This was a rough 24 hours traveling to Boston

I’m landing in Newark after a rough 24 hours traveling to Boston and back. It’s been a rough week. It’s been many long weeks while I’ve been leading my audit, but this has been a long week. By the time I suffered the full list of indignities, I felt ready to crack emotionally.

I left home Wednesday afternoon with what I thought would be plenty of time to catch my flight to Boston. Between one errand, traffic to and around the airport, closed and full airport parking lots, and a well-meaning but helpless United Airlines agent, I missed my 5:20 PM flight.

I sat around Terminal B waiting for my next flight – 8:50 PM. Had a cheapo burrito bowl for dinner, then made my way to security. It was a long line, even with TSA Pre-Check. Turns out I forgot to take out my nice swiss army knife from my laptop bag, so TSA confiscated it. Asked me what to do, and I said I don’t have a place to go and had to catch a flight. They dumped it. I kept the case though.

Halfway to the gate, I got a notification that my flight was delayed two hours and moved to a new gate at Terminal C. Where my car was parked! Oh I completely forgot my car was parked here! I could get my knife back, drop it off to the car, and still make my new (now delayed) flight. I hustled back to TSA, but both the agent and the supervisor said nope. It goes into a locked bin and I can’t get it back. A $40 knife gone. And more than three hours to sit around Newark.

At this point, while walking out, I felt tired and, I’ll admit, slightly emotional. Tired. Angry at myself for missing my flight, losing my knife, forgetting about my car.

I went to Terminal C (again), went through security (again), and decided to sit at a bar, get a drink, and just try to relax. Later I tried to get some hot snack and a coffee from Starbucks but the oven was officially off. And I guess they don’t turn them back on. I was starving at this point, but oh well.

I caught my new flight, took a Lyft from the airport to the hotel, and checked in. My shampoo had opened up in my toiletry bag, but at least this was the last indignity of the trip. And nothing got on my clothes.

Thursday morning, I woke up feeling slightly better. I ran for 25 mins at the hotel gym, got ready, had breakfast, and had a decent day in the office site. Made my flight, and now we’re landing back at Newark.

So happy to see Newark.

Lots of work to do still, but the Ipes leave on holiday in 48 hours. Work still be there, so I’ll do what I can for now, and park the rest for when I get back. I’m very much looking forward to some sightseeing with the family, trying out new foods, and being a stupid American abroad.