Midori, sans liqueur.

I’m so stupidly busy this month that I’ve had barely any time to secure an apartment in Boston for next year. (Older Tumblr followers may recognize this being a theme of mine, see also: Paris apartment)

Thankfully Ben, being the awesome partner in crime that he is, is flying out to go look at and sign for us tonight as I fly back from a conference in Orlando. Sadly, this means we only get to see each other for a few minutes as we tag in and out of SFO.

So, we concocted a little date night in SFO with stops for dinner, mars landing watching, dessert, and a spa treatment. Ben checked in early, met my arriving plane at the gate, and everything went fairly smoothly!

Here’s some tips for anyone else stuck at SFO for a period of time:

- if you want warm food that isn’t laden with butter or grease, try a bowl of made to order noodle soup at either of the Fung Lums (Int’l Terminal, pre-security; Terminal 3, post-security)
- if you must do dessert, Just Desserts exists, but stay away from their overpriced ice creams
- ExpresSpa is my addiction and savior. Treat yourself to something nice :)
- there’s an official museum inside SFO, in the international terminal. If you do their tour/scavenger hunt during their business hours, you can pick up a prize.

Today was an awful day at EWR, with Terminal C’s domestic/international check-in counter understaffed. Add in the large number of non-English speaking travelers and the still glitchy system and it was a fxcking nightmare, even for a Platinum member.

I have two interviews in San Francisco and I booked the tickets a week and a half ago while still in Paris, around the time when they were switching systems. My reservation was confirmed and I had seats, but no one was able to print my tickets as the reservation’s details wouldn’t show up in the new system. Two out of the three agents available toiled on my ticket, trying everything including issuing a new seat, but they could only get one leg of my itinerary. They apologized profusely, told me to fly to Chicago and try to get on the flight to SF without a ticket (HAHAHA).

So I’m late to security with only 40 minutes to go til take off, and me panicking on the phone with my travel agent trying to get a ticket by any means possible. Even the first class line is long as hell, but since it’s not less than 30 min to flight time, I can’t skip the line, AND I still have to find a way to print my next ticket. A random man hears me talking to my agent and he says “come with me, I’ll take you to Global Services” and we skip the line completely.

As I go through the metal detector, my travel agent is able to issue a new reservation. The man then takes me to a reserved, empty customer service desk as though we’re traveling together, and the agent is able to print my new ticket. I thank the man profusely, and though in the back of my jaded head I was terrified of him expecting a phone number or something in return, he just says, “it’s no problem, take care” with a smile and I run to my gate

I’m amazed and thankful. I hope I get to pay it forward someday.

No matter how high your status is, you cannot get a gate pass to help get your pet and boyfriend safely through security.

Unless, that is, your pet is not a beautiful, intelligent parrot but an adorable, wriggling, barking, nuisance of a puppy and your boyfriend is your fiancé. Now for anxious airport drinks in pre-security while I get texts like: “[The TSA] asked if I do this often, I said no; They said, ‘Well don’t make it a habit’”