Departure in the time of covid

Several years ago, when I was having a hard time at Fairfax HS, Eric suggested I come up with a mantra to chant me out of my stress. My favorite one was “I can’t want it more than they do.” In fact, I revisit that one from time to time. My mantra on my travel day was, “It’s not happening to you but for you.” I kept chanting that until I was on the plane leaving JFK. Because, It almost didn’t happen. My flight this time around left from Reagan National. I was to go to JFK and board an Italian government approved covid tested flight. By arriving on this flight, I would avoid the dreaded 10 day quarantine. I had gotten my covid test and results on Saturday for my Sunday flight. I thought I had all my paperwork in order. Jerry and Baz drove me the 10 minutes to the airport. He all hugged and kissed goodbye and I entered the terminal. I stood in the customer service line and waited my turn. About 20 minutes after queuing up, it was my turn. I approached the ticket agent and proudly presented my brand new passport. She asked for my covid tests and I handed them over. Then. Then. Then, she asked for my passenger locator form. Huh? What? I was informed that she couldn’t check me in without it. I became frantic. In my panic, my usually nimble thumbs became heavy and clumsy. I couldn’t read the form without my glasses (glasses and mask don’t work for me!). Arghh! After about 5 minutes, which felt like 50, she informed me that I needed to get out of line and try and resolve my problem, but that I would likely miss my flight. With tears in my eyes, I headed outside. I called Jerry to come and get me and with very little question, he told me to calm down and that he would be right there. “This is happening for you not to you.” I started rationalizing that perhaps the universe didn’t want me to take this trip. The passport debacle should have been a clue with that, I felt a calm wash over me. I started again with the form. I got everything filled in (only my seat number was wrong because I hadn’t been assigned a seat number. I made one up and figured it’s better to ask forgiveness later.) Before I knew it, the form was submitted and I ran back into the terminal and got back in line. At this point, I was sure that I’d miss my flight because it was 2:30 and the flight left at 3. The ticket agent tap tap tapped away and said she would do her best. She said that I could go but she was having trouble getting my bag on. She called down to the gate and asked them to reopen the flight. Sure enough, it worked. She printed my boarding passes and my bag labels. One even said “HOT BAG” which made me giggle. She instructed me to run to the gate: number 33. I did. I called Jerry from the Clear kiosk and explained that they were letting me on. He was very kind and told me to calm down and have a good flight. I got through security and went straight to the gate. And to my great surprise: the flight was delayed by an hour. The universe was taking care of me. It was all happening for me. I’m not quite sure why, but after a peach margarita and a call to Jerry and DonnaD, I was back on speaking terms with the universe.