i have nothing to say for myself...

don't get me wrong, i LOVE to travel. i just seem to have trouble with TIME. the last several times i've ventured out of the greater dc area, i've almost missed my transportation back. it started when i went to buffalo for christmas to visit my sister and her hubs and 2 kiddos. i got there just fine, but for my return flight, the self-check at the airport wouldn't recognize my reservation. after a few puzzling swipes of all my credit cards yielded the same results, the attendant took my name and informed me that i was at the wrong airport and that, no, she was not joking. she kindly booked me on the last seat of the flight leaving from rochester (where i'd made my poor relatives drive for an hour, instead of buffalo, which was about 10 minutes away) and didn't even charge me.

the next day i adventurously took the chinatown bus to philly for the new year. after a low key new year's eve and a day of showing me around, chris and i were rather hungry. we wandered around chinatown looking for the "good noodle" place that chris vaguely remembered, finally settling instead for a touristy, but decent alternative. it was fast, but not quite fast enough. he only just managed to get me to the last chinatown bus back to dc. but i was on the bus; no damage done.

over the fourth of july, i dawdled at my sister's hotel room before catching a cab to meet my friend mary on the train to jersey. my cabbie was less than pleased with the 20 minutes i gave him to get me across town and dropped me at the wrong station. upon discovering his mistake (an innocent one, though i've made it sound malicious), i booked it the few blocks to penn station and made the train with literally seconds to spare. (i then had to dodge the conductor while i looked for mary, who'd called when i had 11, 7, and 3 minutes to departure but was still en route, and offered to buy my ticket. bless her.)

in october, after a relaxing lunch and stroll around times square with my sister, i put her in a cab and told her i'd wait till she was off to make sure there weren't any problems. i then checked my watch and gave her a quick hug before sprinting several new york blocks with my luggage in tow to catch my bus. in addition to being sweaty, out of breath, and a bit frantic, i was berated by a bossy ticket-taker for being late.

this all in the last year.

so, to make sure i didn't screw up my thanksgiving flight (BOTH of my sisters would be in buffalo, woo hoo!), i left work at 1:30pm for my 4:30pm flight. i arrived at the airport at 2 and realized that i had no idea which airline i was flying. i went to two separate airlines' check-in kiosks and had to call 3 people to hack* into my gmail to find my receipt, only to realize that i was FOUR HOURS EARLY for my flight. that's right. somewhere in the 6 weeks between booking my flight and leaving myself a digital reminder, "leave for flight at 4:30," my brain had changed the note to "leave for 4:30 flight." oy. i guess it's good that i was so early because i was at the wrong end of the airport for my airline. after checking in (at the correct kiosk), i managed to circle around BACK to the other side of the airport, wondering why one must check in at one end, and then hike back to the other for the gate, which was right across from a separate airline (one to which i'd previously attempted to check-in). i chewed on this while i chewed leisurely on my lunch. about an hour later, as i got to the front of the security line, i finally realized that i was supposed to be at gate 4, not 40 and that the northwest check-in was in fact very near the northwest gates. the tsa guard confirmed my idiocy. so AGAIN i trekked around to the other side of the airport, whizzed through security in about 10 minutes (after knocking someone's blackberry to the floor - oops, my bad!) and still had over an hour to spare.

it was totally worth it though. pictures coming soon...



*hack being used very loosely, considering that i gave them my login and password.