Yay!! I'm in New York! ...but barely!
You see, I had to work 'til 10:30 Wednesday night and usually the excitement of traveling is enough to send me bounding out of bed a minute before the alarm goes off. Not this time. I awoke horrified that I woke up at 4:00 am with the alarm, shut it off and fell back to sleep! I'm an hour late! I had packed five hours earlier... I decided I wasn't so stinky so I skipped the shower, splashed here and there, dressed and dashed out of the apartment a little before 6:00AM, with the plane boarding at 7:00AM. Would I have enough time to get to LAX from West Hollywood, park in lot C and wait for the shuttle to take me to terminal 3? Only an exciting adventure would tell! I jumped in my car, with hope as my co-pilot.
Amazingly, only steps away from security, which would be a breeze, because I'm TSA pre-checked and I still have 20 minutes to boarding time! That's when I realized I didn't have my phone! I knew I had it with me a few minutes ago when I was on the shuttle, anxiously checking the time. Then I realized that, because I left the apartment in such a flurry, my carry-on was a mess and I had to organize a little on the shuttle on the way to terminal 3, maybe it's at the bottom of the bag. I completely emptied the back hoping it was lying at the bottom... I left it on the seat!!
I ran back outside, hoping the time I spent walking in, panicking about my phone, emptying & repacking my bag, and running back outside was enough time for the shuttle to have gone around... but after stopping three of them with no luck, I realized that my phone was probably gone for good. ..or maybe not? I had to decide if I was going to give up on my phone and jump on the plane and face a weekend away from home without a phone or get to NY with a chance of catching GROUNDHOG DAY THE MUSICAL. ...But I wouldn't be able to Instagram the picture of the Playbill! Such a dilemma! I chose to let the phone go and be brave in NY without it.
By the time I got to the gate, boarding had begun. I stopped and asked the lady at the desk which group was boarding and it suddenly occurred to me that I had that Find Your Phone app on my iPad!
I opened it up, with the help of free LAX wifi, and saw this
Well look! There it is just sitting at terminal 1, probably the lost and found! I asked the desk lady about the possibility of getting a later flight. She put me on stand-by for 10:30 and a for sursies at 3:45. She added, "You can't leave without your phone if you know where it is." And she was right! I let go of the groundhog and made my way to Terminal 1 (on foot. I gots time!) to retrieve my phone. When I got between Terminals 2 & 1, the wifi cut out. When I got close enough to Terminal 1, the wifi kicked in. I refreshed and the phone thingy was no longer waiting for me at Terminal 1! It was behind me at Terminal 4! That's when I realized I had to keep refreshing the damned thing and that my phone was still on one of the many shuttles going around! It's not like the movies, where a nice little continuous dot moves smoothly in real time, this was a spotty mess!
I did not give in to despair. I hunkered down and did my best detective work! And I put 5,000+ steps on my fitbit! It's not as easy as it seems because, what you don't see on this app are the ten other shuttles, some very close together and ones that wouldn't stop if they didn't have anyone to drop off, all which are very hard to track with spotty wifi availability and slow refresh. I did it! I finally got my phone and rode the shuttle back to Terminal 3. Where a sat for a couple of hours watching this.
I was fortunate to get on the 10:30 flight, almost sure that the person whose place I took would bust down that closed door and yell, "I'm here! Get out! It's my seat!" That didn't happen. I got the last seat- the middle seat in the last row; you know, the ones that don't lean back... I couldn't complain! I was headed to New York! I guess the adrenaline of my adventure wore off as soon as I hit my seat, also I was up at 5:00am and chased shuttles on foot for a while... I fell asleep pretty quickly.
I had an unusual awakening... I was half awake, but could swear I was in bed with my hunky boyfriend. I could feel him next to me, our legs and shoulders touching. I awakened, but didn't open my eyes, I figured out what was going on; I was making contact with the guy in the seat next to me. It felt so nice! He was sleeping; I could tell by the way he was breathing and how his torso was slowly moving up & down, brushing against my shoulder with each breath. I felt his thigh right up against mine. It was warm. It felt thick and solid; I'm guessing I knew that from the way energy seemed to be moving between us, the way it flowed. That was not a skinny, meager thigh next to mine. There I sat on the plane, awake, but with my eyes closed, taking in a magical moment; the feeling of physical contact.
Sometimes, when I have actually been lying naked in bed with a man, just lying there next to each other with our bodies touching has been as enjoyable as the tumbling around, maybe more. So I sat, eyes closed, taking it in as our shoulders moved in unison, breathing together wondering if this is what I wanted more of; wanting a relationship, or if I'm good for a bit now...
I finally opened my eyes and surveyed the thigh
Not bad, but the moment was much better with eyes closed. I dared not look at his face, for fear of him waking up at the moment and wonder WTF then punch me or worse, ruin it by not even noticing that I wondered what he looked like. Of course, you know I snuck a pic!
But you should also know, I enjoy the mystery more.
As a Gay of A Certain Age, I don't need to know what he looks like (I do know), because in that brief moment, he was anything I wanted him to be. This time he was my boyfriend, traveling to New York with me, where we would enjoy the weekend and I wouldn't look at my phone once.
LUUUUUUUCKY!
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