The Holidays were nice. I had a whirlwind trip home to Boston, via Jon Weston’s Christmas Party, Mr. Lucky’s Bar and the Long Island Ferry only to be back in time for Matt Hayes’ bachelor Party on the 27th back in Philadelphia.
So now it’s Tuesday after Christmas, back in the office and a call comes in, much in a similar way. It’s my engineering manager from my project in Ajman. The message: get on a plane; don’t pass go, don’t collect $200, just put the phone down and get on a plane ASAP. Well, Matt and Erin’s wedding is Saturday, January 3rd and I’m not about to miss it. A phone call to the travel agent later, I’ve got a ticket on Air France booked for Monday, January 5, a whole one week away to plan/pack and otherwise get ready
New Year’s was a relaxed evening at The One, The Only, The Brian, The Brady’s Mad Pimpin’ Bachelor Pad in Philadelphia. The Hayes’ wedding is a blast, despite the extraordinary lack of single girls. Oh well, borrowing someone’s girlfriend (or newly married wife) for a dance or two isn’t so bad. A good time is had by all.
3:00 PM on Monday, January 5, finds me en-route to the international gate at good old PHL. A long line and agents handing out cancelled flight notices is never a good thing. I wait in line about an hour to talk to a ticketing agent. Flights connecting through Paris are booked solid for the next 4 days, she says. Great! No problem because I’m trying to get to Dubai. How about connecting through any other city, US, European or otherwise. I think this is being flexible. My previous flight, Atlanta to Dubai direct on Delta is booked 4 days out. There is a flight from JFK at 11PM – issue: they can’t get me to JFK. It would be up to me to rent a car, drive said car, return said car and take the shuttle to the airport 3 hours ahead of time to check in for the international flight. Unlikely. (The train doesn’t get me in on time at all.) There’s a flight out of DC at 10:00 tomorrow night, the only catch is that to get to DC I have to take a flight that leaves in 50 minutes. Okay, good enough. The ticketing agent makes the changes, gives me a handwritten paper ticket and tells me to run. Thankfully, my brother had the day off, so he came up and picked me up at Reagan National. I had a good, relaxing day of hanging out with Tom and family until the whole clan dropped me off at Dulles the next evening. After being the lucky recipient of the SSSS (special security screening selected) and given the chance repack the entirety of my fully loaded carry on and computer bag under TSA scrutiny, I made it to the gate in enough time for my last American meal at California Tortilla.
I got on the plane and promptly passed out. At some point, I woke up in Iraqi airspace and started to read a sailing book borrowed to me fourth-hand from the most recent ex-commodore of the sailing team. (Thanks Danielle, even though you don’t know it.) Three Days, 4 Airports, 2 flights, 8 security screenings, Emirati Passport control and a 45 minute luggage delay later, I met my driver outside the Dubai Airport. I’m ba-aaaack!
(Sorry Folks, no pictures worth looking at here)
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