It is fascinating to me how our minds and bodies interact with each other. Similarly, I find it interesting how what is going on emotionally manifests itself physically. This weekend started off brilliantly. I was going to Maine for Rosh Hashanah. I have been somewhat stressed out at work lately (ah, the Lost Post), and have been utterly preoccupied. So — when I made my reservation for a car service to take me to the airport at the crack of dawn on Friday, I automatically made the reservation for Newark.
Needless to say, when I arrived at Newark airport and stuck my credit card in the machine, it did not recognize my reservation. This is because my flight was out of LaGuardia. Fuck. I attempted to be very Zen about the whole thing. “No problem,” I thought, “I have plenty of time, and I’m in no rush.” I took a cab back into the city, back out to LaGuardia. Missed my flight by 5 minutes. “Zen,” I remind myself. “You MORON!” screams my internal critic. After a minor breakdown and the $80 cab ride, I reschedule my flight and attempt to sleep in the rows of chairs that have armrests on every seat so that you can’t lie down on them.
Zen. So this is how stress manifests itself.
The weekend got better from there, thankfully. I finally made it to Portland (where there is only one airport, BTW), and drove up to Bates to see my brother. We cooked a HUGE Cuban meal for 20 of his closest friends, and then I joined everyone to go see his band, Mango Quickly, play.
Returning back to Portland the next day, was reunited with a guy I haven’t seen in probably about 20 years. Our families are very close friends, and he had an interview in Portland on Monday. He wanted to come up early to check out the city. It was so bizarre to get to know someone as an adult whom you had only known as a child. Bizarre, but fun. And interesting.
I made it back to NYC without incident — whew.