Traveling blunders

I’ve been a fair few places so far, and lord knows I’ve had many incidents befall me.

Coming back from the Spain trip of 2016 saw me struggling (and I mean struggling) to speak English after hardly speaking it for six weeks. But as I sat with my friends in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, lights began flashing.

You know the kind, the bright strobes meant to alert of some emergency.

I, being me, panicked. What was happening? What should we do? How do I speak English again?!

But what got me was the lack of concern in literally everyone else in the airport. Passengers just walked to and fro with their suitcases in tow like there wasn’t some potential disaster happening in or near the building.

Everything ended up being fine, but boy, was it crazy in the moment.

Flash forward to March 2020. Yes, that month and year. Sorry for the no trigger warning there.

I had been awake all night long because I left in a cab for the airport at 3 a.m.. I was on another plane, ready to be back in Indiana. My carry on might have been a bit too heavy, but I could get it into the overhead compartment, right? Didn’t need no man or anyone else to do it for me. I. Had. It.

Wrong.

That sucker fell right on my face and hit me square on the bridge of my nose. So I stood in the aisle, looking a fool with bent glasses and all the right conditions for a black eye.

Perfect.

A nice gentleman behind me helped after that, but it was too late. My pride was gone, but I didn’t end up with a shiner and my glasses didn’t break, so I call it a win. A very lackluster one, but a win in some regards.

There have certainly been others over the years and there’s bound to be more in the future. But, they all make for interesting stories to tell later, should I ever end up in a situation where I need fodder for a column or something. Wait....