This morning I woke to a humming noise I couldn't identify. In a strange hotel room and slightly disoriented, I fumbled for the alarm clock, only to discover it was 4:20 am and not the alarm clock disturbing my sleep. The humming noise continued and I realized my cell phone, on the far side of the room, was emitting the offending noise. With John's father in intensive care, I struggled to shake the sleep out of my head and stumbled across the room to grab the phone, hoping for no bad news.

I hit send to redail the missed call. Instead of John on the line, I got the India branch of Delta Airlines who wanted to inform me that my 7:35 am flight had been canceled and I could be rescheduled on the 6:00 am flight, if I could leave for the airport right now. I vaguely remembered that my boss was on the 6:00 am flight, so I quickly called to see if he had checked out. He was still in his room and offered to wait 15 minutes (the latest he could leave and still make the drive to the airport, drop off the car and navigate through a very picky security inspection).

I called Delta back and again the phone was answered by the India branch. It has been my experience when dealing with India based service centers, that some of the representatives speak and understand English better others. Unfortunately for me, when I needed someone who could move through the process quickly, I found myself on the line with a young woman who struggled to understand my very mild southern accent. So, while she asked me to repeat the same information over and over and over, I scrambled to dress and pack and talk on the phone. Finally we had some sort of breakthrough and she transferred me to the Delta medallion office where an American voice (southern I might add) answered the phone and took care of the flight in minutes. Yeah...down to the lobby and off to the airport in the allotted 15, well maybe 18 minutes. A ridiculous experience at 4:30 am but it was great to get home early!