Flying by the seat of my pants

I have just paid to change an airline ticket because I made a mistake.
The entire time I was going through the online process (because I wanted to avoid waiting 25 minutes on hold to have a human charge me more to do this change over the phone) I was shaking and sick to my stomach.
Changing P.M. to A.M. is very costly.
But I need to get to where I am going. The same place I was going to when I booked my original fare more than two weeks in advance to save money. Problem: I need to be there 12 hours earlier.
I am the booker of flights in our house. I rarely, if ever, make a mistake.
When I have worked with travel agents for vacation "deals" in the past they asked me if I was in the industry, because  I have such a good grasp on how this ticketing thing works.
Who would have thought that booking four tickets at once would be my undoing?
I got the other three people in the house ticketed from two different starting points, two different dates and three different return points (yes three!) juggled without a problem. It think, I'm afraid to look.
I was even able to digest the outrageous fares we paid with 14-day advance ticket (because it is cheaper to book if you book earlier). It's a good thing Americans aren't flying these days, or the overstuffed planes, with no room in the overhead storage bins, would justify even more expensive airfares.
I just rebooked this multi-city airfare because I made a mistake, and it is costing me more to fly to Philadelphia than Peru. I kid you not.
I just paid my $200 change fee and $216 additional ticketing fee to get on an earlier flight to make a conference in Philadelphia. And, there is not even a seat on the seating chart that won't cost me even more money, so I am nervous that there might not be room for me on the plane.
The whole time I have been thinking about this process I have been seeing my travel life pass before my eyes.
How many times have the airlines cancelled flights on me or made me miss connections and messed up my schedule?
How many times have the airlines put me on a flight where the seat was broken, or some other malfunction --  not to mention vomiting children near me -- have messed up the experience?
How many times has my luggage (which I no longer relinquish for anything less than gate check with pick up on the jetway) gone someplace or somewhere it wasn't expected?
How many times have I been charged for premium seating because the seat map has boxed me out?
How many times has the person before me ruined the Sudoku puzzles, leaving me with nothing to do while electronic devices have to be turned off?
I hope none of you have suffered any of these pitfalls in your travels.
When a flight home from Madrid was cancelled because of mechanical issues and we were put up and pampered by the airline until another plane could take us safely across the Atlantic, I was the one who squashed the mutinies in that airline's defense. 
In my thousands of miles of travel I have always been forgiving of acts of God, weather, mechanical issues that can't be resolved and crew complications. I believe that as long as the airline is striving to get me to and from, safe and sound, all is good.
That is also why I have no problem standing in long, slow lines at security or even taking my shoes off and walking on the germy, nasty floor.
I pity the person, with the "weekender fare" sitting next to me on my flight to Philadelphia. Knowing that their free beverage costs $416 less than mine is not going to make for a cheerful seat companion. Especially, if I have to pay even more for an economy-plus seat to guarantee space on my earlier flight.