What a week! I arrived in Allentown two hours late to find my checked bag didn't make it on the same flight with me. First, the flight from DFW to Cincinnati had problems with the landing gears, so the pilots had to circle around until they determined that the problem was OK and they could land. That ended up not being so bad but it did eat up some of the time used to get to the other terminal . . where I get to board a much smaller plane to Allentown. This plane had some malfunction with the wings, which affected its ability to keep "ice free" . . . which was OK in Cinci but Allentown was "snowing" . . . so half-way through the flight, we turn around and go back to Cinci to get another plane. Sooooooooooo, I'm arriving in Allentown late, then find my bag didn't make it. Have to give all the information to the baggage guy, get a taxi to the office and finally arrive over two hours later that usual and particularly out of sorts.

When the bags don't make your flight, usually you can expect them on the next inbound flight. I was told to check after 7:40, but they would drop the bag off at my hotel. OK, sounds good to me. I know the drill since I've had this happen before. BUT, no bag showed up that night!! I go off to work the next day wearing the same clothes. As I had most of my toiletry items with me, that was no problem . . but a few things were in that other bag that I needed, LOL!!!

After checking with Delta to find my bag still hadn't been found, I went out at lunch to buy some cheap socks and underwear along with something to sleep in and another blouse to wear the next day. Trying to save money because I hate to spend more when I'm getting ready to go on vacation and have been (and will be) spending. If I had known that Delta was going to pay $25 per diem after two days, I might not have worried so much. And I might be able to expense some anyway. Oh, the bad news today was that my bag hadn't shown up . . . that's when I found out about the per diem (save those receipts).

So here I sit at the desk in ill-fitting cheap underwear (hehe, all i could find at the dollar store) wondering how my my karma got out of whack. What great cosmic joker wanted me to be leveled the last week of my "travel for work" gig and right before my trip to Cairo! That was my good bag that I was planning on taking with me. If I'd only known (hahaha) I would have switched back to the cheaper (but so much heavier) freebie I got from EDS for my 10 year anniversary gift.

Maybe all the problems this week indicate that everything will go smoothly when I take off for Cairo and, ultimately, Luxor. Somehow, I think this is only the beginning of my woes!

Well, I still have two days (1 and 1/2 really) left in Allentown, then I'll be heading back to Dallas for the weekend . . . and off to Cairo on Monday! Insha'allah!