It is 10:20pm and I am sitting on a plane that should have left 30min ago. I am patting myself on the back, however, as I threw my handy-dandy-old-fashioned-made-with-paper notebook into my bag very last minute. Why am I happy, you ask? Well, they gave the ‘electronics off’ order awhile ago. So instead of typing on my new Samsung, i am going traditional. Here I thought my Sam would eliminate extra luggage. In any case, the screen shield I bought for Sam interferes with the S-pen recognition. This is not ok. And that shield was not cheap.

Apparently, the main computer at Southwest’s headquartershas crashed. Nobody anywhere is moving until the computers get rebooted. Sometime in the next 20 minutes, pilot hopes.

This sucks.

So, another short review of my new Sam, which I still love and do not plan on returning. Success! Aside from the stupidly over-efficient shield. And the fact that I’m not writing directly on the device itself.

I found an app that syncs iTunes from your computer onto your android device- iSyncr. 7000+ people rated it as a five, so I splurged the $4. Two hours of google and forum searches trying to figure out why it wasn’t syncing, I gave up znd turned it off.  Then I remembered I hadn’t transfered my newly PDF’d mss. So, turned Sam back on. And my computer, iSyncr, and Sam decided at last to be friends. There was the iSyncr screen I’d been waiting for on my desktop. Unfortunately, I hadn’t upgraded my sd card from the included 8gb, so had to pick and choose which albums were most imperative. But, it works! Wish it had done so sooner than 2hours the night before my flight (which would occur after a full shift at work, and preceed an endless night stuck on a plane).

10:45 and the children on board are growing restless. Including my own, who are getting slaphappy. Literally.  Aside from various high-pitched shrieks, behind me is a too-clear: ‘Stop spitting!’. Which is preceeded and followed by spitting. Lovely. I think the screaming children from Mcdonald’s are across from me.

Review. On my old fashioned notebook, about its technology advanced replacement. While stuck on a plane. First  do not buy the military-grade screen protector. Yes, I’ll bet it might protect my screen really well. Except that if I can’t write on it, makes the tablet worthless.

On that note,  I finally figured out how to get the handwriting-to-text feature working. First, you have to know that you must enable it. I assumed it’d be automatic. Silly me. Setup, keyboard, handwriting-to-text, and your life will be good.

Except, I can’t use it as my brand new screen shield won’t let me. And I’m stuck on a plane.

It’s 11:45pm. About two hours late. As we’re not going anywhere, I pulled Sam out and typed out what I wrote. Keyboard is small, but not all that bad. Half the plane has emptied out. But if they get the all-clear and you’re not on board, they aren’t waiting.  So, boys and I are still sitting.  Stuck on a plane. I have no idea what I’ll do if the flight is cancelled entirely.

12:23am. Pilot has announced that there is a God and He has decided to let us fly out of Chicago shortly. Waiting for people to come running back on, and hopefully off we’ll soar. Already called my hotel. Technically, I’m arriving a day later, so should only be charged one night, right?  This is going to muck up tomorrow’s/today’s plans.

2:44am. I smell smoke. We hit some very rough turbulance half way into our flight. My oldest was quietly freaking out, and I seriously thought we were going to die. And I’m not a nervous flier. Now, we’re finally airborne,  plane in an apocolyptic earthquake has ended…….I smell smoke. I look out the windows and all I see is smoky haze around the wings. That’s absolutely not good. I was supposed to grab my amethyst necklace! The boys and i are now going to die because I forgot. (Aside from curing drunkenness,  amethyst provides protection to travelers). A mother across and behind me is also looking around when someone behind us dings their call button. All I hear is that it is smoke, there will be an announcement. It’s all my fault. Do I even know where that necklace is?

Pilot dings and says that yes, there’s smoke, but not from the plane. We are 75 miles outside Denver, and the smoke is from the fire. Ok, then.

It’s 3:45am. The first room the hotel gave us had a faulty key pad that wouldn’t allow us in. It’s the story of the day. Work, too. I am going to bed. In my superman tee shirt.

4:00am. Why? Really? Why do I get the room next to the loud horny couple? Why?