Ha. Man. It only took me two days to fall off the wagon. I really do need someone to watch my every move or I'll just vanish again. BUT, I'm going to pretend I have an adequate excuse (which I really don't). Yesterday was somewhat busy (from about 3pm to 11pm which leaves a lot of room for me being horrendously lazy). This is a formal apology to myself for not writing like I should have. It's only hurting me.
Now that that's out of the way, TRAVEL. Today's topic.
It has come to my attention that I am almost incapable of arriving on time for a flight.
Today I flew from Indy to Atlanta. Fun times. And it really all starts at the airport. Well, I could start before then, but it's really boring. So, airport. We actually got to the airport with plenty of time for checkin and all that other stuff, much sooner than normal. Lovely chat with the check-in lady. Who very kindly game my mom a day pass to the airport so she could walk me too the gate. We are both 90% certain the woman thought I was much younger than I actually am, or this probably would not have happened. I checked my boarding pass, and we headed off towards the security line for concourse A. There was approximately no wait and I spent all of 10 seconds in the star trek machine before going to put my shoes on. Then a nice old TSA agent asked me if I watched Big Bang Theory. It took me a second to get the reference, but eventually it clicked. I'm wearing a flash T-shirt today. Laughter ensued and we headed to gate 15 where my plane should have been.
Gate A15 was a flight to Detroit.
Oops.
I had read the pass wrong and looked at my seat assignment instead. My plane was at B21. The other side of the airport. Mom and I had a good laugh at how stupid I was, and started heading to the other side of the airport. We had made it less than halfway there when the loudspeaker sounded.
".......Airtran flight 407 to Atlanta is on it's final boarding call... please make your way to the gate."
During those initial syllables, it was like a sitcom. That moment where the main characters have finally realized what they've done wrong, that the bomb could explode at any second, that they've left Macaulay Caulkin Home Alone...again. That slow motion moment right before everything goes to shit- where everyone looks at each other, eyes widening, pupils dialating, and the shock fully registers on their face. We had that.
And then there was the running.
And by running, I mean trotting.
And that didn't last very long.
Mom was falling behind. She is not, by any definition, an athlete. I glanced back and made the call.
"Do you want to just say goodbye here?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
There was time for a quick hug, kiss, and goodbye, before I was jogging through the terminal. It is at this point where I decided that running through an airport must be fairly common, TSA and Security are much nicer than the news claims, and/or I really don't look like a potential security threat.
Because I jogged/trotted/power-speed-walked through the backside of security, across the central area, and through the entirety of Concourse B.
And as per my usual arrival time, I was the last one on the plane. And because I was so late they had to change my seat. I got bumped up to the first seat on the plane. You know, the one without anyone sitting in front of you, the one with the extra leg space? That one. Yeah. And as soon as I got on the plane they offered me water. Which was nice because I am an out of shape lazy bum who can't even run through an airport without almost dying. And, because you're so close to the front of the plane the flight attendant cart can't effectively reach you (or something), so you end up with an almost personal flight attendant who every few minutes comes by and asks if you need anything. I ended up with milano cookies and an entire bottle of fancy icelandic water (which may be a lie- it could be from the tap and I'd never know), instead of the standard one cup and maybe a pack of pretzels, for my tardiness. Awesome.
But wait, there's more.
I also ended up getting off the plane first, and my bag dropped almost immediately at baggage claim. I felt like airport god was really happy with me today.
Quote of the Day:
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."
- Susan Ertz
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