Bad Week Ahead

I can already tell that this is going to be a rough week in America: I woke at 1:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep until after 3:30.

Ouch!

The first part of my trip to America was not that great. I got up a bit earlier than planned in Frankfurt, got cleaned up and headed to the airport—which is where the fun started. I got to the airport at about 7:45 or 8—I’m not sure of the exact time and, regardless, check-in took only a few minutes, thanks to my elite status. However, I do know that by the time I got through painfully long immigration line and the painfully slow security line (part one), it was about 9:15, and I decided to head straight to the gate and its security line (part two).

Good thing: security (part two) also had a long line: 45 minutes later, I was finally through the second checkpoint.

Never before have I seen the queuing situation at Frankfurt that bad. Never before have I actually stood in line continuously for basically two hours. The fact that our flight pushed less than ten minutes late is astonishing to me; and of great relief for I had, relatively speaking, a tight connection on the other side of the Atlantic; a scheduled 75 minutes, arriving at a time when immigration has a good shot at being incredibly slow, if I were trapped after plane loads of Japanese passengers arriving from over the Pacific.

It was smooth sailing, both over the Atlantic (15 minutes early, nice flight attendants) and entering America. Although there were lines, and I didn’t set any speed records, I got back onto the concourse with an hour before my connecting flight.

I promptly went to Taco Bell and had a Burrito Supreme—I wish B from Eurotrippen was with me!

It was cool getting to DC—we flew over the city, and I could spot the important national monuments and buildings that are too easy: Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and… the list goes on and on. Less than an hour after landing, I was on the steps of my bed and breakfast.

On the bad new side, although I hoped to go see Brent Everett last night (a rare public appearance), at about 9pm, I couldn’t stay awake any longer – it was physically impossible. I talked to a girl friend for a few minutes, hung up, and fell asleep—before waking at 01:30; I briefly thought about heading to the club (it’s four blocks from my bedroom), but it closed at 3 and I thought it would be rather foolish to pay a cover-charge for an hours worth of entertainment.

Here’s to a better Saturday and rest of my week in America.