tedwords

"Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation." Benjamin Franklin

It's been an interesting month. Which, good. Interesting times. No curse there.

First off, it's now six months since THE EVENT. Finally went for my annual physical (my primary doc hasn't seen me since everything went down) and I am doing fine, which is nice to hear, and he doesn't need to see me for another year. Cardio rehab is winding down now and I feel stronger than I have in years. positive evolution. Still could do better, but it's hard when one is a hedonist.

Good thing I am doing better, because an hour after I came back from the check-up, I learned from my boss that I am being promoted at work...again. Second time in six months. The last was three days after the heart attack and right before a doctor's appointment (and right before Venice). I am now taking over my boss's job, as she has been promoted, too. I will have nine people reporting to me.

It's an exciting feeling, and kind of a proud one, too. I really thought when Joe hired me to work here ten years ago that I would never go any higher than Director, and I was happy with that. Now I have more oversight than he did, and he's been gone for five years. The work is crazy, it's a constant flow, but truth be told, I kind of like it.

A week after that, I flew to Dallas, to meet with one of my direct reports, a really nice lady who is six months pregnant and started with us in December. What a fiasco that was. Not because of meeting her (she is lovely), but because the minute I landed Sunday night, I noticed it was colder there than in Massachusetts. And the next day, when I woke up, all I heard was talk of an ice storm in Dallas. And then, two hours later, as I drove into the office and met S., we were told to leave in the next few hours, to avoid the dreaded ice storm.

You see, in Texas, they don't handle ice events the way we do in MA. In MA, those roads would have been salted and plowed throughout. In Dallas, the whole world shuts down. In MA, we would have looked at the ice outside and giggled.

But I wasn't giggling when my isolation in the Residence Inn I was staying in moved into day three. Here is what I wrote the night before:

Day two of my Dallas entrapment. No martinis in sight. Dependent on Uber Eats. Only 4 flashy shirts to display on Zoom calls. Annoying exercise room that forces me to use a treadmill uncomfortably close to another human being if someone is in there. I discover an alternative: walking up and down the three floors of my hotel is an easy way to clock in 4500 steps and avoid human contact. Attaching a photo of my accomodations. Existential fear exists that I won't be able to torture Corb with a shitty musical on Friday.

On Day 3, I woke up to discover my flight was moved to Thursday. Then learned, despite repeatedly checking on this with the front desk, that I could not extend my stay and had to rush around to find a new hotel. Fortunately, there was one about a mile away and I secured the last room. It's a much nicer hotel (with actual food!), but the drive to the hotel was not really pleasant. It was just a mile, but with none of the roads iced, it was kind of slippery and scary.

On Day 4, although the second hotel I was staying in was actually quite lovely, unlike yesterday, they did not have staff for lunch, forcing me to subsist on nuts and granola after breakfast. Yes, like a freaking squirrel. All the time, I watched my flight move farther and farther away. 11, then 12. Then 5, then 6. Next, 8 and only to LaGuardia. Only to LaGuardia? Wait, that doesn't make sense.

I needed to phone a friend, and our Travel Services folks got it straightened out. 730 flight. At 430, I headed out. The ice had pretty much melted, so I had an uneventful ride to the airport, dropped off my rental, was driven by bus to the terminals, and then...CHAOS.

The Terminal A lines were insane. Maybe half a mile long, minimum. I was Terminal E, which was a 40 minute drive by transportation, and the people were horrible and grouchy.

I arrived at Terminal E at 6:10, with 40 minutes before my flight was to start embarking. The line wasn't as bad as Terminal A, so I thought I was golden.

At 648, I realized I wasnt. There was no way I was going to make it.

I had been texting with my sister and she had mentioned what a game changer CLEAR was. And suddenly, I looked over, and there was a bank of CLEAR kiosks. Gee, it pays to actually pay attention, huh? Ten minutes later, I was through security and in my way to the gate. I actually arrived before they started boarding.

I arrived home at midnight. Went to bed at two. Man, was I tired that night.

Since then, I helped the Eldredge Players put up their first real show since the pandemic, have been conducted quarterly reviews for all my new people, and Corb has been busy getting ready for the one year anniversary of his space at Shiplap, which he is celebrating by doubling the size of his area. Again!

Onward and upward, it feels like. Life is a crazy adventure these days. I'm just here for the ride.