getting to Boston

Remind me never to tempt the playoff gods by hoping for a regulation win. The Sharks/Oilers game went to triple, yes triple, overtime before the Oilers finally managed to bang one in and win their first game of the series. The winning shot didn't hit the twine until 11:30pm (totally blowing my opportunity to sleep more than 4 hours), but so be it. That's playoff hockey.

Was out of the house and on the way to SFO at 4:30am... and if it weren't for the absurdly early hour, I could deal with that kind of traffic on a daily basis. Took me just under 40 minutes to go the 45 miles to the airport (yes, the lanes were mostly empty), and I found a seat at the gate, fresh cup of Peet's coffee in hand by 5:45a.

When the gate agent finally arrived at 6:20a, I rolled the dice to see if I could get out of my middle seat (row 12) and into a window in Economy Plus. The agent held onto my boarding pass and said she'd do what she could. Since folks were upgrading out of Economy Plus and into First, I figured my chances were pretty good.

My expectations were too high.

The boarding process started (crush of folks at the ramp, jockeying to be the first one on after the First Class folks strolled in), and I had no boarding pass with which to join the fray.

My concern? I had a carry-on as well as my computer bag, and I didn't want to have to check my carry-on thanks to being last one on the plane. Delightfully, I heard my name called just as the boarding announcement rang out, and I snatched my new boarding card from the smiling agent and hurried over to the throng.

It was only on queue that I looked down to see I was now in row 24, seat F in a 26 row plane. No wonder she was smiling. I got most of what I asked for (an empty seat next to me, to boot!), but I never got to see who I would have sat next to had I stayed in row 12. Were they as non-intrusive as the woman who lightly snored in 24D most of the trip? Why do I even care?

Although I didn't sleep on the plane, I made it into Boston just fine, if a bit tired. While it's a dreary, misty overcast sky, I hear the sun is supposed to shine again 10 days from now.