Mein letztes deutsches Abenteuer (my last German adventure)

I'm sitting in Frankfurt airport right now, using my 60 minutes of free Tmobile that I used by faithfully collecting my Deutsche Bahn points, waiting to see if they have a seat for me on this flight.  That's right, I'm on standby.  How do they select who gets put on standby?  I checked in early and it's not like I booked my flight yesterday.  They knew I was coming.  Why did they pick the Erex out of all these other passengers?

If anyone knows how the selection process works, let me know.  But for now let me regale you with my last German adventure.  After the awfulness of missing my flight the last time I flew to America, I was determined not to let it happen again.  I decided to stay up all night so I couldn't oversleep.  then, I decided to take the train at 3:38.  No, buses do not run that early.  Yes, I am too cheap to pay for a cab.  I decided to walk 1.5 miles with my extremely heavy luggage (I had to rearrange at check in to get it on and I ended up with weights of 22.5 kg and 21 kg.  The max per bag is 23--approx 50 lbs).  As I walked out my door, I had the feeling it wouldn't work, but ever the optimist, I pressed on.  With plenty of breaks, you can do it Erin!  I assured myself.  Actually I assured myself in German--Erin, du schaffst das!  I left my keys in my apartment and plunged bravely on.  So carrying 45 pounds in one hand--not a success, as you may have guessed.  I gave up and decided to take a later train (I would've taken a cab, but I don't know the numbers so I couldn't call one.  Carrying a little more than that on my back= almost instant tension headache.  

Since I couldn't get back into my apartment, I decided to sit at the nearest bus stop for a little over an hour until the bus to the airport came.  Unfortunately it was crowded and I almost took out some old people with my backpack.  The bus got to the station at 5:08.  My train left at 5:10.  Could I make it to the farthest track while carrying what I am estimating to be 130 lbs (!!!!) of luggage.  You may have guessed that the answer is no.  And indeed, the train pulled away as I stepped out of the elevator to the platform.  Scheisse! I screamed as I literally shook my fist at the departing train.  But not to worry, I had a 4 train barrier.  I just got on the next one and rode it to Cologne where the elevator to my next platform was broken.  Ridiculous.   I literally barely had the strength left to carry all my crap up to the waiting train.  

And that about brings us up to here, where I am sitting in standby limbo, really really hoping with all my hoping might that they give me a seat and I get to go home after a few really aggravating and kind of sad last days in Germany.  

Don't worry, this may be the last post from Germany, but I really do promise to catch you up as best as I can on what I've been doing for the last month (but I'll cut the crap bits out, I hope) and I plan on taking the blog out like I brought it in to Germany with a "Zum letzten Mal/For the Last Time" post.

Oops.  Just noticed my name's not on the standby list.  Gotta check that out.