Now, even a patient person has moments of impatience or experiences situations that cause all semblance of patience to flee the vicinity.
And I most definitely have those moments. What happens to me then is that I first get antsy and annoyed, then anxious, and then super angry. But because I know that voicing that frustration or anger won't actually make the situation better - or faster/more efficient - I don't say anything. I keep it inside. Often when the cause is something like another driver just driving badly - or very slowly - there's not anyone to yell at anyway (although I do yell at them. Loudly. Colorfully. They just can't hear me.) Usually these situations are just a suck-it-up-and-deal-with-it kind of situations.
Well, this evening I experienced a whole string of these.
I was at an event for one of my clients. I knew that I needed to leave at a specific time in order to drive to the airport, drop off the rental car, and make it to the terminal in time to grab a bite before all of the very limited food options close and still make my flight - the last flight out of the evening.
I know this airport, it's tiny. It's quick. I fly in and out of this airport all the time. I am like a well-oiled machine when it comes to traveling so I've got this!
That's what I started with anyway.
So, I'm getting ready to leave my event on time. You know those moments when you know you just can't leave the room because, well, first of all everybody would notice and second, it would be incredibly rude to leave at that moment? Yeah, that. So, I stay. No biggie. I have a little cushion.
Finally, about 10 minutes late, I get out of there. No sweat! It's ok. I get on the road and although there's a little more traffic than there should be for this time of night, I manage to get to the rental car return place in decent time with a fully manageable anxiety level.
I pull into the rental car return area. Typically a return takes less than 5 minutes even if there are a couple of others waiting, especially at this tiny airport.
Nope. there's only one person working and there are multiple people waiting to return their cars ahead of me. Deep breath. It's ok. This shouldn't take that long. But it does.
By the time it's finally my turn, there's a line of people waiting to pick up cars so the attendant goes and deals with a couple of them. I'm definitely in a hurry now and my anxiety level is increasing. Somehow, in these situations, I often feel like if I scream loudly enough inside my own head, and say over and over again, "hurry up! I'm in a hurry!!" that somehow others will hear me or magically understand that I am, indeed, in a hurry.
I feel bad for the guy. He's working all alone and has a bunch of waiting people who, for all I know, are in a hurry too. So I breathe, check the time, and convince myself I'm ok. It only takes about 3 minutes to get to the terminal from here.
Finally - I think he heard my internal screams - he comes over to help me and it really does only take a couple of minutes.
But then the receipt won't print.
REALLY???
Ok, I need the receipt but just email it to me! And I take off for the shuttle bus.
Thankfully, the bus pulls up right as I get to the stop and I jump on. But then we have to wait for other people to get on the bus, of course. Breathe more. It's ok. And it doesn't take that long so I'm ok.
But then the shuttle driver turns out to be the slowest driver in the whole entire world. It's like his job is to drive as slowly as humanly possible while still actually moving. What usually takes 3 minutes ends up taking nearly 10! AAAARGHH!!!! STEP ON IT!! I HAVE A PLANE TO CATCH!
At this point, the thought of actually getting food before the limited options all close turns into a mere glimmer of hope which is waning quickly. More frustration. I try to calm myself with the knowledge that, at this tiny little airport, there's never a line to get through security. Plus, I'm a fancy frequent traveler so I get to go through the quick line anyway.
I FINALLY get to the terminal and jump off the shuttle bus, run into the terminal, up the stairs to security, and there is the longest line I've ever seen at this airport. Also, the quicker line - the fancy pants frequent flyer special super speedy line - is closed. By now I'm screaming bloody murder in my head. How is this possible? How can everything, EVERYTHING, take longer on the same night?
I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to make this line go faster. I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to make the restaurants (if you can call them that) stay open longer so I can have dinner before I get home at way-too-late-to-eat-anything o'clock. I know that I just have to deal with it and wait it out.
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I did, of course. I said nothing, I just moved along in the line, got through security (the people in front of me didn't know how to do airport security - argh), and made it to the last restaurant to close as they were just about to shut it down. I got the very last piece of pizza, which was of highly questionable freshness & edibility but I got food. Just before my flight started boarding. Phew!
While I was boarding the plane, I thought how silly it is to get so worked up about these things. There was really nothing I could do so why get so frustrated and angry? I made it. I got food. Nothing terrible happened. I didn't miss the last flight home of the evening. Everything was fine. And the anger and frustration started to melt away again.
Whew! What a day!!
And then, as I was settling into my seat, I hear the most amazingly wonderful words from the flight attendant. "Hey folks, we've got everyone on board. Does anyone mind if we leave early?"
