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December 21, 2001
Leaving on a jet plane
I was supposed to fly home today. For the past few weeks, I'd been planning my time around the fact that the flight was around 6 p.m. So, last night, I stayed up till 3 a.m. backing up my laptop to CDs so that I could send it in for repair (the DVD drive is hosed). At 3:30, I finish the rest of my packing (the shoulder bag) and yank out the tickets. There, on the front, it says CO 4064, Newark to Ottawa, 930A. 9:30. 9:30 a.m. It's now 3:30 a.m. The recommended lead time is 3 hours for international flights, sure to be worse for being the Friday before Christmas. It takes an hour or so to travel to the airport (less if I wanted to front up cash for a cab). I quickly wrap up, grab a shower and run out the door. No sleep. Running on empty. Empty enough to leave sentence fragments all over this story.
Got to the airport in time and... I really don't know what people are thinking. Who, in their right mind, would show up one hour before a flight on what is likeliest the busiest travel day before Christmas, with the exception of the day before Thanksgiving? Airports are a great place to see the true personalities of people come out, I think. If it were easier for me and not likely to get me arrested, I'd probably do it more just for the entertainment value in people watching. The way people harass the counter staff and the gate staff... I'll bet they wouldn't put up with it if their customers did that to them, so it really baffles me when they seem to think that it's okay to do that to the people at the airports. Anyway, I'd given myself a 3 hour buffer, just to be safe and so I was relaxed and coasting the whole time.
Until I got to the waiting area, where I promptly fell asleep (after checking out this one rather attractive passenger). I woke up barely in time to get on the plane. Once seated on the plane, I was out again. Didn't see the security procedures, didn't see the plane taxi away from the gate, didn't feel the take off. In fact, I didn't feel anything until someone's bag thumped me on their way off the plane.
So I'm home, with a 6 hour nap behind me. It's Christmas. I have to do shopping for my family, still. Bring it on.
Posted by KinCross at December 21, 2001 05:09 PM