But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I could leave town, I needed to finish a few last minute details. I needed to submit the homework that would be due while I was traveling, because I was missing two weeks in the middle of the semester. The past few days had been a mad dash of errands, homework, packing, and other preparation. I started my day with an eye doctor’s appointment, followed by dropping off my homework in Pasadena and attending another appointment there. I finished packing and got ready to go to the airport the suggested FOUR hours early (remember that little airline moving project at LAX? Delta recommended allowing at least four hours for an international flight). In all of the rush to get myself ready, I didn’t notice until after the Kansas contingent should have been in the air that not a single one of them had bothered to text me and let me know they were on their way.
I decided this was because each of them thought someone else was keeping me updated and didn’t want to overwhelm me with texts. Side note for anyone traveling with me in the future - I would rather hear six times that you’ve gotten to the airport than not hear at all. I hailed my ride-share and made my way to the airport, hopeful but uncertain that they would be joining me there. I decided to go to the terminal we would leave from instead of trying to meet them and get us all across the airport.
When they landed in LAX, I got several text messages. The Kansas contingent, unfamiliar with LAX before the Delta move, was unable to determine which terminal they were in. And the Delta employees were even less helpful. Upon boarding a bus they hoped was bound for our terminal, Jerynn asked the driver where they would be dropped off. (I had asked, by text, hoping to learn where I could most easily meet them.) The bus driver actually said that she did not know where she was taking them, she just drove where she was told. This did not inspire confidence in anyone. But as it turned out, they were able to quickly find the gate where I was waiting.
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| From the left: Ann, Jerynn, me, Dani |
We walked around the terminal to determine our dinner options before settling on a hamburger place. The burger was good, but it was ridiculously expensive - even by LA standards. After eating, we returned to the gate. We still had some time before departure, so we decided to set up a phone charging station around a nearby pole. The new seating had built-in plugs between the seats, but the whole thing wasn’t connected to power yet, due to the move. I pulled out Craig’s travel adaptor, which allowed us to charge multiple devices on a single plug. Soon we were taking turns sitting with the devices while others sat nearby on the slightly more comfortable chairs.
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| From the left: Mom, Dani, Ann, Jerynn |
The flight to London was largely unremarkable. The Kansas contingent was sitting together some distance from me, owing to the fact that we had purchased tickets separately. I was able to find them on the seat chat and we exchanged messages periodically through the flight. At one point, I walked back to visit. I could see that Ann, Jerynn, and Dani were asleep, but my mom was awake. They were on the other aisle, so I had to make my way back and around. By the time I returned to their row, my mom appeared to be asleep. I made my way back around to go down my aisle. I looked back and saw that my mom was awake again! I went back, determined that I would tap her on the arm even if she was pretending to be asleep by the time I got there. She was awake, so we stood back in the galley for awhile and talked before returning to our seats.
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