UA751 SAN EWR 0630 1452 738 21C

Lilli and Chris were on their way to Barcelona and had an
0620 flight, with Rob driving them, so I piggybacked and
scheduled an 0640 flight, despite my chance for an upgrade
on this trip being slim and none.

Rob came by at 0400, and we were at the airport by 0445,
with security pushing things to 0500. Chris, being on
Lilli's reservation, got PreCheck, and I, having had my
PreCheck expired, did not. Nonetheless, they got the
secondary, and I didn't. We were at the Admiral's Club
at the sme time, 0510, time for them to get breakfast
and for me to catch a round of FIDO. We said our tsai
jiens, and I went back to the United gates, where I
found myself #5 for one upgrade, so that was that.

The exit row is elite-heavy, and the flight attendant
tried to make our trip nicer, giving extra attention to us
in the thrones. She was unsuccessful in getting the girl
in 21D, a Global customer, to cheer up or even basically
acknowledge her, so having no other outlet for her maternality
kept me in red wine from first class during the whole flight.
At one point I took a brief nap and on waking found a fresh
glass of the stuff waiting. The wine on domestic flights in
first is not so terrific - one step above cooking wine,
perhaps - but the gesture was appreciated.

We landed on time or a little ahead and pulled into a gate in
the same terminal and pretty close to the one my next flight
was supposed to leave from. Only when I checked the monitor,
it told me to go off to Terminal A, a bus ride away. Poop.

UA3434 EWR DCA 1545 1707 E70 1A was 7A

So I hurried there, just catching the bus and then hauling
buns to the gate in time for boarding, hearing my name on the
PA system. So all was well. Turns out the agent had a new
boarding pass for me, yay, but our plane was not ready for
boarding, as the cleaners were still working.

Half an hour later the cleaners were still working.

It turns out a passenger on the previous leg had gotten sick
all over the cabin, and eventually the plane had to be taken
out of service altogether,

So they herded us to another gate, where we waited for another
vehicle to arrive and be prepped for us, and we took off an hour
and change late. It was an uneventful trip, with our flight
attendant as aloof as the previous one's had been attentive.

The pilots made up a bit of time, and I didn't dawdle, and
I just made a through Yellow Line train (no transfer needed
to get to Greenbelt at rush hour), and I was actually a few
minutes early to meet the Shipps.

On the way I encountered a Metro employee, Mr. Thompson, who
was ready to retire and take a year off to meditate in the
mountains of China and wanted to chat a bit about that. It was
a pleasant few minutes, and then I was off to the kiss and
ride, where I found that Gail and Dale had been even earlier
than I.

We discussed important things, i.e., where to have supper, and
after a bunch of local options had been discussed and rejected,
the words G&M came up. Ding. So there's where we went.

To find an advertised half-hour wait. I was all for getting a
beer at the bar, but it was stacked up two deep, but luckily
after 20 or so the word Shipp wafted from the host desk, and
presently we were seated in a comfortable room with a couple
unused tables.

Our waiter was pleasant if not super efficient and partially
incomprehensible.
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