Friday, June 24, 2005

The Joy of Flying: Part I

The fates are conspiring against me. It starts off early, with my not hearing the alarm blaring at 4AM Friday morning. Thankfully I showered before bed so I was able to be dressed and ready to go, even though my cab was coming in 5 minutes. Or at least it was supposed to. With early morning flights, I always make a point of reserving a cab the night before, with specific instructions for them to call me when they arrive. I live in an apartment complex where there is absolutely no way for me to know if someone is out front waiting for me or not - hence the phone call request. When I made the reservation, I had a funny feeling that things would get screwed up. My cab was supposed to arrive at 4:50AM and at 5AM I put in the call to find out where the hell it was. The dispatcher claimed 'The driver had a little trouble. He'll be there shortly. Let me call you back with how long it will be.' 5 minutes later he calls to say the cab was there and left because I wasn't outside waiting. Try to imagine the words that started flying out of my mouth at this point...it wasn't pretty. I let him have it as I grabbed my keys and headed out to my car...time to enforce Plan B.

Traffic is still pretty light because it's really early but I still need to figure out where to park once I get there and I'm 20 minutes behind schedule now. Normally I give myself plenty of time to get to the airport because I'm anal that way, but this time I didn't. I wanted sleep more. So I'm now in panic mode. There is not enough time. I found the parking lot and noticed a spot when I first drove in - yay! Then I had to hop on the train to the terminal - and of course my terminal is the furthest possible point from where I am. Just perfect! The whole time I'm on the train I'm thinking of contingency plans. How much am I willing to spend on a new ticket if they make me buy one, the fastest way to get through security, the fact that if I needed to run the flip flops were coming off. I'm just a wee bit anal...but you knew that already. I expect perfection and when chaos ensues, I'm not too good at handling it.

So when I get off the train and notice one of the express check in machines I head straight for it and think... 'I'm saved!' I have about 5 minutes before they start boarding my flight so I think I can make it...until the machine says I'm too late. Crap! Now what? I run into the terminal and finagle my way to the front of the international line thanks to some wonderfully kind people. I get to the counter and explain my predicament. The woman looks at my bags and asks if I need to check anything and thankfully the answer is no. 'Then I think you'll make it!' She directs me to the nearest security point and tell me the fastest way to the gate. I thank her and start my jog through the terminal. When I get to the security line, all I can see is a mass of people not moving. My internal panic attack starts up again and I'm determined to get past everyone in line. Again, I plead my case to one of the security officers...and he's willing to help. 'Just give me a minute.' A minute?? I don't have a minute! But he comes through and checks my ID and lets me bypass everyone. And then I have to wait again for the metal detector line, which isn't too bad, I just can't handle any more delays at this point. I get through without incident and start the jog to my gate and that's when I notice the clock.

6:00

'That can't be! It must be wrong! I'm....early.' My flight doesn't actually leave until 6:30, but they had almost finished boarding at this point. Did time stand still or something? It just doesn't seem possible that I could make the flight with time to spare. And then end up with a seat in an empty row too.

Maybe it's not such a bad morning after all.

Posted by Maple :: 2:02 PM :: 3 Comments:

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