Monday, April 23, 2007

Travel Anxiety

I left home yesterday to fly to Minneapolis for my annual conferences
for NSGCD and NAPO.

I get easily stressed out when I travel--especially when I travel alone.
It took me 15 minutes to decide which jacket to bring that could serve
as a blazer and as outerwear.

I walked through every logical argument and still could not decide.
This is what happens when my brain chemicals start combining in
incorrect proportions (a stress response I suppose). This is also a
time when I remember to empathize with my clients.

This is where my pharmaceutical friend, the Happy Pill comes in. My
buddy HP could have saved me in the past, like the time I almost got
in a fight with a very large man who butted in line while I was
waiting to get on a Southwest flight (aka Cattle Air). Or when walking
through the xray machine too fast and the security employee raised her
voice and I lost it.

I become completely irrational during the packing phase and can't
balance packing exactly what I need and packing for every eventuality
(ultimate preparedness so I don't have to buy some toiletry at an
outrageous price).

HP makes me not care, like when the gravitationally-challenged woman
next to me on the plane spilled her diet coke on the blazer that I had
labored over and finally decided to bring on the plane 1) for warmth,
2) because it was too bulky to pack and 3) because I might need it when I
arrived in the northern clime. This was right after she dumped her
entire can of Pringles in the aisle right after the flight attendant
handed it to her, so I should've seen that coming.

Oh well. I also realized in transit that I forgot to pack pocket
kleenexes, and HP piped up and told me it wasn't going to be the end
of the world.