Keep Your Eye On the Calm

 This is not a new topic. In fact, I've covered it recently. Which was part of the problem going into the last 24 hours of my life. Business travel is just not my jam right now.

Coming off of a weekend where I was quite sick, I was not exactly looking forward to saying goodbye to my sweet girls and boarding a plane to NYC where I was certain I would contract the flu. And I knew that this trip was doomed as soon as the cab that I called to pick me up got stuck in my neighbors driveway and I had to finagle random passerby's to help us un-stick this cab. My contribution was to drive the cab while they pushed.

Why did you take a cab, one might ask. Well you see since my husband is a crazy biker we still only have one car. And since he was on single daddy duty, he needed said car to get the girls to daycare since we live in the birthplace of the Polar Vortex.

See these---these are my keys:

In my hand, pulled from the pocket of my coat while I am sitting on the airplane. I just rescued the cab to take me to the airport only to strand my husband without the car, which at this point may as well have taken me to the airport. Sidenote: Thank god for AMAZING neighbors, who were generous enough to help us out getting the girls to school in tact without frostbite.

We land in NYC. Immediately begin hearing tales of a blizzard to hit the city. I am hopeful. We are leaving early enough, it should be fine. Maybe it will start later than expected. Maybe it won’t be as bad as expected.

8AM: Snow.

9AM: MASSIVE SNOW

10AM: All flights cancelled

10:01AM: I am immediately on the phone with the work travel line, who works magic gets be re-booked on some random flight out of some random airport I've never heard of. Amazingness.

EXCEPT…..that flight gets cancelled. And at about that exact same time I learn that my ORIGINAL flight never actually got cancelled, it got moved—earlier (like when does this ever happen?). The time is now 12:20. We are in Manhatten. The flight is scheduled to leave at 1:30.  At this point I have shed tears.

And lets not forget it is a blizzard outside.

Myself and another woman, who is in the zone of working momdom with me, go for it. We race to get a cab. And wait. Watch the clock tick. Call Delta. Call the work travel line. I throw all modesty out the window and pump. While in a cab. With my co-worker.

We pull up, throw money at the driver (unfortunately that is not an exaggeration), and R-U-N as fast as we ever have through the airport. Because I am still nursing I get stopped because I have breast milk and I am not kidding the lady seemed like she was moving through molasses. Like quicksand would swallow her at any moment. But I try to remain polite. Say nothing and just try to stay calm focusing on the next step.

Everything checks out, and I am running through the airport, in my stocking feet, holding my boots, and my breastmilk, and starting to cry tears of joy that this is going to actually work out. But then…I get to the gate and realize I have left my ID and boarding pass at security.

It’s true. I did that. My heart sank. I started crying. The gate agent said we are closing this door. I yelled: “NO! Please please no”. And then, molasses gate agent woman appears out of nowhere hands me my ID, and I walk through that door.

As I entered the plane, literally tears of relief came over me. I saw my friend and she said she totally cried once she got on to.

The lesson?

There are 2:

1) Always be polite. Even if you are stressed to the max. That security woman saved my hide. And had I been a snarky beeotch to her about her pace my guess is my ass would be stuck in LGA tonight.

2)As we pulled away from NYC and rose above the snowstorm below, the sun started to poke out. As cheesy as it may sounds it was very parallel to my life at that moment. Being a working mom during the baby years is so tough. You are in the eye of the storm, and it consumes you entirely. But above that storm is calm. And you have to keep your eye on the calm.

Any my calm came tonight. As I walked in the door. Seeing Tillie’s little head poking out of the window, and hearing her shriek when I knocked on the door. The snuggles. The Bea smiles, and the bedtime stories. Made the stress, the sprint, the fatigue melt away.