Leaving on a Jet Plane

If all has gone well, by the time this piece of writing posts on my blog at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 17, I'll be on a plane that will be leaving the gate. My spouse is still at home.  When I made plans to go to my mom and dad's for her birthday, he was scheduled to teach more classes which have since been canceled.  And truth be told, he still has plenty of work to do, and leaving him at home meant that I can be gone a bit longer.

None of this would be possible if I hadn't been downsized.  The week-end after being told that my old bosses would be going their separate way from me, I found great plane tickets and made the decision.  A few weeks later, Putin would invade Ukraine, and I'll be surprised if we ever see such cheap airfare again in the next few months.

When I was at AWP in San Antonio in 2020, I saw great rates and booked a ticket to go up to celebrate my mom's birthday.  I knew that there were all sorts of rumblings about this new disease, but I was booking the ticket just 2 weeks in advance.  Surely the situation couldn't change that quickly, could it?

It could, and it did.  The ticket only cost $100, and I got a 2 year extension.  But I'm not using that ticket.  Since then, the airline has changed so much that it's easier to just give up the money and get a cheaper fare on a different airline.  And the real truth is that I didn't have the fortitude to deal with being on the phone to find out what how to find and use that ticket that I bought in 2020, as the online system wasn't recognizing me.

It's strange to think that I haven't been on a plane in 2 years.  I've gotten out of practice.  At one point, I could have packed for a trip in about 10 minutes.  I had a separate set of travel size cosmetics.  I knew which restaurants in which airports I hoped to find open and what food I hoped to buy there.

Now I mainly hope that my fellow passengers are healthy and masked.  I've always hoped for the health of fellow passengers, but it's different this year.  This year, I'm also hoping that everyone is vaccinated and in a calm mood.