3 Minutes to Spare, My First Blizzard Ever, And Other Things That Have Happened in the Last 72 Hours
Yesterday morning, I left my comfortable bedroom-turned-aunt's-office-and-gallery to come back to New York City.
At home, I live 10 minutes away from LAX, so my family tends to take that for granted, and therefore, I never seem to get to the airport when I should. My flight left at 9:00 AM and I insisted on being at the airport at 7:00. After a few stops along the way, I finally got there at roughly 7:45. I was already nervous, playing on the possibility that I might in fact miss my plane. It took about 15 minutes to get checked in curbside, and then I thought there would be smooth-sailing... sort of.
Turns out that the line I was in after I got checked in to go to the security check was only for Delta's privileged first- and business-class customers. There was however, a 45-minute line outside for the rest of us common folk. After waiting just about 40 minutes, we finally trudged our way inside the airport, only to be greeted by the security check line that was about 20 to 30 minutes long! By 8:45, I absolutely thought I would miss my plane and would have to be bothered with that standby inconvenience, until a little old lady came out of nowhere and announced that she could let those of us on the 9:00 through the security line - a shortcut, of sorts. Along the way, I bumped into about 10 very colorful people who were eager to get on this plane.
But the woman wasn't loud enough. So, while the 10 of us were able to skate by and quickly get screened, there were about 30 people behind us who had no idea what was going on and only saw 10 people cheating their way through. The old woman announced that she could only let so many people in at a time, and she promptly proceeded to get yelled at and cursed out.
Feeling bad about her, but feeling fortunate at my own good luck, I ran all the way to gate 52A and called my aunt to report that I was in my seat with 3 minutes to spare.
Under 5 hours later, I was hailing a cab to take me back to my dorm in New York City. On the way, I passed by all the sights I've come to cherish in some way, like the giant mall in Queens I haven't been to because Queens is to far to shop, and all those Manhattan skyscrapers. Once I had crossed into Midtown Manhattan, I even passed by the Museum of Sex and that Park Avenue route I walked during my 72-hour sugar high.
And as I exited the cab, with chilling 10-degree weather, I kept thinking about how happy I was to be back here - even with the upcoming blizzard...