It took me five minutes to run through the TSA check point,
and I am watching the last blue-gray of night, turn into the pink and gold of a
new morning. I’m glad that on the start of a very long day, TSA has not been
the major obstacle it usually is.
My journey began as of 2:30 a.m this morning. Getting up, no
matter what the occasion, is difficult for me, but my left over adrenaline from a mini-crisis (more on that later) helped me to get up before my alarm. I let the dog out, said
goodbye one more time, and made sure everything (well, almost everything) was
where it needed to be. With my sights on my usual pre-travel McDonald’s
breakfast meal, I forgot my new neck pillow (so close…). No vacation is ever
complete unless I go back for one thing, so pre-vacation ritual completed; my
mother and I got on the road and headed for the airport.
Crossing over the bridge, I realized how much I like living
on the coast. In the morning in particular, everything is peaceful and quiet.
Cruising down the highway, I said goodbye to the casinos as well as the beach.
I’ve never one to be homesick, but going this far away from home feels very
different. Two months had sounded like a long time, but looking out the car
window finally made it feel longer. We stopped into the McDonald’s and decided
to take the interstate. I didn’t feel like saying goodbye to the billboards, so
it was much easier to not think about home as I tore into my Sausage McMuffin,
no egg.
My home airport is never busy in the morning, but today I
found myself at the back of a long line of New York-bound theatre students. Waiting
on the new travelers to check in, I planned how to make my goodbye to my mother
as short as possible and avoid the overdone crying-in-the-airport-goodbye
cliché. Usually, I don’t care how long goodbyes are. Long or medium (no
good-bye is ever short), I’m able to get my closure and go happily to my pat
down; however, since this is my first transoceanic flight, I knew that I’d have
to keep it short for the sake of our tear ducts.
Anyway, this is not goodbye dear reader, in fact it is only
beginning. I’m going to have stop posting because the gate agents just arrived
and I want to check out the Hudson News before I head out. I’ll try to post
about the trip through the day, but maybe I’ll just tell you all about it when
I make it to China!
Wish me luck,
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