Wednesday, August 27, 2003

I almost ordered the smoked salmon platter for breakfast but realized I had been eating an excessive amount of salmon lately.  So, the $12 egg mcmuffins won out.  Omg, how do people wake up and function so early?  No wonder everyone has a coffee addiction.  I was up before the sun rose.  That's just not right.  Last night, Galahad said I could call him in the morning if I wanted but I could hear the note in his voice silently begging me not to call so early.  I decided that I wasn't feeling pitiful enough to need a morning pep talk from him even though the migraine was back and the 2 Excedrin didn't seem to be helping.

I popped another Imitrex on the early morning ride to the office at about 8 am.  I was told that I might be riding into the city very early to meet with customers.  So there I was sitting in the office again checking my email and doing routine work at an ungodly hour with a migraine.  The meeting I actually flew in for wasn't until 1 pm.  I was asked to schedule an extra 2 days there for client meetings.  I had a hunch that wouldn't happen, so I scheduled only 1 extra day which went to waste.

I was a teensy bit nervous about the 1 pm meeting as it had a couple of bigwigs in it, and I had to give a presentation of how smoothly knowledgeable I am.  Haha, I'm probably not overly charismatic whilst medicated, in pain, and bags under my eyes.  I put on my lip-gloss and went to town on my vast expertise, faking some serious self-confidence.  Lip-gloss is quite the confidence booster --- more powerful than alcohol in my eyes.  Plus Galahad had just bought me some new power pants.   Black dressy cargo pants -- perfect for the tech professional on the go.

The meeting went well with one small glitch (in my perfectionistic opinion but maybe no one else noticed it).  Then off to the airport to grab a bite to eat and my flight home.

When checking in at the automated kiosk, I was able to change my seat to a window this time.  My head was starting to pound and I was pretty sure I would need the wall of support.  Security wasn't too bad except for the whole "please remove your shoes cuz you might hurt someone with them" thing.  I wonder if I can just fly barefoot next time.  I hate wearing shoes anyway.

I wandered the 17 miles down to my gate, trying to scope out an eatery on the way.  Sad to say that I barely found one I liked with so many to choose from.  A Hawaiian taco stand.  Dunno how they are different but my burrito was kind of tasty.  ;)

As I was people-watching the multitudinous aberrations who frequent the Newark airport, I heard my flight announcing a gate change --- waaaay on the other side of the terminal.  Good thing I'm a light packer and I like to walk.  =)

So off I strut the 38 miles to my new gate where I find out that my flight (the last of the day) has been oversold.  They ask for volunteers to spend the night who will then get a $300 voucher.  Are they fucking crazy?  Apparently their clientele is even crazier as they got their volunteers in about 15 seconds.  The mad rush to board begins.

 I find out that the seat in the row in front of me has been removed for the exit row, so I now have lots of legroom.  Serendipity again! I settle into my seat and try to relax and ignore the fucking banging in my head.  Yeah, you guessed it, it didn't work too well.  I did get lucky with my seatmate.  He is also a tech professional.  We start chatting away.  The Excedrin turned me into quite the Chatty Cathy.  Next thing I know, it's been 45 minutes, and we haven't moved more than 10 feet on the runway.  Sigh.

We finally take off and I remember that tonight is the best night to view Mars in the eastern sky as it is the closest it will be to Earth in 73,000 years.  As luck would have it, I am on the eastern side of the plane so I get quite the view of Mars.  I'm still chatting away with my seatmate.  It's funny what strangers tell each other on airplanes.  It seems to provide some degree of anonymity knowing that one will probably never see the other again.  That enables people to get intimate with their life's details.  I learned a helluva lot about my new friend.  ;)