My flight from Des Moines to Chicago left at 6:25 p.m. Thursday, after my speech. I saw there was an earlier one, 4:55 p.m., and I thought about trying to switch, but I would have had to rush after my talk, and I was chatting with people and listening to the last speaker, and I couldn’t have gotten on an earlier flight to Philly from Chicago anyway, so it wouldn’t have gotten me home any earlier. So I stuck with the 6:25. I had a 48-minute layover in O’Hare. Not my favorite option, but that was what there was to make the last Philly flight (8:45 p.m.).

Despite the rain, we took off on time. We landed early! I was thrilled how well this was going. And then we taxied and taxied and…circled all of O’Hare, finally parking somewhere on the tarmac to wait for a gate that did not become available until 8:35 p.m. About 10 of us ran to the Philly flight, and all “missed” it. As in, the plane was still there at the gate, and was for several more minutes, but they’d shut the door so that was that. While everyone was yelling about that I went online and grabbed a seat on the 6:20 a.m. flight (the 9:30 a.m. one disappeared before my eyes) and booked a room at the nearby Marriott. Alas, I wound up getting only about 4 hours of disjointed sleep because I was a bit worked up by the evening sprint through O’Hare. After writing a blog post about not running every day, I wound up running twice in one day! Only once by choice.

The speech itself went well. Alas, this was the first trip where my new dietary issues wound up being something of a bummer. Longtime readers have heard my lament of suffering from sore throats and congestion. It appears to be a combo of “silent reflux” and certain food sensitivities. Dairy is a big one.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time in airports over the last three days and it turns out to be a lot harder to avoid dairy than I’d realized when you’re eating at the sorts of places that pop up in airports. Everything has cheese on it. Almost any salad has a layer of cheese. Sandwiches all have cheese. Pizza is of course covered with it. Many random other entrees are served with, say, a cream-based topping. I wound up eating a sandwich with cheese on the flight out because I was hungry and I am pretty sure the “special sauce” on a burger I got later was dairy-based (I’m not experienced enough in this to ask…and maybe it’s denial. I want to be a person who can eat anything and it looked good.) Sure enough, throat trouble.

(I now realize that some of my older episodes of Before Breakfast sound a lot more gravelly because of my chronic congestion. While I am bummed about the dairy issue, my singing voice is more clear in its absence!)

I am back home now. I think things will calm down next week. I turned in the Tranquility by Tuesday manuscript. My four speeches this week are all done and I only have one event next week (virtual). We listed the house, and while keeping it clean for showings won’t be easy, at least the ground work is done. There is still a move to orchestrate at some point soon but not quite yet. So time to pause and breathe. Well, and take the kids trick-or-treating….

Photo: 5 a.m. airport selfie. Good times. 

I feel like I’m rusty…driving to the airport, going through security. At least the airlines appear to have been preserving people’s frequent flyer status from before the pandemic, so I was upgraded, which was nice. A glass of wine on a plane. And reading on a plane! With no one needing anything. I switched seats so a couple could sit together and they held hands through the whole flight. I didn’t need to sit next to anyone, so I had that flexibility.

I also did not need to tell anyone it was time to go to bed — something I have also done every night for the last 21 months. Sadly, I did not sleep as well in my hotel room as I could have. But I did wake up on my own (a few minutes before my alarm) rather than to someone calling “Mama!” I will get there eventually in my normal life too I am sure but it is also intriguingly different to start the day with a cup of coffee and a blog post rather than the school runs.

We shall see what life looks like in another year or two. I am not speaking this week (the work trip is something else) but that’s normally why I travel. I had built up my speaking business to a good place in the three years after my TED talk. I traveled to talk somewhere most weeks between March-June and Sept-October (peak conference season). Covid obviously changed that. I have been doing a lot of virtual speaking, which I like, but it’s got a different rhythm. It has been lovely not to have the same logistical pressure of figuring out overnight care and pumping and such. Pumping this morning reminded me of that! But there is something to be said for leaving normal life for a night or two occasionally. Hopefully there will be a good balance in the future…