May 11^th 2010

6:32am

Lubbock, TX

I certainly wasn’t dreaming, at least something that I could remember like yesterday (yummy!!). Instead, it was as if I just got up from a bombardment of thoughts and events. Or maybe I just had a sound sleep. Either way, it was a “Holy Shit” moment. I was planning to leave for the airport by 6.45am. It was 6.32 already and I had to wake up other people too. First call went unanswered. I thought she must have been really tired. So tried again; nope, same response.

I called the next person; he answered and said he’ll come in 5-10minutes. “5-10 minutes!! I just got up” remarked to myself. I told him there was no hurry. Anyway, Lubbock airport is no “3 hours check-in prior to departure” one.

The thing that was plaguing me the most was the weight of the baggage (Random trivia: I used 4 ‘the’s in that line). So after the customary bath and grooming, first thing I did was to check them again. 52lbs. 51lbs. Made certain changes again, bringing them both to somewhere closer to 51.5lbs. Well, screw it if they object to the 2 lbs, I put the chocolates on top in case something needed to go.

7.12am

“Started for the airport”. I was too strung up to be involved in any conversation. Besides, the shoulder bag wasn’t any comfort, close to exploding on my back. I played out imagined scenarios, or “Worst case scenarios that can happen to GB” as I call them, where someone sees the humungous bag on my back and objects to it, asking me to check it in, $50??

We made it by 7.30ish. I literally ran with one baggage piece to the counter. Tried the self-service at the AA counter but to no avail. It didn’t let me and asked me to approach an agent.

Booth 1, operated by a senior guy and a female attending to an Asian couple with a baby, a humungous one checking in. No!! Not the baby, the baggage. Tip#1: Senior guys can be tough nuts some times when it comes to rules. Tip#2: Tip#1 is not a rule.

Booth 2, operated by a relatively “harmless” female agent, and she was already attending to someone before me. She was done quickly, I almost ran to her, bleating. Checked-in, all the way to end destination, yes!!! “Please put the baggage here” – referring to the dreaded scales. Bag 1, 35.. 42.. 47.. 51. Checked. Convinced that today’s my lucky day, I put forth Bag 2, same, 37, 46, 51.4lbs. Checked. Folks, I have just won the battle of checked-in baggage and the chocolates are saved!

After saying the bye-byes and adios to dear friends who came to the airport, I attempted the next hurdle: The security check-point. I was wondering if the “Checkpoint approved bag from Swiss Gear” would actually be accepted by TSA. What if they still wanted me to take out the laptop out of the sleeve? Can I return the bag to Dell saying the bag failed its purpose? Warily, I let it through the big black mouth of a machine to scan my stuff. Maybe they’ll find the secret stash of chocolates and would want me to open them up to see. Worst, they might want me to eat them all to make sure they’re not something else in disguise of chocolates. Unfortunately, they were far too serious for that kinda stuff. End result: I made it through the dreaded security check. Not that I was carrying some dangerous stuff, but still, you know… how *ucked up one can get, just like that?

Flight delayed by 30minutes. No biggie. Few calls, and a li’l breakfast, I was en route Dallas.

10.10am

DFW, Dallas

My connection starts boarding at 10.10am and takes off at 10.40am. I had 10minutes to sprint from B-something terminal to A39. I skipped the Skylink and instead went for the tried and tested method of walking. Ok, honestly, whoever came up with the idea of Walkways, or Walking elevators or whatever fanciful name they might have, deserves a Nobel in Air-transit: cut short my walking distance and time by almost 80 friggin’ percent!!! Just to make sure that I was a dumber while traveling, I asked the Agent at the boarding gate if my baggage would make it since there was no other flight from DFW to JFK and there wasn’t a lot of connection time.

She shrugged off, “if you could make it, they will do too”. What was beginning to feel warm and sunny, suddenly turned to embarrassment, did she add a subliminal “oh moron” to the sentence?? Anyway, in the flight, I was surprised that I actually picked a window seat on a 3 seater side rather than a 2 seater. Hmm… reason being my stomach’s pulled off a ‘Bangladesh beating Australia in cricket’ – upset for those who don’t follow cricket or Bangladesh or Australia. Got to my seat, and luckily, the aisle and window were occupied. For those wondering “lucky why”, the middle seat was vacant, well at least till we reached NY.

12.35am

1:35pm EST

One more hour to go. Scratch that, two more. Wait.. why did the airhostess announce it was a 2hr 35min flight then???

End of part 1.