I woke up powerless. Literally. I sleep with a little white-noise (TV on, radio, something), so about ten minutes before I usually get up, I was startled awake by... silence. The power was out. What terrible timing.
I had almost completely packed my bags the night before, but there were a few things I had to do still. And then there was getting ready for work and getting the kids going. We're generally on a tight morning schedule anyway, so one thing I didn't have time to do was candlelight management.
Of course, laying in bed another twenty minutes hoping the power would come back on didn't help with the schedule. So I got up, took a shower in the dark, got the kids up to get ready, finished packing, etc. But the whole morning felt off, wrong somehow. I didn't like the fact that when I left, my alarm was running on battery. I didn't like the fact that I had no plans to be home again for days. How would I know if the power came back? Well, I did eventually figure out that I could call the house to see if the answering machine picked up, which it did, thereby putting my mind at ease.
But the work day reached full stress capacity, as I was trying to wrap things up for an early departure, yet new things kept coming. There were a couple errands I needed to run before heading to the airport, and as I probably would have predicted early on in the morning, I got out of the office much later than expected.
Despite my late departure from the office, I made it to the OKC airport with enough time to grab a bite to eat before the flight. I must compliment the designers of the airport remodeling team, as it's looking quite good. It had been about a year since I last flew anywhere, and at the time it was in much disarray. I don't think it's done yet, but finally our airport is getting a respectable look to it, not to mention the much improved amenities.
The flight was jam-packed. And it was the bumpiest and noisiest flight I'd ever been on. Noisy as in loud people. The pilot had to change our altitude to get out of the turbulence, but we still had a non-calm ride. The landing in particular was unnerving. Not only that, but we landed later than expected, which put the next part of the trip in question.
After the luggage took FOREVER to show up at the baggage claim, a semi-quick cab ride got us to downtown Phoenix, where we had tickets to the Suns-Spurs game. I thought for sure we had missed a good portion of the game, because it was supposed to start at 8pm, and it was nearly twenty to nine before we got there. Fortunately for us, the game was part of a TV double-header, so they weren't going to start the second game until the first game ended. When we got there, there was still four minutes until tip-off.
The Suns game was pretty cool, though they lost to the Spurs by a wide margin. The view from our seats was decent, but because I've been to four Hornets games in OKC this year, I found myself comparing the two experiences often. And I must say, I like the Hornets experience MUCH better, not that the Suns experience was anything to scoff at. The sound system at US Airways Arena didn't seem to fill the stands as it does at the Ford Center, the crowd wasn't as into it as they are in OKC, and the dancers weren't as creative or energetic (in my opinion) as the Honeybees seem to be.
It was quite late when we got out of there, and the culmination of a VERY long day. I expect the weekend to be just as draining, as there are a number of sports activities on the agenda over just a few days. The only flaw in the plan? The fact that Phoenix has gone 142 days without rain, yet there is rain in the forecast just in time to impact the big weekend.
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