Back to Spain

Well, guys, I’m off again.

I’m sitting outside my gate waiting for my flight, which is in six hours. I was supposed to fly out at 2:40 p.m. but the flight was delayed to 3:49 p.m. That would have meant missing my connection in Dallas. So I was changed to a different flight, which will leave here at 6:44 p.m. and Dallas at 9:25 p.m. I will get to Madrid at 2 p.m. on the 28th. Thank God I have Ambien.

Of course, since this is ME, there was a bobble. (And no, it did not involve getting lost.) Sarah and I leave a half hour later than we mean to, but I still have 3.5 hours after I arrive so I’m fine. At the airport I get out and she says, “Do you have everything?” Thinking in terms of Brenham, I say, “Well, if I don’t I’m screwed.” She hands me some disposable masks I want just in case and I stuff them in my back pocket. Where I usually put my cell phone.

You guys see where I’m going with this.

We hug goodbye, I walk through the doors, and realize what I’ve done. I borrow a stranger’s phone and call her number, which I fortunately know. No answer. Then I call myself, thinking it’ll show up in the car display.

My message instantly reminds me I silence unknown callers.

So I call Mom. I actually know her number too. Both of them. ( Don’t be too impressed; the amount of phone numbers I’ve memorized is less than ten.) No answer. By this time I’ve figured out what having my Apple Watch MEANS, so I thank the man, give him back his phone and call Mom again. This time she answers. She tells me she called me and asked Sarah why she was answering my phone, but Sarah had assumed she was still close enough to me for the car to pick me up. She calls Sarah to tell her to turn around. Sarah comes back and gives me my phone.

I consider self-checking in, but thank goodness I don’t because it takes the agent a good ten minutes to get me sorted out. In the meantime, the AirTag Mom bought for my backpack, that I could have SWORN I set up last night, isn’t showing up on my list of devices. I’m trying to pair and it just won’t. So I check the bag knowing I’m just going to have to take its arrival on faith.

I’m in the security line when I realize it appears under “Items” and not “Devices.” My phone then proceeds to tell me my backpack and I are not together, but it was last at the Barbara Jordan Airport (apparently there was a name change?) until I tell it to stop.

Going through security I have to divest myself of hiking boots, cell phone, watch, money belt, pocket contents, and scarf as well as unpack my laptop. I feel like the poster child for “How Not to Get through TSA Checks Quickly.”

But I will need the boots (brought the poles this time, too) and they are big and heavy to pack. Scarves are versatile, and I feel better when my laptop is with me. Not to mention, as I just realized, I can do some work and make up some hours during this downtime. So I just moved to prime gate real estate, although the most uncomfortable.