ON THE ROAD TO ITALY

DEPARTURE DAY

The expectation of jet travel continues to thrill and amaze me.  I am fortunate to call travel my career.  I am habituated to packing my bag, grabbing my passport, going out the door and making a course that I have made a thousand times before.

Does that sound like your every-morning?  Get up, grab your briefcase head out the door and take the same habitual route to the office?  

Here's the difference.  When I get on to Century Boulevard and see the signs with the airplane in lift-off position and the word DEPARTURE, I get an adrenalin rush like a Starbucks double shot.

Will my flight leave on time?
What if I miss my connection?
Did I bring my ATM?
What if my seat mate is 396 lbs?
Did I complete the project detail I had promised that client?
What if it rains everyday?
What if I get sick on day three?
Did I remember the battery recharger?
Will I make a social blunder that will brand me the ugly American?

Now the angst is beginning to make me rethink why it is I have put myself in harms way by taking to the road, why didn't I just grab the briefcase instead of the suitcase.

Then it happens.  I see a jet plane lift-off toward the Pacific Ocean and I realize the miracle of what I am about to do.  In 12, 13, 15 hours I will be in Milan.

Thank you Boeing!