As I type I'm over Salt Lake City at 25,000 feet. Disappointing, because I had a great "I don't know/ Idaho" pun all planned out.
It's been an insane 24 hours.
I got to Piedmont Triad International (really International?) at 4 PM yesterday for a 5:50 flight to Cincinnati. I know they recommend arriving an hour in advance for domestic flights, but you guys know me, I'm prepared like that. 5:50 comes and goes and for whatever reason we're being delayed to the point that I can't make my 7:47 connecting flight to San Diego.
So they transfer me to the 6:31 to Atlanta, which is already pushed back to 6:52 because it was raining in ATL. It wasn't raining anymore, now they were just backed-up. OK, the San Diego flight doesn't leave until 10:10. I'm good.
Until 9:00, when I wasn't. Looking on the bright side, I much preferred being at home to being stuck in the Atlanta airport by myself overnight. They rescheduled me to a 6:00 AM flight to Detroit for this morning. The plane was already in Greensboro and the crew had already gone to their hotel, so no worries, there would be no delays.
Until there were. When I walked into PTI at 5:03 this morning, my DTW ride was already pushed back to 6:15. "Will there be any other delays?" No, everything should be fine, the flight crew is just running behind. Behind like they showed up when we were supposed to be lifting off. Then there was some nonsense about a form missing that kept us on the tarmac for another quarter hour.
Now my hour layover in Motor City is 20 minutes and we're arriving on the opposite side of the airport. I push old ladies and children out of the way and sprint from Terminal C to A. Once upon a time I tried out for track in 7th grade. And then I threw up on the final lap of the tryout and that was that. Thing have not improved since then.
Despite all of that, I was still outpacing people moving at a brisk clip along the moving sidewalks. And to my astonishment, the plane was still at the gate! I hand my boarding pass to the ticket agent.
"The plane left."
No, it hasn't. I see it. It's right there. But apparently once those doors closed they cannot be reopened. Panting, dejected and lonely, I dragged myself to the main Delta counter. Finally, a nice lady named Susan K., who very much appreciated me saying I wasn't going to take out all of my frustrations on her, she set me up.
In order to make it to SD by 3 PM PST today, when registration opens for the show, I would have to hurry down and grab a 10:00 AM to Minneapolis - St. Paul and then make a half hour connection from MSP to SAN. The hitch?
First class all the way.
Now I can never go back.
Stephen's So-Called Emo Life!
The following titles are scheduled to ship on Wednesday, July 18th excluding some re-orders and providing that nothing changes by the time the final invoice arrives on Monday:
Activity #7
Adventure Time #6
Adventures of Venus hc
Alabaster Wolves #4
American Elf tpb #4 - an early influence in my comics reading career and one of the only web comics I ever kept up with was James Kochalka's American Elf. I kind of lost interest after his son Eli was born and began dominating the subject matter as opposed to Spandy the Cat, but I still enjoy these oversized strip collections that Top Shelf puts out every could of years.
Artifacts tpb #4
Avengers Academy #33
Avengers vs. X-Men #8
Avengers West Coast Family Ties tpb
Back Issue #57
Baltimore Dr. Leskovar's Remedy #2
Batman Beyond Unlimited #6
Batwing tpb #1
Batwoman #11
Before Watchmen Silk Spectre #2
Birds of Prey #11
Blacksad Silent Hell hc - Sin City, Criminal, and, yes, even Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations take a backseat to Blacksad when it comes to crime noir. French in origin, an anthropomorphic black and white colored cat tries to get by in a world where you're very much either black or white.
Bloody Chester tpb
Blue Beetle #11
BPRD Hell on Earth Devil's Engine #3
Captain America Life & Death of Bucky Barnes tpb
Captain Atom #11
Captain Marvel #1 - Kelly Sue knocked it out of the park on Captain Marvel's debut in this week's Avenging Spider-man #9. Now come try some unfiltered Carol!
Carbon Grey #1
Catwoman #11
Cobra #15
Concrete Three Uneasy Pieces one-shot
Counter X X-Force Rage War tpb
Creepy Presents Richard Corben hc
Danger Girl/ G.I. Joe #1
Daredevil #15
Dark Horse Presents #14
Dark Tower Gunslinger Man in Black #2
Darkness #105
DC Universe Presents #11
Doctor Who Where's the Doctor hc -
Dominique Laveau Voodoo Child #5
Elric Balance Lost #11
Essential Captain Marvel tpb #1
Extermination #2
Fables #199
Fantastic Four #608
Fatima Blood Spinners #2
FF tpb #2
Finding Gossamyr #1 - regular printings of the hit series come in! Double dip! See what all of the fuss is about!
Ghost Rider hc
Glory #28
Green Lantern Corps #11
Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends #18
Hellblazer #293
Hellraiser tpb #3
Herc tpb
Infernal Man-thing #2
Invincible Iron Man #521
Jennifer Blood Annual #1
Jericho Season 3 tpb
Journey Into Mystery #641
Justice League #11
Kiss #2
Legion of Super Heroes #11
Luke McBain tpb
Mars Attacks #2
Marvel Zombies Destroy #5
Men of War tpb #1
New Mutants #46
Night of 1000 Wolves #3
Nightwing #11
Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me hc
Prophecy #2
Rachel Rising #9
Radioactive Man hc #1
Red Hood & the Outlaws #11
Red Sonja #67
Reset #4
Roger Langridge's Snarked #10
Saga #5
Secret History of D.B. Cooper #5
Secret Service #3
Showcase Presents Rip Hunter Time Masters tpb #1
Simpsons Comics #192
Skullkickers #16
Sonic Universe #42
Spider #3
Spider-man Complete Ben Reilly Epic tpb #5
Spider-man Ends of the Earth hc
Star Trek #11
Star Trek/ Doctor Who Assimilation #3
Star Wars Darth Vader Ghost Prison #3
Stuff of Legend Omnibus hc #1 - for the biggest Smitty fans around!
Sunset hc
Supergirl #11
Supernaturalist tpb
Ultimate Comics Ultimates hc #2
Uncanny X-Men #16
Untold Tales of Punisher Max #2
Unwritten #39
Vampirella #19
Warehouse 13 tpb #1
Warlord of Mars Dejah Thoris #13
Wolverine #309
Wonder Woman #11
X-Factor #240
X-Men #32
X-O Manowar #3
Young Justice #18
Also shipping next week:
Bowen Juggernaut statue
Bowen Spider-man Action statue
DC Heroclix Dark Knight Rises Marque packs
Kotobukiya Iron Man Classic Avengers Fine Art statue
Kotobukiya Marvel Storm Bishoujo statue
TMNT Retro Collector action figures - to continue story time, I remember being at my grandma's house in New Jersey on Christmas Eve. My parents went to the Toys 'R' Us in Freehold by the mall for some last minute shopping. An emergency shipment of Turtles just happened to walk in the door as they were lamenting what they would have under the tree for me and Dave. I ended up with Leonardo and Donatello and Dave got Raphael and Michelangelo. Now I'm gonna relive the memory of that Christmas morning over and over with these guys!
