five bucks & a granola bar.

As most of you know, I travel to NYC every other month or so for work. I normally do a same day down&back trip, but occasionally timing lends itself to an overnight. This week, six of us traveled down for meetings & dinner with one of our major customers. Since our flight was at 6am, one of my co-workers kindly agreed to pick me up in the am so that I could leave the car for Austin. Six am flights require a 3:15ish alarm, and I am forever afraid of oversleeping. As a result, I sleep very little before these types of trips. Said lack of sleep likely contributed to this…

We arrived at the airport at 5-ish, and were pleasantly surprised to see that the security line was short. We paused a bit to rearrange our little bags of liquids (working in cosmetics necessitates taking many little vials through security). I took that time to get my boarding pass and license ready. My license resides in my wallet. My wallet (normally) resides in my bag. I searched through my bag, stopping short of dumping out the contents on the airport tile. No. Wallet. I chuckled a bit to myself, and said aloud "you have GOT to be kidding me." No time to go home, and really…no way to get there b/c remember? I didn't have my car. Fortunately, what I DID have was my passport. Phew. We proceeded through security, and I explained the predicament to our other co-workers…and emphasized to them that I would be relying on their credit cards to finance this trip. As far as I was concerned? No stress. I had my passport. I had co-workers with credit cards. I had a Starbucks app on my phone. At the bottom of my bag, I had $5 and a granola bar. What else does a girl need for a day & 1/2 in NYC? 

Two things make this story one that I feel like documenting (well, THREE, actually)….

1. I didn't panic. There was simply no need. I had reviewed the previous few hours in my head, and knew that my wallet had to be at home, or in Gina's car. Not in the hands of some AMEX-wielding purse snatcher. I wasn't traveling alone, so there was zero chance of being stranded. Plus, I had my passport. The lesson: if any of you are questioning why I am learning to meditate, this story is why. Apparently, meditation is kryptonite to my worry/panic tendencies. 

2. About that passport. Everyone who asked was told that I "happened" to have my passport due to a recent trip to Montreal. Not exactly true. Yes, I happened to have my passport HANDY b/c of that trip to Montreal, but really? At a time of the morning that no one should be awake, much less trying to pull on tights and look presentable, the universe whispered "hey, grab that passport." And so I did. One just doesn't try to explain that little stroke of divine intervention to the president of one's company. 

3. I was retelling this story to my team during our check-in meeting yesterday. My boss said "well, at least you could have had a granola bar with your Starbucks!" I quickly explained that I had no intention of eating that granola bar. I had thrown it in my bag b/c our company president is diabetic, and I was concerned that we'd get stuck in NYC traffic, or delayed on the runway, or something equally time-consuming…and he might need sugar at some point. My boss said "Wait a minute. You were saving that granola bar for someone else??" Well, uhm…yeah. Wouldn't you?

Have a beautiful weekend, friends. 

ps. As suspected, my wallet was at home. Shoved in my lunch-bag, sitting on the kitchen table. No worries.