A few words from a professional procrastinator

After spending the month of April traveling across the United States as evidenced by my flickr stream I want a mac book air.

It was the first time I saw one let alone touch one in the Apple store in Pentagon City and also in Burlingame. Let me describe how I came to that decision.

The last time I flew to the east coast was in 2002 and that was just NYC. This time around I went around the D.C. and Virginia area. Mainstream media has not been kind to US carriers in the past few months and just days before my flight the American Airlines grounded flights came out so I was a bit paranoid about my schedule. When I got my tickets from the office I was aghast that they booked me on American Airlines and the bookings didn’t give me any comfort. I planned a trip to Richmond, booked a hotel and all as well as the flight and flew AA on my return to the Bay Area. I was ok with that. But at the last minute I was hesitant in bringing my mac book pro across the country. It was five pounds of additional weight that I didn’t want to carry. I decided on packing light enough so that I wouldn’t have to check in any luggage. The net addict in me couldn’t leave it behind so I packed it in as well. I printed my boarding pass and went through security and straight to the gate. The terminal was at the far end of the airport so I felt every pound of that mac book pro rippling through my arms.

For the first time I flew Jet Blue from San Francisco to New York, took a connecting flight to Richmond, VA to visit a friend, rented a car, got lost in downtown Richmond, got stuck in the hotel due to a storm, tornado and flood watch, got driven out of the hotel by a false fire alarm. At this point my fingers were beginning to ache from the pain of lugging all my belongings across the country. I took an Amtrak train up to Washington and hauled my stuff on and off the train plus around Union Station to get to the Metro, walked another block to the get to the hotel in the pouring rain and finally checked in.

On my way back to San Francisco, I passed by Dallas, TX to find out that my flight had been canceled and had to take the tram four terminals away to my rebooked flight. I felt like I was already in Austin from walking the airport. Needless to say, the flight was overbooked. So the plane was full of passengers and carry-on luggage and miraculously I was able to fit it in.

I finally got to San Francisco despite the airline pilot just banging the plane on the ground which had to be the most uncomfortable landing on this trip so far. Is it just me or do planes always park at the end of the terminal so you’ll have to walk the stretch of the airport to get to the arrival area. All this time I was wishing for a lighter laptop.

So for the sole purpose of traveling around the world, I want a mac book air. Even if it’s just for weight.