Thoughts from 37,000

Well, I'm not sure it's the total and absolute relieved and content feeling I expected it to be, but its pretty damn close. There's still shades of giddyness and apprehension (I really doubt that my bags are on this plane.) and am still winding down somewhat from the mad dash that this entire day turned out to be, but I'd be lying if I said the bottom line feeling was anything but G-R-E-A-T right now.

I've now had two bottles of wine (airline sampler size, unfortunately, so little more than a glass each, and unfortunately a rather disappointing wine at that, but its helped take the edge off a bit, anyways.) and am sitting here typing away, listening to some tunes (Eoin Duignan, the piper I got to see perform in Dingle on my last trip, who may be the one most solely responsible for inspiring me to try my hand at the pipes).

I was glad I held onto my old phone and was able to text in a few updates up until my departure from Chicago, but I want to take a second here to go back and flush out a bit more of what this day's been like. I should mention that when travelling, I really like to give myself LOTS of extra time. I have no problem sitting at a gate waiting 45 minutes or so for a flight, if it means I'm not stressing or freaking out about whether I'm going to make the flight, etc.

Still, the process of finalizing my packing just kept dragging out further and further. When I left Chicago Friday morning, I had all the stuff I was taking in about 5 bags. That didn't really get a chance to change until this morning. Yesterday (Saturday) was a day spent enjoying my remaining time with my family and by the time it was winding down after dinner, I had to regrettably extract myself from the celebrations somewhat to try and take care of some paperwork details and such, and was absolutely exhausted. The only period in my life that I can think of that is comparable to how the past months, weeks and ultimately, days have been like in terms the level of work, stress and exhaustion is the client merger project that I went through at work two years ago. By last night, I was feeling a lot of similarities. The one, glaring difference, obviously, is the end result of said work and stress.

This morning (Sunday), I tried to sleep in a bit, but still had a lot to do. I was up before 9, and was off and running. Dad and I went to visit Grandma, then ran a few last minute errands and stopped to grab breakfast--a ham and cheese omelet from Leo's Coney Island was my last meal on American soil for a while. Breakfast took longer than it should've and by the time we got home, it was already after 1pm. I scrambled through finishing my packing, deciding I didn't have time to try and optimize my luggage enough to get it down to just the one checked bag, so my backpack and roller bag it is. Getting a nice, meaningful update to the blog and sending out an overdue email to co-workers got cut out of the schedule, but we managed to get everything necessary done and packed up and were out the door by around 2:30, getting us to Metro Airport around 2:45--just under the recommended 2 hours for international flights.

Good thing we didn't cut it any closer. For whatever reason, American Airlines only had one person working the check-in for international and though the line wasn't that long when we got there, it took over an hour to get checked in! Thankfully, Dad and Judy stuck with me right up until I got in the security line, so they helped me to pass the time and keep my sanity. Although I think I owe Dad for what had to be a ridiculous "short term" parking bill at the end of it!

My one hope through the whole time in line was that at least the security line might not be too bad, because by the time I was checked in, it was already after 4pm, with my flight scheduled for a 4:40 departure. When we came around the corner and saw what a zoo security was, I immediately resigned to the fact that I was not going to make the flight.

As backed up as it was, however, I have to give credit to the TSA folks for pushing people through quickly and was shocked at how quickly I was through security. Of course, I have to hope no one was planning any evil doing today, because I can't imagine the checks were very thorough. The fact that I sent through an aluminum case packed with metal tubes with holes drilled in them and assorted electronics and wires and they didn't even seem to look twice or ask me if it was mine was simultaneously relieving and worrisome. Then again, perhaps someone goes through with a case full of pennywhistles, harmonicas and uilleann pipes a couple times a day.

I got to the gate just after the flight had started boarding and my boarding group was called just after I arrived. Perfect! I had some doubts whether my bags were going to make it, but at least I was on the flight. In a middle seat. Between a guy who was about 6'4" and had to be pushing 350, and a woman who was five months pregnant (and already fairly heavyset to begin with). Of course, I'm no stick either, so needless to say, we were wedged into that row pretty tight.

But we were on the flight and all looked good. Until the announcement came. For a few minutes, I held hope that we had a flight crew who had a bad sense of humor on April Fool's Day. But no, they were serious. Traffic control in Chicago was not going to be able to clear us for landing until an hour and fifteen minutes after our scheduled arrival, and we were going to be sitting there at the gate in the meanwhile. Unreal.

Well, a little luck came our way and we got off the ground "only" about 50 minutes later than scheduled. The flight to Chicago was fine, and I chatted quite a bit with the woman in the window seat (Sam, I believe her name was). A bit more luck had us arriving just two gates down from my departing flight to Ireland. Of course, I was in nearly the last row of the first flight, so by the time I got to the gate, they were nearly done boarding, but I made it.

Fortunately, its not a full flight, so I had no problem bringing both my laptop bag and my pipes case onboard. So that's one big worry that was a complete non-factor. I was once again in a middle seat (middle of the block of 3 in the middle section, but as it turns out, the seat to my right was empty, so I'm now in a seat with an aisle on my right and an empty seat to my left. Also, no one in front of me to lean back and crowd my space, so all told, it's about as comfortable a set up as you can have for an international flight.

The fellow on the other side of the empty seat to my left is a Galway man named Dobbs, who I've chatted with quite a bit already. He'd been visiting friends in Wisconsin for the past three weeks. Sounds like he's a frequent visitor to Coli's, which is one of several pubs that have been recommended to me for great sessions, so I suspect I'll be seeing him again before my travels are done.

Well, it is currently 3:30am Irish time. I just changed the clock on my laptop over, and the long haul of the past few days is starting to catch up with me, so I think I'm going to try and knock off for a couple hours at least. Tomorrow is going to be a long and rough enough day, especially depending on what I need to do about my luggage, assuming it didn't make this flight with me. But, then, perhaps I'll have just one more struck of luck and find both my bags waiting for me at baggage claim in the morning. We'll just have to wait and see.