As I mentioned earlier, I booked a trip to New York City to see my French friend run the marathon. It was a last minute thing, but I’m glad I went in the end. I was pretty nervous about it, too. The last time I was in New York was 10 years ago. I remember how tough this city could be. I also remembered how I would get lost riding the NYC transit. I was getting stressed out.
Along with Halloween Day being on an unexpected day itself, I really had one day to look over my carry on. My flight was early in the morning on Friday. Of course I had thoughts of over sleeping, but it was mostly because leading up to that day, I WASN’T getting much sleep. My friend made me feel better when he called me Thursday night. He had arrived from France a day earlier. For the first time in two weeks, I got a excited about this trip.
I had scheduled an uber pick up around 3:45am-4:10am. My flight was at 5:57am. Not exactly 6am, but enough to make you question what time they were boarding. I wanted to miss the rush hour morning commute so I figured if I arrive at the airport before 5am, I should be fine. My alarm went off and everything happened so fast after that. I do not think I ever went into a deep sleep. I got up and washed up and then changed into my clothes. I was hoping to sleep on the flight.
My uber showed up right on time. They even send you a reminder, just in case. I remember being in the uber and praying that there would be no traffic heading to the airport. I just wanted this part to be over.
Luckily at the airport, I got through security in no time. I remembered looking at the other passengers at our terminal. Some of them looked excited for their trip. I wished I could feel that way, I thought to myself.
Part of the contribution to my nerves was the weather. I checked leading up to my trip, and it never changed. Thunderstorms were in the forecast the entire day. I grew angry when the pilot warned us early on. “Well the first half of our flight should be smooth; but the second half won’t be.” What the hell??? I wish pilots could have a sense of empathy for the ones who are scared shitless of flying!
Well, as it was predicted, the turbulence WAS BAD. I decided to brave through this and not take anything because it was a short flight. But I never got any sleep. It was a long 30-40 minutes of pure hell but in the end, we landed safely. My body was exhausted from being tensed up.
I loved that I had my carry-on luggage with me. Once we landed I zoomed out of there. I didn’t realize how many people were at LaGuardia! It was a bit frustrating trying to navigate towards the exit. I was stuck trying to figure out what “bus” line I was supposed to take that will lead me to the subway station at Roosevelt. A nice gentleman pointed out to me that I was to get a ticket inside the airport before I get on the bus. I saw the customer service counter with the line forming and got behind someone. Once I figured out that I was to purchase a metro card I ran outside to see if I could catch my bus. Not yet! I still had to obtain some receipt. Again, someone helped me figure that part out. I had to insert my metro card in a machine to obtain my receipt. Luckily the bus was still waiting. I jumped on and tried to give the driver the receipt but she just told me to “go ahead” and move towards the back. So much for that.
I arrived at the Roosevelt subway station and checked my Google maps to see where I was going. So far so good. I caught my train and felt relieved I was on my way. Of course once I got off my stop I was lost. I walked around for a bit and found a Starbucks. I needed to charge my phone so I went inside and ordered a latte while I waited for my phone to charge.
Believe it or not, the weather in New York was unseasonably warm. It neared 70 degrees that day! I had on layers since it was much colder in Chicago, but by now, I was sweating and getting frustrated I couldn’t find my hotel. I jumped in a cab. He drove me up to my hotel (which was a surprise to me). I finally found it! What a relief!
Well, not exactly. Apparently, my room was not ready. I was thrown off. I wanted to shower and nap for a bit. Since I did not have a room yet, they agreed to hold my luggage and encouraged me to come back later. “So, in about two hours?”, I asked. “We sold out completely last night. Hopefully.” That did not sound promising.
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