On my way after a hectic start

Just to start, I write 2:20 AM because that’s what time it is in Frankfurt, where I’m on my way to right now. Where I am now, over the North Atlantic, just South of Iceland, I’m pretty sure that it’s either 1:20 or 12:20 AM, and so far as my body is concerned it’s about 7:20 PM. I’m about 2/3rds of the way through my second and longest flight from Chicago O’Hare to Frankfurt, Germany. I got off to a bit of a rough start today and had some interesting scares.
My first flight, a puddle-jump from MSP to Chicago boarded on time and not long after we all got on-board (I was in a window seat on the right side of the plane so I saw luggage being loaded on, in addition to one of my bags I saw that somebody had checked an ironing board, don’t ask me why) we started hearing strange hydraulics noises emanating from the belly of the plane. About a half-hour later the pilot came on the PA and said, sounding very flustered, that one of the computer systems that we needed to be functional in order to take off, was in fact not functional, and that there were maintenance personnel on their way to the plane to take a look at it. After another hour of frequent updates from a pilot who rather evidently knew as little about what was going on as we did, we were informed that the plane was “heart-broke” – whatever that means – all that I DO know it means is that we had to get off the plane, because they needed a spare part which had to be flown in from Chicago.
We got off and all got in line for the service counter where there were customer service representatives “in force” (that means 4 of them to handle about 140 passengers). This was bad news for me, because if I didn’t make it to Chicago in time for my 2:30 connection to Frankfurt, I wouldn’t make my successive connection to Budapest, and if they didn’t know when I was getting in at Budapest there would be nobody from the program there to meet me…yikes. So I waited in line for about a half-hour before the very nice gentleman standing next to me (who I had also been sitting next to on the plane) let me borrow his cell phone to call United to try to figure out if I could get booked on another flight and hopefully make my connection.
A half hour later or so (about 12:15) I had finally gotten booked on flights that would get me into Budapest at about noon (I was supposed to get in at 9 AM) by going through Munich rather than Frankfurt. At about this time the service people got on the PA and announced that in a “Sunday Miracle” they had gotten our plane working and we would be re-boarding and taking off as soon as possible (about the time I had finally gotten to the front of the line, over an hour after I had started waiting). Good news! I might actually make my connection to Frankfurt! We got back on the plane, which was by now about half-empty as many passengers had found other flights, and we got into the air, only about two and a half hours late. This was probably the shortest flight I’ve ever been on, the flight attendants hadn’t even finished serving drinks to the whole plane before the pilot announced that we were beginning our descent into Chicago.
We got to the terminal at about 2:10, just in time for me to make my plane to Frankfurt, so after all that, everything worked out fine, although I didn’t get any lunch since my expected 3-hour layover had turned into 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I have thus far been unable to sleep on this flight, and am not tired in the least, which means that I will be trying to stay up all day tomorrow (today?) totaling about 40 hours awake on about 5 hours of (restless) sleep. So that brings us to here.
Fortunately for me I have sat next to very nice people on both flights, the first I sat next to a 3M employee and a travel agent, both with spectacular senses of humor and very talkative (this made sitting on the plane not moving for more than an hour much more bearable). I had a very interesting discussion with the man who works for 3M, who was on his way to Lexington, where he is going to be working. He noticed the rainbow band that I have tied around the handle of my backpack and asked me about it. When I told him that it was in support of GLBT rights and the gay rights movement, he seemed very happy. He eventually told me that his sister is a lesbian and that he has a lot of trouble, especially as management in a production setting, with the attitudes of his coworkers on the gay rights movement. It made me happy that he could gain so much satisfaction from something as simple as a band of fabric.
My neighbor for this flight is a young woman who is a junior at Berkeley and is on her way to study abroad in Spain. I think that’s about it, all things considered I think that I did pretty well, still in one piece, and on-time, about the best I can ask for. Now I’m going to try to get some sleep so that I won’t be running completely on empty by tonight, that’s all I’ve got for now. Bye! Daily Coffee Count: 5 cups