My Thursday

It was a cool, gloomy, rainy day in Syracuse. I woke up to find, to the surprise of all of us in the Himes' household, that we had no hot water. Okay, I can deal with that. Heated up a few pitchers in the microwave and made myself presentable. I was on my way to Baltimore for an NIH meeting, but, more importantly, to meet my old friend Mark for dinner. I would have plenty of time to wash my hair before dinner once I got to Baltimore. Got to the Syracuse airport to find that the parking garage was under construction and I would have to park in the open lot, a long walk in the cold rain. No problem, I hadn't had a good shower anyway. We boarded on time, then heard that the latch on the fuel tank cover was bent and would not close. We would wait for maintenance, and wait, and wait. We finally took off about 45 minutes late. So, there is no direct flight from Syracuse to Baltimore, I was flying through Philadelphia. Given that I had a 45 minute layover, I was feeling a little nervous, but hey, what are the chances that the BWI flight would leave on time? Turns out, VERY GOOD! Even though there were at least 8 of us trying to make that connection, and the flight is only about 30 minutes, would they wait? NO! We landed at 1:20 (the time the other flight was to depart) and were at the gate before 1:40...just in time to see it rolling away. There was another flight at 3:25, oversold and with a standby list. I was given a seat on the 6:25 flight. I now had nearly 5 hours to kill in the Philly airport. It is under a 2 hour drive by car from Philly to Baltimore....A little late lunch, a glass of wine, discovery of a renegade free wifi site....not so bad, but I'm really wishing I had taken a good shower. Then, just to top things off, the 6:25 flight is now delayed to 7:30!!! I long ago gave up on dinner plans, my goal now is to make it to the hotel in time for the debate. We get on the plane, we taxi, we taxi, we taxi some more...our taxing took longer than the actual flight. I grabbed a cab, with the only black Muslim Republican in Baltimore, and made it just in time to write this little missive before the debate! Success at last....