The Race That Wasn't: Part I

Friday: I worked slightly more than half a day, then went home to pack. I’d been amassing a Pile o’ Stuff to pack this weekend, but had yet to do important things like, say, retrieve my luggage from basement storage. Things packed, I then settled in to wait for my ride to the airport. The flight itself was uneventful, although there was a scare while I was waiting to board when I went to pull out my laptop, only to discover that I’d left it at security. I ran back and got it from a TSA agent who was only slightly appalled that I was so grateful I (a) started crying as soon as I saw it, and (b) offered her a tip for noticing it was left on the belt and safely storing it for me. This would be the first of several crying jags during this three-day mini-vacation. [cue scary foreshadowing music]

I arrived at the airport a bit early, although we took off exactly on time and had no delays in the air. How is this possible you ask? Because the Philadelphia airport is SO notorious for its late departures that some airlines are now scheduling waiting-on-tarmac time INTO their flight time. Since my flight had no waiting-on-tarmac time, we got to the destination about 25 minutes early.

It was nice to see Sara, who was kind enough to make the 90 minute trip to the airport (yes, there are closer airports, but this one was cheaper BY FAR to fly into than the closer ones). We went straight from the airport to a sushi restaurant, where good sushi was enjoyed. While I was tempted by the notion of sake infused with pineapple and ginger, I resisted since it was served warm, rather than cold.

When we got to her place, I declared myself exhausted (it was past midnight at this point, and I had woken up at 5:30 a.m. for work). So to relax before going to bed, I worked on some calculus problems. Go derivatives!!!!

Saturday: I slept in (until 7:30 a.m.). We went to two different LYSes. One of them, I bought nothing but roving (some for a gift for Brook; although if she doesn’t want, I’ll be FORCED to keep it for myself - ha!). I bought three skeins of yarn at the other one, after delivering a mini-lecture on how H1N1 flu virus is NOT a deadly evil.

Then back to the airport to pick up my mom. There was some confusion when she was told to meet us at baggage claim, and was waiting for us at the bag check station, but when I spotted a woman wandering around in Michael Waltrip blue and yellow, I broke into a run and damn near tackled the poor woman! I hadn’t seen my mom since Christmas break, and it was SOOOO good to see her - especially for something as exciting at the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway!!!! Whooo!

Then to a grocery store for tailgating stuffs, except Mom decided to not take a bunch of stuff, and she would buy us food at the track. With her Sjogren’s, it’s sometimes easier for her to just pay for the convenience than to do a lot of walking and expend a lot of energy. And, although we’ve never been to an LMS race, we have done SEVERAL years at Kansas Speedway, and we knew a lot of walking would be involved. And, if you’re me, sometimes some running and sometimes some jumping up and down (my inner four-year-old tends to come out at the mention of harem members - it’s endearing. No, really, it is.)

Next, we arrived at Sara’s place to settle in for the evening - supper, watching the Nationwide race, and programming the scanners. Mom was bitterly disappointed when Mike Bliss won the rain-shortened NNS race. [cue more scary foreshadowing music] “I don’t want Mike Bliss to win because then I’ll have to listen to his squeaky voice during the interview.”

We debate about what time to go to the race. Mom and I are used to waking up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4:30-5:00 a.m. and leaving no later than 5:30 a.m. for race day. Sara didn’t want to get up that early, and since she was the one hosting us and driving, we deferred to her and decided to shoot for an 8:00 a.m. leaving, with leaving no later than 8:30 a.m.

Will post about Sunday later when I'm not supposed to be finishing supper and going to bed.