Atlanta Airport

I’m blogging today (well, yesterday--I am posting this the day after I wrote it) from Atlanta! My second flight on my way to Jacksonville leaves in a little over an hour.

As I’ve mentioned (and complained about ad nauseam), Terry is in St. Augustine, Florida, for an extended business trip. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to come home, and actually they have only had one day off since leaving LA on October 29. Since things are so hectic for him—late nights, working weekends, general stress—we considered that perhaps I shouldn’t even visit. But ultimately, even a little time together is better than none, and hopefully my presence can somehow reduce Terry’s stress a little.

Traveling today has been rather stressful for me, though. I had a super early flight at 6:40 am, which meant a 4 am wake up call. Even Scout tried to stay in bed when I called him for breakfast. Upon arriving at the airport, I dropped off my bag at our usual parking garage and then drove my car up to self-park. When I came back downstairs, my bag was gone! The attendant said he had put it on the shuttle—and the shuttle had left without me. I’m really not the type to complain (at least out loud) when things like this happen. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re doing their best. But at 5 am when I’m trying to make it to a flight on time and my bag is who knows where, I’m likely going to feel less than agreeable.

Thankfully, after about 15 minutes, the shuttle with my bag came back (and I’ll ignore the fact that instead of immediately whisking me off to the terminal with profuse apologies, they chose to wait for the ridiculously slow folks who arrived after I was already seated and the shuttle was moving), and I found an insane security line waiting for me. Two women promptly cut in front of me, and I nearly lost it. Instead, I just took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that karma would get them. (Later, when the security line branched into two, they chose the super slow line and I got in the speedy line, so I felt at least a little vindicated.)

I didn’t have time to buy a water or a book, as I had planned, which disappointed me, because the first leg of the flight was four hours. But I had lovely seatmates, great flight attendants, and no problems on board.

The Atlanta airport is quite nice, and I’m impressed with the food. I had a choice between Five Guys Burgers and Fries (yummmm—but not as good as In N Out) or a few deli/café places. Ultimately, knowing how much pizza I had eaten in the last 48 hours and that we’ll most likely be indulging more than a bit on this trip, I went with a chicken sandwich, which came with some simple greens. A nice, healthy option for traveling. I also finally bought my water and have been chugging it while sitting here. Travel makes me so thirsty! I also bought myself a book, and I hope it’s a good one. I’ll need some entertainment out here while Terry works 9, 10, 11 hour days.

I didn’t have time to work out today (no way was I going to get up at 3 am for that!), but I loved yesterday’s workout, and I did the strength portion in my apartment. Gotta love watching the ol’ DVR while exercising! I completed four rounds of the following:

•  25 dumbbell walking lunges
• 25 dumbbell plie squats
• 25 calf raises
• 15 hamstring ball roll ins
• 25 inner thigh ball squeezes

You could easily omit the dumbbells for a bodyweight workout, and if you don’t have a stability ball you can just complete glute bridges instead of the hamstring ball roll ins and open-leg scissors instead of ball squeezes. I also added 30 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill.

Fun observations from my trip so far:

• The super rude college guy playing some game on his phone at what must have been full volume. A) Don’t tell me you don’t have headphones, dude. B) Are you completely unaware of the dozens of people around you, several of whom are giving you dirty looks? C) You’re probably too old to be playing that game. It’s fine that you’re still choosing to play it, but maybe be more discreet.
• I sneezed on the flight and a girl two rows up and two seats over was the one who said, “Bless you.” I sort of felt like it was out of her jurisdiction, but it was still very nice.
• I think there are 12 Starbucks in just this concourse of the Atlanta airport. I guess you don’t want to have to walk more than a few steps before you get to the next one.

Even though it’s been a long day already (and it’s only 12:30 pm California time), I’m looking forward to whatever time I get to spend with Terry over the next few days. I brought along some snacks from home, too, including these pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies, my favorite trail mix, and some homemade granola bars, plus popcorn and hot chocolate mix. Since these working conditions are so rough, hopefully the comfort food will serve as a boost for Terry and his coworkers. If not, at least it’s a break from Subway, which has been on the menu at least eight times since they arrived.

Of possible interest:

• This delicious looking pumpkinfluff dessert dip from 100 Days of Real Food (would you judge me if I make this before Terry gets home and eat it all by myself?)