19 Comments

“Never tell the universe you want to change your life.” That made me chuckle.

Really enjoyed reading this, thanks!!

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Haha it's messed me up every time.

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Lindsey, I never regret reading your posts, and this time I am going to copy a few of my favorite lines down in my commonplace book. Thank you for showing us your suffering. XOXO

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Oh my. I am also a “you’ve got to be kidding about the two hours” person, whereas I have raised a daughter who routinely gets to the airport that far in advance. But I have a weird relationship to time and it seems I am incapable of estimating how long things will actually take. Loved your takeaway about the universe giving you exactly what you asked for, lol.

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I think I am officially a two-hours-in-advance person from now on. Ha!

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Love this Lindsey. Jeff and I flying together for the past few years has not been pretty. I have TSA precheck and Global entry and he has not managed to apply. Last week, I checked the bags under my name and sailed through and he missed the flight.

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I was just telling someone yesterday that flying is a whole new thing post-covid. I need to wrap my mind around it!

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You can get to the airport 2 hours early. Or you can do TSA Pre-Check. But you can’t not do either!

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Ughhhh B has been hounding me about the pre-check for ages. But that only helps with the security line right? If so, we didn't even get that far.

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In that case, I recommend “investing” in some branded credit cards that help with airline status…my blood pressure would’ve been through the roof if I had been in your predicament.

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One of the agents said "you can't check that unless you have status" and I said "how do I get status, like right now?!" Ha.

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This is my favorite "Between Two Things" thus far!

I love my smart phone, but I am a huge fan of airplane mode. It's like being incognito. No one can get to you. It's amazing. Freedom.

And also, I'm sorry about how much the trip sucked, but I've always thought the worst trips are the best. Everyone cries. Everyone loses it at least once. And, somehow, we bond.

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I like the airplane mode idea. I think when the summer is over I might do something like that. Isn't it overwhelming to come back to a bunch of messages when you turn off airplane mode though?

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Airplane mode is nice because I could still listen to music, jot down things, take pictures, etc., but no one was speaking into my quiet space.

Email is always overwhelming for me even if it's just junk, so it was still overwhelming.

As for friends and family, there weren't as many messages as I expected. They tried to respect the space I asked for, and they did.

I told them the parameters--phone on airplane mode from the time I exited the highway to the time I got back on the highway in the morning. Someone, usually my mom, always knew were I was staying, and our deal was that I had to get in touch with her by noon the next day. There was even a day or two when I was like, I'm going way up on a mountain, so don't worry until 4 pm.

My problem is that I can't turn off the noise of it all by just ignoring my phone. I need to be unreachable. (And this is because I was so bad at boundaries for most of my life that I let everyone speak into what I was or should be doing.) My husband isn't like that, so now, if we're out of town, my phone is on airplane mode but his is probably still on.

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I think you make some good points about setting boundaries. It's a "noise" issue for me too, and I'm stressed out by the idea of constant availability even if no one is texting me. I need to get a handle on the email problem too... It never ends. Maybe the answer is just to ignore it and hope the world doesn't come to a stop. ;)

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This is beautifully done. Part of the secret of life, I think, is surrendering to our helplessness, which is, in and of itself, a leap of faith.

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Amen.

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I am loving reading your blog and following your social media/technology respite! Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks Kathy!

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