magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

Wake up. Shower. Coffee. Packing.

Fifteen minutes before I shut down my computer to put it in my bag I get an email with the final itinerary for the site visits in England. Friday is scheduled for a day trip, via plane to Liverpool, to visit a facility in Chester. My return flight to New York is out of Heathrow on Friday afternoon. There's no way I could do both. So I made some call, and to the best of my knowledge, as I left the house for JFK, I'm now going to be in London through Saturday.

The A. To the E. To the AirTrain monorail.

Check in. Security. Even after taking most of my jewelry off, including the bracelets that I was sure kept setting off the airport metal detectors for all my December trips, still, the detector went off, and I was pulled aside and patted down. 'Which is your luggage sir?'

'The green one there. And the black jacket and orange bag. And that's my laptop.'

'Wouldn't want to lose the laptop. It's probably the most expensive thing you're bringing with you.' I nodded in ascent, but really, it's almost five years old, it's probably not worth more than a few hundred dollars. My Camera is certainly worth more. My phone's close. Hell, even my glasses are close.

The gate. Boarding.

The plane was full except for the seat next to me. The rest of my row, and the whole row behind, was a party of British women, mid-twenties to middle-aged, who had started drinking in the terminal, and were already a bit sauced and loud by the time the flight started. The one on the other side of the empty seat was the first to pass out, and in so doing claimed the empty seat as well.

I watched Serenity, which no doubt would have been better on the big screen than on the tiny little monitor in the back of seat in front of me. Ate my vegan meal, which wasn't bad at all for airplane food, and two cute little single serving bottles of wine.

Reading. Attempt at sleep.

At some point, crossing time zones, some number of minutes at the end of the day vanished and today became tomorrow.