“Philly, forget me not, forget me not, forget me not” – Daryl Hall & John Oates

Today’s song choice seemed oh so phitting, because Philly I will not forget you no matter how much I’d like to.

More specifically, Philly airport, I will forget you not. I will not forget the three hour delay that began in Raleigh, North Carolina that led to me sprinting down two of your Philly terminals only to miss my 10:35 pm international connecting flight by just minutes. No Philly, I won’t forget losing my phone in the airport amidst the chaos, confusion, and my distractedness of nearly collapsing from a case of asthma induced physical exertion apparently referred to as “exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB)” (self-diagnosis). Sorry Philly, my lack of poor physical conditioning is not a direct reflection on you though in my current state of mental and physical exhaustion, yeah screw it, that’s your fault too.

“Oh and when the hands hit eleven
Pennsylvania came to life”

I won’t forget finding an officer who used his phone to call the airport Marriott at well past 11 (closer to midnight) to see if they had any availability. Thankfully the Marriott had a room, which I of course paid nearly $300 for a sleepless night of anxiety, frustration, and coughing (apparently EIB can linger for hours afterwards). There’s a bill to reimburse coming your way, American Airlines, and a reckoning for your delayed flight which resulted in one less less vacation day for me in Amsterdam. You owe me.

But Philly, I also won’t forget my biggest hero – Paula, supervisor of the American Airlines baggage claim office who personally tracked down my lost iPhone after five hours spent the next morning of “we can’t find it.” Thankfully I had my MacBook Air so I was able to show her that it was still in Terminal A with the help of the find my iPhone app. When she personally went to Terminal A and found it shortly after 1 pm, it had apparently not been placed in the “correct” lost and found lock box. “You got lucky,” she said. Yes I did. Lucky for connecting with you. Thank God for Philly Paula, my phucking hero. An A plus for you Paula. A big, fat F minus for you American Airlines for not one, but two different flight delays so far. We’ll see how it goes over the next several days. Maybe you can get your grade up to a D or maybe I’ll just never fly American Airlines again.

Nope, Philly, can’t, won’t forget you. Now, for the love of God, Philly – get me out of here.

“Philly, I would never change on ya
You ain’t always sunny, honey
But you love me back”

I’m staring out a Philly airport window as I write this, and yep you guessed it – cloudy and rainy. One thing I do actually love is Philly’s own Hall & Oates having seen them in concert in Tulsa in 2017. They actually released this pleasant single, performed with the band Train, in 2018.

It hit #12 on the AC charts. Here is Daryl Hall & John Oates alongside Train’s Patrick Monahan with a live version of “Philly, Forget Me Not”

Thanks for reading my rant, and may any of your upcoming air travels be much smoother.

sincerely,

the80s