Escape from DC

I can be a jackass sometimes—and I don’t just mean in ways that I’m always a jackass as far as you may be concerned, because that’s who I am; I mean, I can be a jackass even by my standards, even according to my own rules (or those I’ve embraced).

Case in point: I’m generally pretty good at counting my blessings and taking nothing for granted (life, health, employment, shelter, etc.), but occasionally, wanting more and wanting things to be perfect—not bad wants—can skew my circuitry. And so, a month or so ago when I learned I’d be traveling to Hawaii for work this week, my reaction was, ‘oh, okay.’ This will have been my sixth business trip to HI (first for this job), and, in my defense, it’s work—there are pretty mountains on the way too and from the meetings, and beautiful beaches, but it’s not like you’ll get out in time to enjoy them. Sure, it’s a nice change of scene, but when your coworkers are going to, say, Ghana, Vietnam and Cambodia, you can’t help but be a bit envious. Besides, the flight to HI is a long one, usually full of families. I hope I can get an aisle seat, away from those, I thought.

I know appreciate what a jackass I was. By Friday, I was scrambling to get to HI anyway I could—spoke to many a travel agent and airline agent as one flight after another that I’d been booked on was canceled (the rest of my team, which had booked out of Dulles, was less screwed). Eventually, a very resourceful AA agent got me on a flight leaving and getting in later than I would have liked (not to mention a day later), but at that point, I would have taken the first hot air balloon out of DC to pretty much anywhere else.

Seriously. Forget HI; take me to Omaha. Take me somewhere where I can leave the house. Ironically, I’d have had an easier time accepting staying in DC and not going to HI had the office been open—I’d have preferred to go to work. But the metro’s still not running above ground, and with more snow to hit DC today, it’s not going to be up and running today. The lack of resiliency is insane.

I had the resolve of someone given a second chance at life: when I get back, and DC is functioning again, I’ll do everything that’s going on—I’ll go to all the plays, trivia nights, concerts I can. At first when I thought I wouldn’t be able to go, I thought, ‘I’ll dig out all the stuff I turned down because I thought I’d be out of town.’ Then, realizing none of it would be going on, I became dejected. And promised it would be carpe diem when the city got back to normal.

To make a long story short, a very kind friend gave me a ride to Dulles. The ride to Georgetown was pretty rocky--rte. 1 was plowed but barely—but the rest of the trip was smooth. The orange line tracks run parallel to the highway were nowhere near clear.

Dulles was a ghost town. I took my sweet time getting to the gate (I had three hours)… stopped at Chipotle straight out of the security line to leisurely savor a breakfast burrito, then sauntered over to the gate. On a whim, I approached the counter and asked if there was any room on the flight and then on the one to Honolulu... and the woman doubted it, but worked her magic and got me on. I told her she was a saint.

I was so happy to be on my way that circumstances that would have annoyed me otherwise were immaterial. It was middle seats the whole way, with a loud, kicking child [not too small to be counseled otherwise] behind me on the longer flight. At one point I turned around.

A., politely: Would you please stop kicking my seat?
Kid’s mom: She’s not kicking!
Woman next to me: She’s kicking me, too!
A.: Impressive, isn’t it.
Woman next to me: She’s loud, too.
A.: She is, but it might be too much to ask to ask her mother to teach her about inside voices. I think it’s reasonable to ask her not to kick, though.
Woman: You’d think.

The truth is, perspective and all, loud, kicking kids on flights—especially in conjunction with self-righteous parents in denial—are annoying. The loudness bothered me less because I had my trusty noiseblockers (don’t leave home without them—really!) but my poor neighbor must have been going nuts.

It wasn't all frustrating (again, not that it mattered). I got to see an episode of 30 Rock (woohoo!) and Community, which I’d not seen before. Plus, Night at the Museum II was actually pretty funny. Love the Oscar the Grouch scene.

It is eerie to look outside and not see snow. It's eerie to be able to walk around without massive amounts of snow limiting every move. I’ve never been happier to be in Hawaii.