I was busy on October 8 so here’s the stuff from that day. It was time to leave New York so I was focused on wrap-up activities.
- Got up, had protein shake, took meds
- Had shower and got dressed
- Met Kathryn at the same cafe as the day before to have breakfast
Breakfast was good (I tried blintzes for the first time) but also sad, since it was the absolute end of our time together. The restaurant was busy and various emotions were happening and it was hard. But it was good, too.
- Walked Kathryn back to her apartment
- Took my bowls over to UPS to have them shipped home
- Strolled as slowly as I have ever strolled in my life back to the Airbnb, stopping to get myself a chai tea latte at Starbucks
- Drank my chai and messed around online and wrote some stuff
- Packed my things
- Got a cab to LaGuardia
- Checked my bag and got through security in like two seconds (it was so dead!)
- Got a sandwich and a yogurt and piddled around at my gate until time to board
LaGuardia felt really small compared to Atlanta, but I was at a specific terminal, and it seems like every terminal has its own baggage check/claim and security area and food court, making them pretty self-contained. I guess there were several more terminals that were the same way, each with their own gates, so the impression was deceptive.
There were high tops all over the place with tablet computers at each seat that allowed you to order food, play games, check the status of your flight, charge your device, and more. Really cool. If I had known I could just order food right there I might have done that instead of searching through the food court. What I ended up doing was going back out to the entrance (like I said, the terminal is really small) and finding the sandwich and yogurt (and some peanut butter M&Ms), then taking forever to realize that I had to walk down toward the gates to check out. I had looked at the restaurants, but one of them was very fancy and expensive (the seafood dish was $75!), one of them didn’t have anything I could eat, and I couldn’t tell how much the stuff was at the third. The food court had stuff like deli sandwiches, pizza, and burgers, none of which would have really worked for me.
I was in Zone 3 so I sat around when boarding started, and right at the last minute I went to the bathroom, and then suddenly they were making an announcement like “All passengers going to Atlanta come to Gate 10 now!” I went back out there and there was still a line to board, but it was short. Perfect timing, I suppose.
I was seated way in the back, and all the overhead bins were looking full, so I slipped into my window seat carrying both my laptop bag and my camera bag and hoped for the best. Miraculously, both of them fit under the seat in front of me, and that meant I was able to use my little laptop to do some writing during the flight! I also had my traditional hot tea and Biscoff cookies, and ate my peanut butter M&Ms, and took pictures out the window, and set the TV on the back of the chair in front of me to Japanese mode for fun. All in all, it was a good flight. Takeoff was kind of rough; there was a bunch of turbulence before we got to cruising altitude. And then landing was also rough! But the flight itself was smooth.
My plane arrived in Atlanta at around 9pm and it took about half an hour to take the Plane Train to baggage claim. Right on time. I met up with Sean and hugged him a lot. Then we went home.
- Unpacked all my stuff
- Left the computer to set up the next day, but set up my little laptop on the bed and messed around online a bit before finally going to sleep