All the things you want in one day

On a recent trip to NYC, my friend and I had grand plans to wander, to enjoy a few rooftop bars, to see a show, and to generally enjoy all that the city has to offer. Man, did we do this in spades. It was a great weekend, with perfect weather. I spent most of the time marveling at the ability, while in New York, to go anywhere, to do anything, at any time, unlike in my car-centric New England home environment.

My friend’s one request was that we plan dinner on Saturday to allow for enough time to not have to run for the show. She has some vision problems, and trying to run without being able to see where she puts her feet results in inevitably face plants on the ground or perhaps into poles, trash cans, bollards, or other obstacles. Not fun. I was happy to oblige because I don’t really like the stress of making a run for it anyway, regardless of visibility.

We had dinner at 5pm in a terrific Korean restaurant right around the corner from the theater. We took our time. We enjoyed the tasting menu for two. We tried a new type of liquor (soju, a Korean distilled spirit made from sweet potatoes), we enjoyed pork belly two ways, we had black sesame ice cream for dessert. We both ate so much we could barely touch the final beverage pairing let alone finish it.

The meal took about two hours, which was perfect, because that gave us a full hour to walk to the theater, where we got there so early we actually stood in line to wait to get in. This never happens for my friend, who, for the last few shows she has seen, inevitably never stands in line because of the aforementioned rushing as they run down the street.

We get into the theater and see people drinking wine out of souvenir sippy cups. Let me say that again: the theater had wine in sippy cups. Genius. I would have bought one were I not still uncomfortably stuffed from dinner. I bought a souvenir magnet (I collect those). The show was terrific, and I even made it to the restroom and back during intermission despite one of the longest bathroom lines I have ever seen (the line started two floors up and snaked down to the basement level). 

Pretty much everything went right that was supposed to go right. The next day, we took the subway to Brooklyn, ate pizza at a well-known pizza shop without having to wait in line. We walked back to Manhattan by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge (crowded yet totally fun). We found our second rooftop bar of the weekend. The weather was perfect. We found great pour over coffee and little French pastries at a shop near the water. Have I mentioned that the weekend was perfect?

That is, until I got to Penn Station. I had a train booked back to Boston with fifteen minutes to get from the train station to the bus depot next door. If I made the 10 o’clock bus, I would get home at about 11pm, as planned. If I missed it, there was one more bus, at 11pm, but I really didn’t want to sit around Boston’s South Street bus station at 10 o’clock at night, nor did I want to get home so late. But, at least I had a backup plan and I wouldn’t need it anyway because the trains run on time, right? 

Except when they don’t. First my train posted at 3 minutes late. Then ten. Then the dreaded fifteen, and there went my window to make my connection. Then, throughout my ride home, the window would change and go back to five minutes late, then ten minutes late, then … and so forth. 

I was ready at the door of the train with my bag when the doors opened in Boston. I bolted off that train and ran from the platform to the stairwell to the building next door, up one escalator, then up another, then I found the terminal and there was my bus! I saw it! I had made it!

Except, I hadn’t made it. That was a different bus from the same company. My bus had departed on time and I had missed it by about three minutes.

Deep breaths. I confirmed with the station agent that there was, in fact, an 11pm bus scheduled for that bay. I then went to buy a bottle of water at the McDonald’s open in the station (where the woman rang me up, went to get the water, put the bottle of water down at the end of the counter, and then came back to me to give my receipt. Um. Lady. You had the bottle of water in your hand. You couldn’t just hand it to me? I get that there is a process for people ordering food to pick up their food at the end of the counter, but the bottle of water was right…never mind.)

Luckily, hanging out in the train station wasn’t as creepy as I had anticipated. There were plenty of other people around also trying to get from here to there. The kindly station agent kept checking on me because he knew I was anxious to get home. The 11pm bus arrived on time and the bus driver was a hoot. But as I was sitting there, cursing the train that was late by just this much, I texted my friend who was still back in New York. She said she was sorry I was stuck there. I said it’s okay, it’s probably just karma for how smoothly our weekend went and payback for not having to run for the theater. She relayed that to her eleven-year old nephew who then said, “It’s never good to have everything you want in one day,” and that it was totally karma.

He is right.

Traveling with others

It is a rare and special thing to find someone with whom you can travel well.

You might get along with someone famously in person, but then when you try traveling together, certain differences become apparent right away.

Differences that, in particular, stem from a lack of travel experience for one person, and a dearth of it for the other.

I am by no means as well traveled as those who travel for a living. Consultants live out of their suitcases, taking airplanes to work every Monday, and airplanes home every Thursday. They know of the precious time wasted standing at the baggage carousel, and so they have figured out how to make a weeks' worth of clothes fit into one carry-on.

I am working on this. With every trip, I get a little better at figuring out which shoes I really do need, and how to make the most out of the limited space. I have learned that regular packing cubes frustrate me but the compression cubes are genius. I didn't think the shirt/pant folder would save me a darn bit of space, yet it is amazing at maximizing packing space. I still haven't found the best way to pack toiletries, but I'm working on that.

Tomorrow, I leave for a two day trip to two different cities. I will be traveling with three coworkers. Thankfully, I like all three. Not liking each other would make even a short trip an utter hell. We seem to have paired off naturally in terms of personality, so I have a travel buddy in particular within the group.

There is a fifth person who made a lot of travel arrangements, and I don't know her very well. I can only guess she doesn't travel much based on the decisions she made. I also know that she works closely with my two non-buddy traveling companions so I think they speak a sort of shorthand. No hard feelings among any of them, but I wonder if that's why the planning for the trip has seemed so frustrating to me.

I like my TSA pre-check status, traveling light, checking in early, flying Southwest. I know that the two major cities to which we will be traveling - Houston and Dallas - both have two major airports in them and that both cities are known for their absolutely legendary traffic. I might be the only one in the group who knows this. The others made their flight reservations first, leaving buddy J and I to follow along. J and I wanted Southwest but the other crew had already picked American. After we had booked and confirmed our flights, someone thought to look at a map and realized that flying into the other airport (that serves Southwest, ahem) would be better in terms of traffic getting to the venue. Too late, folks. Booking on American means change fees.

Then, time passed. I heard nothing more about hotels, plans. J asked for an itinerary. We were told it was forthcoming. We leave tomorrow. Yesterday, we asked again for an itinerary. There still was no mention of one, but we were asked to each bring in an empty wheelie suitcase so our employer didn't have to pay shipping fees to send the swag we're bringing on ahead of us. I really hate being asked to use my personal property for work purposes, especially when the work purposes are to cover the mistakes of others. It's not really that expensive to ship a few boxes if you plan ahead. Overnight or two-day shipping, on the other hand, costs a small fortune. Apparently, even though the planners knew about this trip for months, it occurred to no one to plan ahead and ship the necessary items.

Again, we asked for an itinerary. We were told there binders on someone's desk and to feel free to look at them. Huh? Binders? For two days? What?

The travel planner had printed out all of the details for everything for each city and had made a binder for each city. One binder. Not copies for each of us. I looked at my coworker and said, "The reason I keep asking for the itinerary is because it is unsettling to not know where I am sleeping tomorrow. Can I please just see the hotel reservation information?"

She understood, and offered to have me make copies of the materials in binders. I made two copies: one for me and one for J. She was relieved to have that info in hand, as was I.

I looked at the materials, and shared details with my sister, who lives in Dallas. She said our hotel is the complete opposite side of town as our event. Remember the traffic? The hotel couldn't be less convenient if we tried.

The best part was this afternoon before leaving work when our travel planner emailed us to remind us to bring the confirmation code from when we booked our flights through the work travel service so we could get our boarding passes at the airport tomorrow. Boarding passes at the airport? Who still does that? I've had my boarding passes on my phone since 8:15 this morning.

Deep breaths. It will all be okay. But man, is this highlighting a few things about how I travel. I pack lightly, I travel swiftly, I bring one - and only one - extra pair of shoes. I'll probably bring a swimsuit even though I most likely won't use it, but beyond that, I won't overpack. I will use TSA Pre-check and breeze through security with my one small carry on bag. I will not be lugging an extra suitcase full of work-related items. I will breathe. I will enjoy good company and have some fun out and about in the world.