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Dee-troit!

I had a last minute request to travel for a client, so I headed out to Detroit this past week.  In the last year, I've learned how to better set boundaries on my personal time vs. my professional time, so I was only away from my family for one night - no big deal.  I'm a pretty easy-going traveler...I always assume I'll make my flight, and don't get worked up about small issues that pop up.  But, when I drove up the airport on Wednesday afternoon, and saw that the entire Terminal 1 parking ramp was closed (full?  construction?  I have no idea!) I started to panic a little bit.  I swallowed that panic, and calmly followed directions to park in the Terminal 2 ramp...and then I proceeded to miss my turn while driving, and ended up in some weird part of the airport that appeared to be restricted.  Tick-tock, tick-tock...it's fine, it's fine, I kept telling myself.  I finally managed to park, and get myself down to the light rail station to head to T1.  At 2:48pm, I looked up at the scheduled arrival of the next train..."will arrive in 5 minutes."  And my flight was starting to board at 3:05pm.  Panic!

The train finally got there, and took us to T1.  As we followed signage, I realized I had to take yet another train to get to the security area at the airport.  Deep breath in, deep breath out.  Miraculously, the security lines were short, and I flew through them in record time, and sprinted to my gate.  The plane was already boarding, but it was a full flight.  I had to gate check my carry-on, and when I made it to my seat (between two very nice women) I realized I was super sweaty, and pretty gross.  By the time we landed in Detroit, I was calm and cool again, and ready to get to the hotel.  The great thing is that someone who I used to work with in Travel was also in Detroit (same hotel) so we made plans to catch up over dinner. It was awesome to hear about how everyone was doing back in Travel, along with my old clients in the automotive industry.


The next day's meeting was fantastic, and definitely worth my time to fly out there.  The sales executive kindly drove me to the airport, and I took my sweet time getting to my gate.  I offered to gate check my bag, and they laughed and declined.  However, the flight was full, and I was one of the last people to board (on purpose)...and wouldn't you know it, due to space issues, they needed to gate check my bag.  Haha! (I knew all along they were going to have to gate check it...I was just trying to save them some time by offering in advance.)

There were pretty bad storms in Minnesota while I was gone, and we had to fly back through them...it was pretty bumpy, and we were tossed around like little rag dolls.  The guy next to me watched the weather on the whole flight home, and I kept my eyes on "Paddington" (which he also watched, when he thought I wasn't looking.)  I think both of us were nervous due to the weather, but were trying not to be externally panicked.  In any case, we survived, and I realized, once again, how much I do not like flying.  Ugh.

The rest of the week was good...homework, play dates, books, and movies.  Last night, Ava and I made brownies, and then three of her friends stopped over to hand deliver a birthday invite to her.  Pretty cute!  They had a last minute (short) playdate, and then everyone went to bed on time.  And I watched a movie!  (Scott was out at a friend's booya event for the night, so I had the tv all to myself!)



My little baker


It's a beautiful Sunday...bright sunny skies, yet, not as many leaves on the trees to rustle as the breeze goes through them.  Looks like fall is right around the corner!

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