It’s almost exactly T minus 24 hours until my flight from Houston to Pittsburgh takes off. I’ll stay the night with my niece and her girlfriend in Pittsburgh, maybe grab some Primanti Bros. the next day (it’s a must whenever I’m in Pittsburgh), and then drive three hours north to NWPA to see family and friends. I’m really looking forward to the trip, truth be told—aside from seeing family I haven’t seen in a while, I’ll be meeting my great-niece and great-nephew for the first time, and I’ll also be seeing a good friend I haven’t seen in almost a decade. I think it is going to be just the Christmas week I need.
But I am not looking forward to the travel itself, particularly because I picked a really shitty day to be at an airport. My usual travel anxiety set in about two days ago, and it has been slowly building. By tomorrow morning, it will be at its peak. I’ll be lucky if I get a few hours of sleep tonight.
Part of how I cope with this kind of trip-related anxiety is by making lists. I do this in other areas of my life, too (I am the king of to-do lists), but it’s particularly useful here. I have a list of tasks that I need to do. The first and most important is taking Zoe to boarding, which I did this morning. While it is a relief that it is done (getting her in the pet carrier is no joke), having to drop her off so early has only made me sadder, because now I have to spend the night in an apartment that is very empty without her. And we did not part on good terms...here she is refusing to make eye contact with me while I was telling her goodbye:
And then there’s packing, which requires separate lists. I have a long list of things I need for my checked bag, an almost equally long list of things for my carry-on bag (how many electronic devices and chargers can I fit into one carry-on bag?), and a list of things not to forget as I’m walking out the door (boarding pass, wallet, hoodie since I know it’s going to be cold when I land, etc.). To my surprise—I usually procrastinate—I got an early start on packing, and my checked bag is almost entirely packed.
The lists help me feel a little more in control, but ultimately, they don’t do much to help with the anxiety. I’m still at the mercy of my Uber driver, weather, lines at the airport, and a whole host of other uncontrollable factors. All I can do is hope tomorrow goes as smoothly as possible.
Anyway, that’s what’s on my mind tonight. What do you want to kibitz about?
