Then I found five dollars...

Had a business trip last week -- spent five days in Detroit. Seattle looks very white to me now.

On Thursday night I was up till about 3am trying to do some tricky data extractions that the client needed by 7:15 the next morning, so by the time I got on the plane Friday evening I was beat. I fell asleep as we took off, and didn't wake up till the wheels hit the runway in Seattle almost 5 hrs later.

I stumbled my way to baggage claim, but couldn't find the right carousel -- none of the Northwest Airlines carousels seemed to be running. I checked the monitor, and next to my flight I saw S7, so I waited by carousel 7 but nothing happened.

I got into a conversation with a Russian kid who was on his way back to Moscow after spending his summer working in Alaska. He said he'd had a wonderful time and had decided he wanted to live in the US. No one is blowing themselves up in the Metro over here, he said. Hopefully it will stay that way...

After he left I wandered around some more, looking for my bags. Eventually I made my way to the Northwest baggage office. The lady there was nice, and explained that their belts were broken, and all Northwest baggage had been sent several carousels away, to another airline's area. It had all been explained over the PA on my flight, she assured me. I said I'd been asleep and had heard nothing -- no one had even made me return my seatback to its full, upright, and most uncomfortable position before we landed.

So then I went to the correct carousel, found my bag still on it, and went home.

The End.