Stuck in San Francisco

I'm sitting here on the floor in middle of San Francisco International Airport.  I've been traveling for about 36 hours, have gotten approximately 8 hours of sleep in the last 48(not in a row btw...) and I haven't showered or changed my clothes since Tuesday morning, Germany time.  I'm sure I look beautiful and energetic right about now :D.

I was supposed to fly back into Arcata an hour ago.  Obviously I didn't.  You may be wondering why...well here's what happened:

I flew into San Francisco last night.  My flight was delayed and we didn't get in until 9:30 pm.  I jumped on BART and headed off to Pleasanton to stay with a friend for the night.  I got there, we went to In n Out, and after spending a couple of hours talking we fell asleep at around 1 am.  Then we woke up at 4:45.  I got back on BART at 5:15 to head to the airport.  The train arrived at SFO at 6:40 am...my flight was at 6:56....

I got in United's line to talk to them about what I should do.  They told me that all of today's flights were fully booked but they could wait list me.  It would cost $75, and my  debit card wasn't working with their machine so I went to find an ATM.  I got back with my $75 and realized that I had forgotten about the $35 luggage fee.  At first I was going to have to go back to the ATM, but after talking to her boss, the United employee decided that she would just charge me for the luggage and not for the flight change.

So I made my way through security.  It was....secure.  I went to find my gate and found out that the flight I was wait listed for had been canceled!  At this point  I was starving and, knowing that I needed food in order to make logical decisions, I went to eat an expensive but delicious breakfast.  After breakfast I went to talk to the airline people.  They told me that my name had not been moved to the new wait list yet and I would now be #16 on the list...

I went to customer support to see if  I could get a flight to Redding or Crescent City and then my parents could pick me up, but they were all booked until at least tomorrow.  As I was talking to my mom on the phone, figuring out if she wanted to drive to SF or if I should stay another night here, the customer service representative handed me a ticket and said "miraculously, as we were talking two seats opened up on a flight for this afternoon"!  So now I have a flight for this afternoon, at 4:17 pm!  By the time I get home I will have been traveling for close to 48 hours, and probably will not have gained much more sleep...but I will be home!

Oh, and to add to the happiness: since I didn't have to pay for the first flight change, I didn't have to pay for the second either!