Wake up at 5:30. The BART I need to catch isn’t until 7:15, so I snooze a bit. Get up, get ready, shower and eat breakfast.
About to head out the door, it’s already 7:10; there’s no way to make it to the station in time. But that’s okay — that would have gotten me to the airport 75 minutes early anyway. So I’ll chill a bit and then catch the 7:35. I set my timer for 12 minutes.
I spend some time playing on my phone, but it’s pretty boring and it’s not very cold out anyway. So I head out, and my alarm goes off just as I get in the elevator.
I make my way to Powell. Occasionally I check the time; it seems like I’m too slow. Are the traffic lights really this much worse than the way to the Caltrain? But I still might make it.
I think about running, but decide against it. I hope to myself there isn’t a line at the ticket kiosk. I find the kiosks and one is open. Put in the card, -$1 twelve times and +$0.05 two times. Print.
I walk down the escalator just in time to see the SFO BART leaving. My heart sinks a bit. This means I have to take the 7:55 and I’ll only have 35 to get from the BART to my plane.
If I had checked bags, I’m hopeless, but I just have my backpack. I figure my odds are better if I check in online, though I don’t recall if Alaska is one of the airlines that will MMS the ticket QR code to you. I go through the online checkin, but the print option is meant for real paper. Maybe the security guards will let me use a screen capture.
In the meantime I look up a map of the airport and confirm the locations of the airline and it’s terminal. It’s really hard to say if the shuttle would be better or not.
I wait and eventually the BART arrives on schedule. I begin to worry, but I chide myself for it. I messed up, and I won’t be able to do anything more for it for another 30 minutes.
I finally arrive at the airport, and begin making my way across. The international terminal check in area is larger than I remember, and I start to worry again a little. I get through it and through the walkway to terminal 1.
Alaska is a little ways in but not too bad. I find a check-in kiosk and try to print my paper ticket. It complains that it’s too late; it’s 7:51 and I suspect that I barely missed the cutoff. I check the security area, and there’s no line in front of the ID check guys. I show my passport and phone, but they say it has to be the QR code or a paper ticket.
I head back to the Alaska bag check desk; there’s barely a line. I get to he front and explain “I checked in online but couldn’t print the paper pass. It’s saying it’s too late but there’s no line at security and I don’t have anything to check.” The attendant informs me I’ve missed it and starts typing. She pauses and asks “you already checked in?” I confirm, she types some more and asks another attendant to “print 26E.” that’s my assigned seat! She hands me the ticket saying “I hope you know how to run.”
This time I do run back over to security. The guy checks the ticket and ID and let’s me through. On the other side, there is a bit of a line for scanning. It wouldn’t be bad but it’s hardly moving. I look ahead and it seems they’re making everyone do the back scatter machine, and there’s just the one machine for both lines.
I check my watch; it’s still just past 9:00. Maybe I can still get through in time. Really it might depend on where my gate is relative to the screening point. I realize there’s a chance it’s right after it, but worry that it’s on the far end instead.
I literally got my phone out and began sampling the time between back scatter scans. The first person I time is about 20 seconds — I worry that this is much too high. I try to count the people in threes, but also made sure to collect proper samples too. Before I know it, I have two 15s and a 12, so I feel a little better. I count about 20 people still ahead of me, so probably I finally make it through at 9:10. I just hope they don’t close the gate first.
I get through and the TSA official tells me to stand at a certain place. “Oh no,” I think, “they’re going to do some extra check and there’s no way I’ll make it now. Thankfully it’s just a short delay on the x-ray machine, so I got to go right away.
I shove the laptop back in my backpack, not worrying to put it back in its case. I put my shoes on but don’t bother to tie them. Then I start to run again.
Thankfully my gate was right there, and the attendants helped me find the boarding door, which was still open. I run over, hand over my ticket and start on the jetway. I catch up with a woman before I reach the plane. I consider that maybe they just had finished boarding, but a flight attendant says “so you’re the one causing all this trouble.” It was in jest, but I did feel bad.
This is a slightly dramatic telling of how I almost missed my flight yesterday. It seems silly now, but I was really wondering what would happen if I had to take a later flight. Would it be so late that I’d miss the birthday party? Would there be anything else I missed?
It does remind me of one time when I was a child, still reasonably indoctrinated in the Christian faith. I was at a churchy summer camp, and there was one evening where it had rained pretty hard. I was convinced for a short time that I’d left my jacket at the archery range, and I was dreading the idea of going out into the rain to look for and retrieve it. I was relieved when I found it at my cabin instead. It was such a big deal that I mentioned it that night when at the bonfire when the counselors asked for stories about times where God was looking out for you. “He kept me from getting soaking wet” I think is where I landed by the end of the story. The kid who was my best friend there laughed at me a little bit, in a very “first world problems” sort of way. I think of that time whenever I hear people get criticized for thanking God that they won a game or award.
Anyway, I made the flight and it was nice. I hung out with Roy when I made it to town; there was some talk about visit the new parents/baby at the hospital, but we decided against it after all. Birthday party was fun; I actually had a rather interesting conversation with Shauna but it was really great to see everyone there.
Today I finally got movers, so my old apartment is finally empty and I can finally stop paying for it soon. As bad as I’ve been about getting things done, and as expensive as the result’s been, it’s still less than two thirds the money I was given for relocation (including flights).
