I had every intention of blogging both on Tuesday and Wednesday. Really, I did! But traveling thwarted the very best of my intentions, and now here we are on Thursday, finally catching up.

I did indeed manage to fit everything into my backpack. I'm rather proud of that feat. However, this trip represents the closest I have ever come to missing a flight. I left with what I thought was plenty of time, but what happened was this:

What you're beholding in this photo is me at an absolutely complete stop on the road 35 minutes prior to when I was supposed to be done boarding the plane. It had been like this for the last hour, and I was freaking out. Calmly. Because I don't externally panic. But you'd better believe I was panicked on the inside.

It was at this point that I canceled my off-site parking reservation, because I realized I'd never make it in time if I had to stop, park my car, hop on a shuttle, and dive right back into the fray. The man on the other end of the phone said, "Well, no problem, I can cancel it for you...I just hope the garage at the airport isn't full!" I almost laughed, because it's never been full when I parked before.

Guess what. It was full. I believe the actual words that went through my head were, "WHAT IN SEVEN HELLS?!?" and yes, my mind both bolded and italicized all of it. Convinced the universe was conspiring against me, I drove in regardless, where they were valet parking everyone that was required to park. I'm just hoping that I don't have an even more than ordinary exorbitant fee when I get back to Logan, since it was unavoidable.

After literally running all the way to the terminal, I stood in line while the world's slowest TSA agent took a full minute to check everyone's ticket and ID ahead of mine. At long last, they called any remaining passengers on my flight forward to the front of the line (which meant going ahead of the one single person left before me), and I made it on to the flight as the very last passenger boarding before they shut the door.

I have never been quite as relieved as I was when I was finally settled into my seat.

Everything after the mad dash/slow crawl to the flight has been marvelous. I'm currently outside of London in a small town called Chertsey, and I'm internally narrating this blog post in an involuntary British accent that I'm incapable of muting. Now that the business part of the trip is finished, I'll be heading into the city tomorrow to explore. More on that later, provided I get to the airport prior to my plane departing! In the meantime, I'm curling up with a lovely bar of chocolate, the likes of which accompany me on every business trip if I can help it.

Woodstock Writings