I’m dealing with some anxiety today. The cup of coffee this morning probably wasn’t the best idea ever. I’m awake, but now I’m a little bit jittery.
We’re flying to Vermont tomorrow morning. Our flight is around 11:30 out of Jacksonville, Florida, so we’re leaving home around 7:30 so we have plenty of time to navigate our way there and check in and navigate our way around the airport.
I don’t like airports.
They’re big and loud and confusing. There are people everywhere, rushing around, waiting around, running, sitting, talking on cell phones, typing on laptops. Garbled voices on overhead speakers make announcements from underwater, decrypted only by other employees of the airport, but they’re not telling. Planes are late, delayed, routed to different gates. Stone-faced security people run wands over my limbs that beep at the underwire in my bra, they pull everything out of my luggage, they examine the bottoms of my feet.
Flying doesn’t bother me. Once I get on the airplane, I’m better. I have a seat, I have my luggage, I’ve accomplished everything I needed to accomplish to complete my part of the deal. All the other people in the plane have their own seats, have their own business, and we can all sit there, neatly organized in rows and columns, and wait. There’s no chaos. No rushing and waiting. Just sitting and watching the familiar routine of the flight.
And I am getting much better about it. There was a while there when something would happen to me every single time I went to the airport. Usually I was pulled aside for extra security checks. Because a short, blonde chick is apparently a security risk.
This will be my second flight with Justin. Flying with someone is so much better than flying alone, except I tend to worry about both of us, then, instead of just me. And if I don’t watch it, I’ll let myself get worked up because I know that he’s there to handle everything. When I was traveling alone, I had to hold it together because no one else was there to help me. I very much prefer flying with Justin than flying alone.
So, once we navigate our way to the airport, get to our plane, fly to Vermont, and collect our luggage from the Burlington airport, the next several days will be spent with Justin’s friends, family, and family friends. There’s the graduation and the parties, rubbing elbows with people I know pretty well, kind of well, and know not at all. And I know that, really, it’s all going to go perfectly well. I get along with his friends and his family, and I can mingle with strangers just fine.
I’m just dealing with pre-travel jitters.
My computer is lying in pieces on the floor of my office. Justin is trying to get something working and it’s not been going very well. Yesterday, I went into my office and my computer was running in loops—turning on, booting up, starting to load Windows, freaking out, turning off . . . turning on, booting up . . . . In the end, it should run much better, but it’s going to wait until we get back from our trip.
We have one load of laundry sitting in the dryer and one more load going in today so we have full drawers of clean laundry to choose for our luggage. The luggage is sitting on my trunk in my office, pulled out from my closet yesterday evening so I could look at carry-on and purse options. The purse options left me sitting on the bed reorganizing my purse to see if the wallet-insert would work well, while the carry-on bag sat in my office with a magazine and a couple books waiting to be packed.
Today, I have to make sure that everything I need to accomplish gets done before I leave at 6:00. The biggest project, a document out for review by the guys for the project completion on Tuesday, is out and waiting for comments or signatures of approval. I have to review a document that’s up for discussion at a meeting I’m going to miss tomorrow and hopefully pass on my comments. I’m supposed to find information for an article for the department newsletter. I need to find information about a Lean project I’m chairing so I can get started on that as quickly as possible. And find out information on an expense report that I need to get submitted.
When I get home, I need to:
- Unload the dishwasher
- Load the dirty dishes
- Water the plants
- Unplug my fountain because it’ll dry up and run on empty and that’s bad
- Fold the laundry in the dryer
- Ask Justin to wash the last load of laundry
- Dry and fold the last load of laundry
- Charge all my electronic devices
- Pack
- Remember to pack Jessi’s card
- Remember to pack the stuff Rose wanted from the attic
- Find a way to print off the directions and travel stuff
- Eat
- Sleep