4. “My wife had her PhD defense in her home country (we lived in another country at the time), so she flew there a few days in advance to get everything ready. I flew there the day before her defense. I drove to the airport and parked in one of those cheap parking lots with shuttle service to the airport terminal. Once I got to the terminal, I realized I had forgotten my passport at home. After a solid two minutes of panicking hard and sweating, I decided that I could still make it for the next (and last) flight of the day. Of course, my ticket was not refundable nor transferable, so I was screwed on that front. But missing the flight would have been WAY worse.”
“The next shuttle to the parking lot was in 45 minutes. So I got a taxi, went to get my car, bolted through a substantial number of speed traps on the highway, got home, took the passport, bolted back, and stopped to leave my car at the same parking as before, but the guy informed me that the next shuttle to the terminal would be in 45 minutes, again. There was no way I’d make it.
So I just said screw it and went to the short-term parking in the terminal itself which costs 10 times more. But at that point I was fighting for survival — I HAD to get on the next plane or I would have missed one of the most important days in my wife’s life. When I finally found a spot for the car, I sprinted to the airline desk to buy a ticket. Of course, there were no economy tickets left so I had to get a business class ticket that assassinated my credit card. But hey, I made it on time.
Once I finally boarded the plane, I was exhausted. I took off my jacket and folded it under my head as a pillow. I just wanted to sleep. Hey, what do you know, there was something in the pocket of the jacket. I. Wanted. To. Fucking. Die. It was my ID card. I could have flown with just that. There was no need to go back for the passport. I had it with me the whole time.”
