When I arrived in Qatar I ran into a couple guys clearly in the same situation as me (backpacks, luggage, and male haircuts make it pretty obvious) so we started chatting as we waited for our luggage. Part of our conversation included them asking me how I was getting to my final destination, I said I had someone picking me up and told them how I thought they could arrange a ride for themselves if they needed something.
Then someone from the airline walked up to be and said, “Ms. Wolak? You have a message from Washington…” as she pulled me aside to tell me my luggage did not make the flight out of Washington-Dulles airport.
The two guys I was talking to had their eyes pop out of their heads like Simpsons characters because all they heard was the “you have a message from Washington” portion of the conversation. They said something about me being important as I returned to grab my carryon luggage. That was my chance at a great punch line even though I would have been the only one present who got the joke. I even had the unintentional setup of my casual, “Oh someone is picking me up,” there to back me up.
I should have said something like, “That Barrack is such a kidder!” just for fun, but I didn’t think of it. I was too busy rethinking what might be in my luggage that I could need so I confessed it was just lost luggage with a laugh and rushed off to file a claim.
I had 3 days of clothes on my back and just about everything I could need initially. My luggage came in the next evening and I was able to pick it up the following afternoon. So everything worked out in the end.
I just wish I would have capitalized on the “you have a message from Washington” moment better. Oh well, still pretty funny.
