I Need My Own Private Jet

Not for the reasons you might think!  I’m not spoiled, I swear.  In fact, I am unemployed.  It’s kind of like the opposite.

I am impatient. To ignore this truth would be a steady raising of the middle finger to my East-coast upbringing and the age in which I’ve grown up. Traveling, in particular, brings out the worst in me – once I’m arrived at my destination, all is well and I’m happy to spontaneously explore my surroundings and drink in my location. But the travel delays? The plane mechanical failures, the traffic jams, the inexplicably extended train stops – drive me CRAZY.

This is a bad quality of mine that I desperately wish would mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night one glorious day, never to be seen again, and is often vastly alleviated if I have company. The presence of a travel buddy – just a partner to receive my dramatic eye roll in the face of irritating delays or general idiocy on the part of the greater public – can lower my blood pressure substantially. (If you’ve been that person for me at any point, my appreciation knows no bounds. You know who you are.)

On my red-eye to Manchester, New Hampshire last week, I wondered if taking up meditation would improve my travel attitude or overall experience. Do yogis, those mysteriously zen types for whom these earthly troubles are but a minor interruption in a quest to answer the larger questions of the world, have less travel stress? Are THEY able to accept the fact that they will “get there when they get there?” (This phrase, in particular, makes my blood boil. “We’ll get there when we get there? Okay, so WHEN then?!?” I got schedules, people.)

I wonder. I really, really do. And if that works, it may be just enough for me to abandon my lifelong fear of quiet and alone time and take up some serious Buddha-style studies. Because right now, I can’t think of any other way to make this layover go faster!

How do you deal with long travel time? I would love suggestions from those less prone to loud “god DAMNits” in public areas during travel days than I. (Which probably includes most of the rest of the world.)