Just to make things interesting, am now having trouble with my contacts.
So it’s 5:00 am, and I have been awake for an hour.
I don’t need to be awake, actually, for another 30 minutes (the plan is to leave for the airport at 6:15), but as I was recently remarking to a friend who finds she cannot sleep in anymore, although I CAN sleep in (although I was truly surprised a week or two ago when I actually slept until 12:30 on a weekend–I was pretty sleep-deprived after ASA, though), since I have gotten old,* I find that if I am woken up, I cannot go back to sleep. I, who used to have lengthy conversations with people and then roll over remembering NOTHING, slowly drifting back to consciousness four hours later,** can no longer get back to sleep if someone calls me at 8:30 on a Saturday.***
Usually I don’t just randomly wake up on my own 90 minutes before I need to, at least, but I guess I’m a little stressed out about the day’s itinerary. Very shortly I will need to put on my special Compression Pantyhose, a must-have for the clotty traveler. They are like a girdle for the lower 2/3 of my body. When I arrive at the airport in Madison, there will be a mad dash to the bathroom to get out of them, let me tell you.
I just hope that I packed my giant sherpa backpack lightly enough that it will actually fit under the seat in front of me. On my flight from Boston to San Francisco in May, it was stuffed to near-zipper bursting and could not be wedged underneath to save my life, but for some reason none of the flight attendants seemed too bothered about it, so I got to ride with my feet up for approximately six hours. This time I tried to leave some wiggle room–perhaps even enough that I might be able to fit a four-pack of mini-bottles of wine in there. They sell them past the security checkpoint at SFO, you know, for $10. Since the tiny bottles of wine are $5 apiece on the plane, and I am typically forced to consume two of them for medical reasons,**** this represents quite a savings.
The packaging for the mini-bottles of wine, incidentally, suggests that you might like to take wine cycling, hiking, or BOATING. No mention is made of air travel–too obvious, maybe.
At any rate, it is time for breakfast. Don’t want to drink on an empty airborne stomach.
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*I’ll be 26 on November 6 if you were thinking of sending a card, or perhaps some black crepe.
**My mother took a really long time to accept this. She yelled at me every time for years, as if I was faking the sleep amnesia, before she finally started leaving detailed written instructions for things she wanted done around the house in her absence on weekends.
***Don’t do this. I’m old and I need my rest.
****Blood thinner.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Wine while cycling! What a great idea! Especially for those of us who need to keep our clotting in check.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Should you ever come to Britain, I feel compelled to warn you that they won’t let you bring liquids on planes in containers bigger than 100ml, which must all fit in a plastic bag 20cm by 20cm.
I reckon it’s all a ruse to make you buy your water, wine etc. for the expensive prices in duty-free.
Boating… I’m sure I’ve been in a punt with alcohol before now, although it was probably beer, in which case I couldn’t have been drinking it. A friend of mine once fell off a punt while attempting to pee into the river while drunk, but I wasn’t present on that occasion. Mercifully. His trainers stank of river all term.