this morning, i sprung out of bed with an extra “boing!” since today was my trip to miami. i was very much looking forward to this since i hadn’t been there in a year. there was a lot of family i hadn’t seen and that i missed very much. speaking on the phone isn’t quite the same sometimes. so ready to go i was, all packed up, organized the house a bit (there’s nothing worse than coming home to a messy place) and off to work i was. the plan was to work till about 3:30 or so and then head off to the airport. so i went to work, did my deed, and looked forward for 3:30 to come around…which seemed forever!!

finally the time came when it was time for me to leave, so i did. but instead of taking off to the airport, i decided last minute to head home and leave my car at the apt and get a ride from lisa to the airport. the plan would have worked great, except that traffic was unexpectedly bad-so the possibility of her getting home at her usual time was not possible. so by the time i got home (i too encountered traffic) i had two options, one: take the T; or two: call a cab. i decided to call a cab since getting to the T alone was going to take me about 10 minutes-and i was stressed out out enough as it was. calling the cab meant, i had to take the stuff out of my car, leave it inside the apartment hallway, run over to the bank for some cash and return before the cab got there. things were going ok-up until i thought i lost my apt keys. at this point, i thought i was going to have a heart attack. i raided my car, my bags, everything. i knew it was somewhere obvious, but because i was in a hurry, it wasn’t going to come up easy.

finally my keys turned up (they were in my bag, that i had searched twice) and ran my ass down to the bank, took out some cab money and ran back to find the cab there waiting for me. lucky for me the cab lady was very nice. this made me think, i’ve never had a lady for a cab driver-but i’m glad that today was the day i got one, that she was very nice, and that she got me to the airport in about fifteen minutes. this was a good thing since it was already 5:45 and my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:10.

at the airport, everything was going smooth. that’s until i was standing in line for the security check point where you’re supposed to have everything that’s liquid (including lipstick) in a zip lock quart bag. i made a conscious effort to place all my ‘liquid’ things in the check in luggage, but in my hurry of looking for my keys, i emptied out my daily use bag and dumped it in my backpack-this included a lipstick that i never use, chap stick, and a lip gloss. while holding the three items in my hand, i looked around and wondered if they were going to make me dump it because i didn’t have a freakin’ quart bag to put it in. lucky for me there was a nice girl standing behind me in line that was nice enough to place my things in her bag for the check point. when talking to her further, it turns out that she’s from miami too. not only that, but she went to the same elementary and middle school that i went to…we had a lot to talk about. complete stranger one minute, a lot in common the next. this is such a small world. although we didn’t graduate the same year, she’s six years younger, we shared a lot of the same teachers. after chatting for a while and exchanging emails, we went our separate ways to our gates. the flight itself was ok-i was pretty tired of sitting by the time we got to miami. i sat between two nice individuals and read my book by david sedaris.

once we arrived, i had to pick up my luggage from baggage claim. that felt like it took forever…i think i waited for my luggage for about 45 minutes. by the time i got home (my parents came to pick me up) it was 1:45, and i still hadn’t had anything to eat for dinner. lucky for me, my mom had just made croquettas de pollo the night before, so she fried some up for me to eat. yummy! before bed, i hung out with my cats and parents for a little. meet picaso, manchita, and negrita.