May 23 2003
Departure Lounge
The day of departure draws nigh. I’m beginning to think that travelling on the Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend is a good idea. Everyone who is going somewhere will be there by then, either leaving Friday or Saturday. And the Canadians celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday on May 19, despite the fact that the actual day was May 24, so they won’t be cluttering up the airport, either. Though now I’ve said that, the airport will be jam-packed and/or my flight will be delayed so I’ll miss my connecting flight in Chicago (only 45 minutes to change planes! And O’Hare ain’t that small!) and/or there will be horrifying turbulence and/or it will all end in boredom and/or death.
Really, considering I have flown almost 27,000 miles since last June, you’d think I’d be positively blasé about it, instead of applying drugs and alcohol until sufficiently anesthetized to board and face the ordeal. Clearly, facing my fears just doesn’t work for me.
The good news is that I have my watch and it seems to be working in its usual approximate manner (hopefully the pilots have more accurate timepieces at their disposal). I am packed, and it’s my usual one carry on bag, though I broke my cardinal rule and am bringing no fewer than three pairs of shoes. All I can say is, I caved under the pressure of looking good under every possible climactic condition.
So I have today to tie up all loose ends at work, and Saturday to get waxed and polished and run a few last-minute errands, like getting an extra memory chip for the digital camera so I can take lots of vacation pictures and inflict them later on an unsuspecting public. I’m bringing my iBook so I can report from the road, so stay tuned.