New York City, part 1

I don't know how to explain this. In fact I'm sure I'm in the minority on this opinion. But I find flying in an airplane to be far more peaceful than the process of getting on the plane. Maybe it's the carryover effect from the unprecedented level of drama I experienced in May during my Austin excursion. But now I just have uneasy nervous feelings when I'm just sitting in an airport.

I left work a half hour early to drive up to Schiller Park. I've been parking at Blue Sky for a couple years now and I've always been pleased with their service. I arrived at their faculty around 7 and I had an 8:30 flight. My hope was to arrive in the terminal by 7:30 so I can check in my bag. So I wasn't thrilled when I was told we were going to the off-site international terminal first. We got there around 7:20 and I could feel the knots forming in my stomach with every red light that delayed us. The driver then told me to take the train to Terminal 3. I freaked, picking up my bag and sprinting  inside the terminal and down the stairs to the platform. By the grace of God, a train was waiting.

Security was a breeze, though I wasn't thrilled to see the last LGA fight was delayed by an hour and the JFK flight by 90 minutes. Going into this, I was second on the standby list, with the or four open seats. But with the delays, I couldn't help but dread the thought that someone might take a seat on my flight instead. If I didn't get this flight, I was not going to get out all night. Somehow the plane went out with 15 open seats, so it worked out. I'm scheduled to land around midnight. For the first time, I'm having hard liquor on a plane. I've had a few glass of red wine before, when in first class. But hey, I deserve to celebrate graduating and getting my 4.0 in grad school. I have my master's of science in HR management now. And if I can't attend a ceremony for another eleven months, than damn it, I'm going to treat myself now.

I have at least another hour in the air and I have to take a bus and subway to get to my destination in Pelham Bay in the Bronx. Probably won't be getting to sleep until 2 in the morning. But at least I get to start Friday morning in New York, rather than waking up at 3 am in Chicago. It's going to be a fun three days.