The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I jumpseated in to Memphis last night, leaving home after dark for the drive to the ABQ ramp with snow coming down in the mountains. When we arrived in Memphis, it was 70 degrees!  My first mission in MEM was to attach the new registration sticker to my domicile car out in the employee parking lot. It has been quite a while since I left it there, so I had no idea where it was. I spent about 15 minutes crisscrossing the rows of derelict cars and finally found the trusty VW, attaching the sticker to the tag (only 4 months late), thus ensuring it won't be towed away by an overzealous Fedex security Nazi. Mission accomplished, it's back to the library in AOC to wait for the appointed hour (3 am) to arrive. Finally met with tonight's FO and determined the sort was a little late, so we chatted awhile before going out to the airplane. When we arrived at the gate at about 3:10, this (the picture above) is what greeted us. See anything wrong? How would you suggest we get into the airplane? We waited on the crew bus for 30 minutes with repeated calls for help. Finally, the bus driver said she simply had to go b/c she had been at work for 14 hours and could no longer stay awake. We got out so she could leave and waited another 20 minutes before the load crew finally brought the crew stairs so they could start the onload. The freight is all that matters...two guys trying to accomplish their preflight duties do not. Of course, once we finally got aboard, now it was rush rush rush. I made the usual first night errors due to lack of sleep compounded by getting stale while waiting, but it was nice weather and we made it to Greenville with the sunrise without embarrassing ourselves too deeply.