So Close!

After everything has gone wrong here in the States, I can only hope that my trip is, at least negatively, uneventful. That is to say, I hope everything goes right in Rome.

At last count:

The British Airways strike is still in dispute, but has been, as of Wednesday, called off. My flight, however, remains canceled due to the "complexity of the negotiation time-table". Whatever, I'm still paying for something I'm not getting, and I still have to pay for another ticket. BA won't give me a refund, because I booked through Orbitz and not them...
Orbitz won't give me a refund unless I cancel the whole ticket. And even though I've called Orbitz, they still won't stop calling me with their stupid automatic message telling me to call them. Less than pleased. I'll probably come home to no less than 317 unheard messages from various sources...

The cloud of Ash from (insert name of unpronounceable Icelandic volcano here) has dissipated as of Monday, and many airlines are temporarily allowing airlines to operate in higher-than-normal ash densities. This most likely happened to prevent the airlines from losing any more money, but hey, I'm not complaining. Here's hoping this little piece of good luck holds out until Sunday. I'm still nervous. As a kicker, here's a satellite image of the volcano.

The tally so far: Trip logistics: 3
me: 1