This week I have been spending a fair amount of time in the air.
I don’t travel as often as George Clooney in Up in the Air but, like George’s character, I am robotic in my process. I go through security like a zombie—that’s the best way to do it, actually—and seldom get rattled. I often rent cars on the other end and that too has become rhythmic.
I don’t even travel as often as many of my colleagues. I have one client who flies out of Philly so often she’s been offered the airport employees’ discount at Auntie Anne’s.
Erma Bombeck wrote a popular book entitled, When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home.
While, sadly, I haven’t used my passport in quite some time, Erma’s book title swooshes through my head during some of my busiest domestic travel weeks. In fact, during time spent recently in a boarding area (no, not that time), I drew up a list of it’s-time-to-go-home triggers.
It’s time to go home when:
- you check the Departures monitor for your gate and have to look at your boarding pass to remember where you are going
- you and the US Airways flight attendants recognize each other–and smile fondly
- you use your travel toiletries more than the ones at home
- you sit down in a restaurant and look for the seat belt
- you achieve frequent shopper status at Taxco Sterling and HMS Newsstand (and Auntie Anne’s). The woman at the Taxco counter at National Airport knows which pieces I already have.
- you spot the same set of identically dressed adult twins twice (not yet, but it’s bound to happen!)
How about you? When is it time for you to go home?
Word Nymph 