It’s time to pack. I leave early tomorrow morning for Palm Springs.

By early, I mean early. I’ll be rolling out of here shortly after 5 am.

But, I only have to walk a couple of blocks to the Canada Line transit & less than twenty minutes later, I’ll be wheeling my carry-on around the Vancouver airport…desperate to get to one of the seven million Starbucks that litter the airport.

Then, I’ll practice my best breathing and meditative state as I go through Homeland Security.

That is always the part in the journey where I wish I had fully memorized the entire Serenity Prayer. I never get past, God grant me the serenity…which is probably not a bad place to be stuck.

My flight isn’t until 8:25 but with all the hoopla of taking shoes off and on and dancing on one foot whilst balancing my laptop, it can chew up the minutes pretty fast. (My ‘favourite’ Homeland moment was when they waved over two supervisors and accused me of working in a munitions factory because they found residual gunpowder on my camera…Gunpowder? Seriously??)

Besides, I’d rather relax at the gate than run pell-mell down the hall, begging for them to hold the plane.

Done that too. Don’t recommend it. (In today’s heightened security climate, I’m guessing you probably couldn’t get away with banging on the pilot’s window after the plane’s door is closed, though it worked back then 🙂

But now? I’m packing. I promised myself a treat if I finished both writing assignments. Check!

And emailed accompanying photos. Check!

And packed. Almost Checked!

As soon as that bag is zipped, I’m going for a quick pedicure.  Once I hit that desert, my toes will once again be exposed to real air; warm lovely desert air…