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Jessica Moore's avatar

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

Really enjoyed reading this, thanks!!

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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

Haha it's messed me up every time.

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Ginger Friesen's avatar

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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Louise Julig's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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

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Mimi Zieman, MD's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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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Bill Young's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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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Bill Young's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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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Angelina Brooks's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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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Angelina Brooks's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

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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Chuck Reece's avatar

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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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

Amen.

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Kathy's avatar

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

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Lindsey DeLoach Jones's avatar

Thanks Kathy!

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