It Begins

I didn't get exactly the best of starts this morning, though I really wasn't rushing.  Just as I got to the airport in Bloomington, I realized that I had forgotten my razor handle - I had blades but no handle.  Since home was five minutes away (and I had also forgotten to brush my teeth), I went back for it.

I guess I should also confess that I mistakenly used the men's room (thankfully unoccupied) at my gate.  I realized this only when I had to go back in several minutes later to retrieve the water bottle I had left behind, and I saw the urinals.  I kept repeating my travel mantra "phone, passport, wallet, sweater, phone, passport, wallet, sweater" in hopes that it would be an end to my problem with leaving things behind.

On the flight to Atlanta, I noticed a girl, one row up and across the aisle, who was watching a just-barely-in-theatres movie on her netbook.  I was wondering how she happened to have that movie already when I noticed the Chinese subtitles.  It took me right back to the little card-table store that appeared nightly in the alley across from our hotel in Shanghai (and from whom we probably bought 60 DVDs at 88 cents each).  I remember buying one of the Harry Potter movies - one which had just been released in theatres a few days prior.  Probably not strictly legal copies, but they were fun to watch.  You never knew what you would find - the silhouette of somebody's head in the way, part of the picture missing at the top to make room for unremovable Spanish or Chinese subtitles, or a skip that caused you to miss the last five minutes of the movie.  I wanted to catch her eye as we got off the plane and ask her about it, but I didn't have a chance.

For anyone traveling through Terminal F in Atlanta, eat before you get here.  Not many food choices, though I can recommend the applewood bacon and turkey panini at The Pecan Bistro.  Oh, and don't buy pop from a vending machine before lunch or they will try to charge you for it when they see it in your hand.

Now at the gate, waiting for the second leg, I popped open my Blogger app to add to today's entry.  Imagine my surprise when I found my latest loss, everything I had typed in Bloomington.  I think I need to get on the plane, get some sleep, and start again in Madrid!