1) As much as I wanted to sleep on until 3:15 AM, my body wouldn’t let me. By that time I was just about down in the hotel lobby checking out. A cab came almost immediately, cutting my chat short with the nice lady at the desk, and it was off to the airport.
2) Speeding over 70 mph in the middle of the night up an unfamiliar interstate with a silent cabby is an experience. The amount of traffic out at that hour surprised me, too. One car weaving by much faster had a rear bumper made almost entirely of duct tape. I was glad to see the last of that!
3) Logan Airport doesn’t even open security until 5 AM, but New Orleans was active and brightly lit. I considered it a good omen, once through security, to hear Marcia Ball playing over the sound system. Not only is she one of the greatest Southern performers today, she is also my cousin Alice’s sister-in-law, and I’ve seen her perform live. She is amazing, and we must all go when she tours New England next.
4) Everyone has their seat preferences, and mine is the aisle. I would much rather be disturbed by seatmates going to the lavatory than have to disturb others myself. The price is protecting my projecting shoulder from traffic in the aisle.
4a) So I ended up squashed between the parties of an intense discussion: my seatmates, a male/female couple who may never have traveled by air before; the flight attendant, and the man actually assigned to sit in one of those seats. No surprise, the couple should have been sitting in those same seats across the aisle. The man was having so much trouble unbuckling his seatbelt I offered to help, and I reassured them they could keep their overhead bags where they were.
4b) Ultimately I ended up with one empty seat next to me on a “very full flight,” which is a great score.
5) This smooth flight to DFW alternated between rest and reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and anticipation of a long layover at my beloved Pappadeaux at Terminal A Gate 22. So you can imagine my delight when my DFW arrival gate was announced as A19!
6) Well, man plans and God laughs. First, Pappadeaux is actually at gate A25. And second, this.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
6a) They don’t open until 10 AM.
6b) With head high and resolute step, I brushed away my disappointment and a few bitter tears of denial with humor, found a Maggiano’s near my departure gate, and enjoyed a second breakfast of vegetable frittata and excellent coffee. My disappointment became a source of amusement on ye Fyceybkke, which is sometimes the best way.
6c) The nice young lady at the bar at Maggiano’s was taking excellent care of everybody while also on the phone with her toddler son’s pediatrician. He was so sick with earache and a few other things that her aunt was picking him up from daycare to bring him to the doctor’s right now, and she was going to have to leave her shift early to be there.
7) Another uneventful flight brought me to Atlanta, and the warm, bubbling welcome of my cousine Diane. (She writes it “cousiné.”) She knows the airport well, and after a teensy bit of confusion on my part I found her car, and off we went!
8) My cousin Carol, Diane’s younger sister and perpetual partner in crime, met us at Diane’s house, and we three headed out fairly quickly to visit their youngest sister, my cousin Dottie — talking all the way about everything. I hadn’t seen them since Daddy died in 2016, so there was a LOT to catch up on!
8a) Their mother, Aunt Eleanor, and I enjoyed a good rapport in my teenage years. So it was interesting to hear them remember her saying “When Granny said ‘Jump!’ you asked ‘How high?”” My own mother had sometimes said the same thing, but in different ways. I come from a family of strong women . . .
9) I had not seen Dottie in even longer, and it felt good to give her a big hug after all these years. We all sat around a table and just talked — very much like our parents in the Old Days — so much about living situations, our parents, weddings, travel, family. They loved seeing my pictures of Layla.
9a) Later in the evening, even more conversation, and I had to bid farewell to Carol. It was too short a time!
10) Diane and I called it an early night. I was dropping after a very early day, travel, excitement, and renewed ties. Despite still being keyed up, sleep came easily.
Don’t we look cute?