Hyatt or at least Holiday Inn.  "Ma'am we don't do that. I can give you a $5 Starbucks voucher for breakfast tomorrow though."

Lady, I'm not sure I've ever spent just $5 at Starbucks! "Ok thank you."

You see, I have several friends that live in LA and could have stayed with any of them. Except for the night I happen to be stuck there was the Grammys. Not so great when your friends are in PR and the music business and are more than likely not going to be home or able to pick me up from the airport.

Looks like I was spending the night at LAX.

About this time, I decided to let my LA friends know that I was stuck in their city and hope that one of them could at least offer me a couch and a ride.  Call #1 to my sorority sister:

"Ok you can definitely stay with me but I have tickets to the sold out Justin Timberlake-post Grammy show. It's a pretty small event and will be awesome so I can't miss it. But you can absolutely stay on my couch and listen to me talk about the concert tomorrow."  Ok so that last sentence is an exaggeration but just roll with it. This lovely sistah headed towards LAX at least pick me up and take me to dinner.

Call #2 to my always dependable best guy friend from college.

"I am going to the Maroon 5 Grammy party. Dang, I just got a date too. I would have totally taken you had I known you were going to be in town."  Seriously, you can't bag on your date for me?

As I'm waiting for my ride, friend # 2 calls. "So I may be the best person ever because I just snagged you the absolute LAST ticket to this Justin Timblake post Grammy show. As in, you owe me BIG TIME!"

Needless to say I stared at my phone for about 5 seconds before screaming and jumping up and down.  Little ol me was about to stand 10 feet away from JT himself.  WHAT?!?!?!

Needless to say, the concert was one of my favorite moments of all time. JT was amazeballs and he had some special guests i.e. Jay-Z and Timbaland come out and perform with him.

And this is the story of how my fabulous Vegas vacation ended at a fabulous Justin concert with a fabulous friend/sister.