A few weeks ago Amy called and told me that Andrés' spring break was coming up at the beginning of March, and suggested that I fly up to Boston to spend it with them. All it takes for me is an invitation, so I soon bought my plane ticket and made my plans to fly up.

The departure didn't go quite as planned — the flight left at 1:30pm, so I aimed to be there two hours before that. We made good time crossing the lake, so Bryan and Cat actually dropped me off at the airport at around 11 am. I figured I could certainly stand waiting an extra half hour.

Of course, when I checked in I learned that the incoming flight had been delayed due to weather, so my flight was rescheduled to leave at 4:30pm. I called Bryan and Cat and delivered the news, and they offered to come back and pick me up so I wouldn't have to sit at the airport for hours. We did a little thrift store shopping and ate at Denny's, then returned to the airport at 3 pm. I thanked them for helping me pass the time and headed in.

An hour later, when it was time to board, they announced that the plane had a problem with the pressurization system, and they were going to try to identify the issue. We waited.

Three hours later, around 6pm, they announced that they had identified the problem and it was going to take a long time to fix, so they were going to obtain a new plane, which should arrive in about an hour. We waited.

Two hours later, at 8pm, they announced that the plane was here and fueled up, but they just realized that the pilots aren't legally allowed to fly anymore (for safety reasons, there is a legal limit on the number of hours per day that commercial pilots can fly). In summary, after keeping people waiting for nine hours, they cancelled the flight. They set everyone up with hotel rooms for the night, but since I lived nearby I just called to reschedule my flight.

The woman gave me a little bit of attitude at first — "Your flight was supposed to leave seven hours ago and you're only now calling to reschedule?" — but when I explained that the flight had only just now been cancelled, she suddenly became apologetic. "Oh dear, you've been waiting at the airport all that time? That's so terrible, I'm really sorry for that." I thanked her for offering her sympathies when it wasn't a mistake she had made. She booked me on a direct flight to Boston the next morning, and she seated me in first class, no less. You're OK, anonymous American Airlines phone operator.

So finally I made it to Boston the next morning. Hanging out with Andrés and Amy was awesome. We actually didn't do a whole lot — mostly just relaxed and watched movies. Just the way I like it. We did make it out to the Harvard Museum Of Natural History, and we met up with Jing-Ta (who I hadn't seen in about four years).

On Thursday Amy flew down to Aiken to be with her family. On Friday morning Andrés and I rented a car and set off on a little roadtrip. We made the four-hour drive to New York and met up with Marc and Talia. We spent the evening with them, ate at a Tibetan restaurant with some of their friends, and then headed back to his place and hung out. Andrés and I spent the night at Marc's apartment and then set off for Manchester, CT the next morning to see Maria.

Maria is part of a promotional group called Rock Yer Socks which sets up regular concerts in the Manchester area. Saturday marked Rock Yer Socks' one-year anniversary, and they were having a celebratory concert featuring five bands, including Maria's band, Panda And Child. Andrés and I helped set up the equipment, then hung out and watched the show and worked the merch table for a while. I ventured up to the stage and took a few pictures of each band. We had a good time.

The next day Andrés and I had breakfast with Maria and her boyfriend Josh before setting off for Boston again. Overall, the last half of the trip felt a lot more hectic and rushed than the first half, but it was a good counterpart — it would have felt a bit incomplete if we I had spent all that money flying up there and we'd done nothing but sit around and watch TV. This way we got to spend some time relaxing while also getting to do a lot of fun stuff.