On Remembering and Other Such Fancies

In case you are wondering where this particular blogger was last Thursday around 8:55am, I am not too shy to tell. I was lounging about in bed, updating my sparkling new iPod, while answering my mom's phone call.

My plans were simple and clear, unstress, unhurried and mellow. I would eventually get out of bed, and order a car to pick me up at 10:30am so that I could catch my 1:15pm flight home to enjoy a leisurely Thanksgiving with my parents.

A normal Thanksgiving tale, really.

Unless you then move on to wondering where this particular blogger was last Thursday around 8:56am. For then...everything changed.

Ruth Faces A New Truth

At that moment, the inconspicuous viewer would have seen said blogger suddenly jolt upright from bed, upon hearing her mom (on the phone) ask her if her flight has been delayed.

Upon hastily snatching my ticket from the floor under my jeans (what, you keep your ticket in "safer" places?), I noted an odd thing. Well, not that odd. My mom was right. My flight did not leave at 1:15 as ...imagined. No. My flight actually left at 11am. Which left me with two hours to get showered, get packed, get a car, get to the airport, get my boarding pass, get through security, get to the gate, and catch my flight.

I duly closed my eyes for a brief second before asking my mom if I could call her back.

Long story short, I managed to not only get to the airport, but also to the correct airport (after first directing the driver to the wrong one), and even on time. Only to find that my flight was delayed, and that I would be spending another Thanksgiving in the airport. And that I would be routed from New York to Florida via...well, the logical choice: Michigan.

?

Anyway, so life then continued as normal. It was lovely to be home, to hang out with my parents, to relax...and just be happy before going back to New York on Monday, and work on Tuesday.

And then on Sunday, my mom remarks in passing that she's taken off two more days. My eyebrows raise.

"Why," I ask, in my innocence.

"Because you're here until Tuesday."

I run for my ticket, this time strategically placed under my jeans in my bag. Indeed, I was a day off. I frantically called work.