1) Delayed flights
I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to plane travel. I’ve only had one delayed flight, if you can believe that. Well, not on Wednesday! It was hard to find a nonstop flight to New Orleans for some reason, so we were flying to Charlotte first and then catching a connecting flight to New Orleans. Our flight to Charlotte was scheduled for 2 p.m. and we’d have about an hour until our flight to New Orleans around 5:30 p.m. We’d get to New Orleans right around 8 p.m. Unfortunately, our flight to Charlotte was delayed by over two hours, which meant we’d completely miss our connecting flight. There were a lot of frustrated people at the airport that day! Thankfully, we got rebooked on a new flight automatically through the American Airlines app so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Unfortunately, the new flight was at 8 p.m. so we wouldn’t get into New Orleans until after 10 p.m. That connecting flight was then delayed by half an hour so it was closing in on 11:30 p.m. (after midnight to our bodies that were on Eastern time) when we finally got to our hotel. Whew, what a travel day! Thankfully, our flights home did not have any delays.
But the exciting part of our flights were that we didn’t have anyone in the third seat with us for three of the four flights! That meant we could stretch out with one of us at the window seat and one of us at the aisle seat for those flights, which was pretty sweet!
2) The saga of my house keys
I’m always worried about losing my house keys when I travel. I always put them in the same zippered part of my backpack, but still, I worry that somehow they will drop out of my bag. When we got back into town, my stepdad picked my mom and me up from the airport and then we went to dinner. Then, he drove us back to my place. Before I let them leave, I checked my backpack to make sure I had my keys. And I could not find them anywhere! I took everything out of my backpack, everything out of my purse, and even opened up my suitcase to see if I had somehow stuffed them in there. The keys were nowhere to be found. At this point, it was 9 p.m. so I called my apartment’s emergency line to see if they could help me out. When an hour went by without any word from them, I had to start calling locksmiths. The first locksmith I called didn’t have anyone available until the morning, the second locksmith said he could come out in an hour (but then there was an issue where he called my phone and I didn’t answer because my phone, for some reason, sent the calls right to voicemail, so when I realized he had called and called him back, he said he had taken two jobs in the 10 minutes he was waiting on me—felt suspicious, but whatever). Finally, I got ahold of a locksmith that was able to send someone out right away. He arrived within 20 minutes of my original call.
I thought getting into my house would be easier because my cat sitter only uses the knob lock (not the deadbolt) on her last visit, so that she can leave my spare key inside of my apartment (rather than putting it under the doormat). But I think it might have been harder? The locksmith had to really destroy my doorknob to get it to unlock, which meant I had to pay even more money for this service. In the end, it cost me $390, which made me want to throw up, but what could I do? I had to get into my apartment! I hadn’t realized we were getting back so late, so I hadn’t had the cat sitter come the day we were coming home. The girls don’t have automatic feeders, so they hadn’t had food all day! I was terrified they were hungry and sad. (True story: I started crying when the second locksmith told me he couldn’t come because I just wanted to be home and with my girls.)
Anyway, the fun part of this story is that I found my house keys as I was unpacking!!! They were in my backpack all along!!! Three of us completely unpacked this backpack and felt around, and none of us noticed the keys!!! I paid $400 for no reason!!!
The expensive lessons I learned were: a) always ask my cat sitter to put the key under the doormat, b) always make sure my mom has a spare key at her house, and c) make sure the next apartment I rent has a smart door lock.
3) Souvenirs!
Whenever I visit a new city, I try to find a handful of souvenirs to bring back home: a magnet for my fridge, a Christmas ornament for my tree, a t-shirt, a mug, and locally made art. Yes, it’s a lot but I’m not always successful at finding all of them. In New Orleans, I was! I had great luck finding all of my souvenirs—and then some.
We’ll start with the books. At Garden District Book Shop, I purchased three books and was excited when my mom pointed me in the direction of their Agatha Christie collection. I picked out all of the Christie books I hadn’t read and then looked up the Goodreads rating. Five Little Pigs had the highest rating (4.03 stars, if you’re curious), so I bought it. And I also got a beautiful new hardcover edition of Anne of Green Gables.
I also found a magnet, Christmas ornament, mug, and t-shirt. Yay!
I found this piece of art in a local shop, but then we stumbled onto the art fair later on that day and I was bummed I already bought my piece! Ah, well. I love the one I selected!
And lastly, at the art fair, I did purchase this really cute cat painting. I couldn’t pass it up! It’s a cat and my favorite color? It also has pre-drilled holes so I can nail it into a wall easily.
4) The flare of all flares
Leading up to my trip, my psoriasis was the worst it’s ever been. I had these big red patches on both sides of my scalp and they were so, so, so itchy. I tried everything: my steroid gels, apple cider vinegar, OTC psoriasis cream, specialized shampoo, etc. I was ready to call my dermatologist and demand an emergency appointment because things had gotten to such a bad state. On Wednesday, the day we were flying into New Orleans, the flare was still really bad. I was trying to keep things at bay by applying the steroid gels every few hours, which would help my scalp calm down for an hour or so. (I was so desperate for relief on one flight that I started rubbing an ice cube from my complimentary drink over the affected areas.) On the first day of our trip, before we did anything else, I found a CVS where I bought OTC cream (Exederm) as well as a numbing cream. (When I was scrolling the psoriasis Reddit forum late one night, someone mentioned numbing cream that would provide a bit of relief and I was willing to try anything at that moment.)
I felt so sorry for myself in the days leading up to the trip, thinking about dealing with this stupid flare and how it would affect how much I enjoyed my vacation. I applied the Exederm twice (on Thursday night and Friday morning) but starting on Friday, my psoriasis cleared up! It wasn’t itchy and the redness had lessened a bit. Was it the Exederm? Maybe. But I think this flare was 100% stress-related and that’s why I was in such a bad state. I think I was feeling a bit anxious about the vacation—leaving my cats, the logistics of flying, getting to New Orleans safe and sound, etc—and once we were there and enjoying ourselves, my psoriasis flare went away. It was such a relief. It’s been over a week since that really bad flare and I haven’t been putting any steroid gel or cream on my scalp (I wanted to give my scalp a break), and things are still doing good. I have an appointment with my dermatologist in a few weeks, and we will have a lot to chat about!
5) New shoes + new exercise routine = not being sore after walking all day!
One of the things I like least about vacation is all the walking, which always leads to me having sore feet and a sore body at the end of each day. After a few days of this, I am usually ready to chop off my feet and less likely to want to walk around and do things. The whole point of vacation is to walk around and do things! (And relax, but this wasn’t one of those vacations.) One of the things I noticed about this vacation was that I didn’t end each day with sore feet! I felt like I could walk farther without getting tired, and it was a truly eye-opening moment to realize that I am getting fitter from my new exercise routine. And also, it probably helped that I wasn’t walking around in four-year-old shoes that provided zero cushioning and support. There’s that, too.
What’s the last souvenir you bought? Have you ever needed the (expensive!) services of a locksmith?
