Pre-game

Sigh… made it! (barely..) Being that “I’ve done all this before” has apparently made me arrogant. All the planning ahead really did payoff. (I mean shoot, I got to spend my last weekend in DC with Mateo and my SUPER sis in-law!) However, there are ALWAYS things that come up. First gold star goes to my buddy ShMc as she not only patiently waited for me as I finished packing (thus leaving for the airport to catch my international flight an hour and a half later that I should have been), shipped the extra boxes I ended up with but also gave me a ride to the airport just as it decided to start snowing..

Though I arrived to the airport I still needed to drop the cell phone I’d been borrowing from my mum in the mail, unfortunately the drop box was on the far end of the terminal and my flight was supposed to be boarding in 20 minutes. So I checked in, which took roughly forever, got hammered with a $200 overweight fee on my bag (boo hiss) and then started trekking for this rumored mailbox. Second gold star goes to the nice police officer I asked for further directions that directed me towards the decently short security line and offered to drop the package off for me! (I strongly recommend giving the public servants in your life, foreign or domestic ;) a hug.) I ended up making it to my gate about 8 minutes before boarding, since it was running a couple minutes late. So when I came back from the loo I noticed that my gate, heading to BA, was directly across the hall from the gate departing for Accra, Ghana (if you’re looking at a map, Ghana is sitting just to the right of Cote d’Ivoire). So I looked around just in case I recognized anyone. Sure enough, a guy I knew from work was sitting there waiting to head back. It was great to have a chance to catch up (especially given all the excitement back in CdI since I’ve left.) I may have “done this all before” but sometimes it’s still a little scary, good to be reminded it’s a small world after all.