D-Day (Departure Day!)

Held it together while leaving the office today, barely. Bald Eagle took me to the cab and I nearly lost it when he said ‘we’re gonna miss having you around here.’ (That’s about as close to emotional as he could ever be expected to get.) My eyes did well up with tears as we left National airport; the flight path went over the Mall (and ostensibly the office and my brand-new condo I’m leaving behind), and then north past the Cathedral, American U., and Bethesda… on such a clear day, I could see it all and it felt like a bit of a ‘this was your life in Washington’ 12-year review trip by air. And so I’m on to the next adventure!

Skygods smiling on me – though I’m currently ‘earning my transferred status’ with Delta and therefore waiting three months to ‘prove’ my worthiness for their Gold Medallion program (in the interim waiting in the lines with all the ‘little people,’ haha …) – the woman who checked me in took pity on me and waived my severely overweight bag (savings: $270), and was moved from a middle seat to the aisle in an exit row with a woman next to me who didn’t have any interest in trying to talk my ear off (thank god for that!) Flight was completely packed with people flying into the South of France for the Cannes Film Festival and the GrandPrix in Monte Carlo, I think. It was overall an uneventful trip, and I actually did sleep a bit, thanks to the earplugs and eyewear (a complete travel necessity - grazie, Mme. Etiquette!) and landed in Nice around 9:00 am.