Since this blog is new, I probably haven’t mentioned how much I love to travel. I’ve figured out that, in my case, the trip usually is not the most important part – it is the preparing for the trip and traveling that I adore.

Most people have told me that packing is their most daunting task. If they could have someone else do it for them, they would. Not me. I love to spend hours washing my clothes (or just picking them up from Sparkle dry cleaners), deciding what I will wear on the trip and then carefully checking to make sure everything liquid is double bagged in Ziploc bags and that I have the tools necessary to create any hairstyle. I think that by taking my time and not rushing the packing process I am able to pack lighter and travel better.

Then comes the actual travel. I love airports. To me, they are like a mini-world. Starbucks? Check. Nail salon? Check. Bookstore? Check. Don’t even get me started on buying perfume at the Duty Free shop. Perfume is my weakness.

Today (Friday) I am traveling to New Orleans.

I was up and at work by 6:45 a.m. to cover the meeting of the Lebanon Breakfast Rotary, then it was write, write, write all day until I had to leave to catch my 4:50 p.m. flight.

I still had one more story to get in before press time once I arrived at the airport. “No problem,” I thought. “People are at the airport on laptops all the time. I will just sit down and be one of them.”

What I didn’t know was that BNA does not have free internet! I thought everyone had free internet, but apparently sitting at Panera sipping lattes has spoiled me.

I paid $8 to get online and email one, 200-word article to my work. Maybe I shouldn’t be complaining - but $8 could buy several other things. For example, with that $8 I could have:

-          Had my nail polish changed at Palazzo Nails in Lebanon (my favorite)

-          Ordered at #3 Spicy Chicken Sandwich meal at Chik-fil-A with waffle fries and a diet coke

-          Had two tall Soy Caramel Macchiatos from Starbucks

-          Bought a tube of my favorite drugstore mascara

-          Picked four Powerball tickets…with PowerPlay…for my lottery-playing mother

-          Pumped two gallons of gasoline into my SUV

-          Purchased a magazine (since I unfortunately left the latest issue of Wilson Living on my desk)

-          Saved it for my “Las Vegas Trip” fund

Okay, I am off my soap box.

I got a chair massage and it soothed me. I still love airports!