a wild woman on a mad dash through DFW

I gave a LOT of people their comedic relief yesterday morning in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. And I’m not just guessing that I made them laugh. I actually saw them. Laughing. AT me.

It all started Friday night when I was getting dinner with Caitlin and Rob in Fort Worth (fantastic visit with them, by the way! So much fun.). I glanced at my next day’s flight agenda at, oh say, 8 p.m. only to realized that my flight from DFW back to Nash was at 6:50 a.m. OH crap, that’s early. I knew it was in the morning, but I didn’t even realize it was that early – careless me. So after doing the math with Caitlin and realizing that I needed to be up at 3:30 to catch my flight in plenty of time, I made the hour drive back to my hotel in Denton, TX. I quickly settled into bed, requested a wake up call, set my cell phone alarm, and crashed about 10:30 p.m.

Fast forward to 5:38 a.m.

Something woke me up. I flew out of bed like a lunatic, double-checked about four times that I wasn’t dreaming or that it really wasn’t 2 a.m. (my good friends know that I have a habit of waking up ready to start the day in the middle of the night…), and absolutely FREAKED. Actually, “freaked” is quite the understatement.

I started having a conversation with myself that was all

I’ll never make it.
I freaking can’t believe this.
The stupid alarms never went off.

No, you can make this.
You GOT THIS GIRL.

I threw on the same clothes I had on the night before (no time to make decisions), did not brush my teeth or hair or even LOOK at my hair for the matter, threw ALL of my stuff into my suitcase and dashed out the door. I’d never looked better.

Of course I didn’t even check to see if I left anything – a pair of jeans and two books are being shipped to me now!

A big thank you to all the kind souls out there who helped this half-asleep wild woman catch her flight:

The Hilton desk clerk, who told me “not to worry. Have a great day…” as I slapped the room keys down on the counter while yelling “Checking out of 315. About to miss my flight! Thanks!” Out the door.

—- I wish I could thank someone for magicly filling up the rental car for me before I turned it in, but I can’t, and filling up that dang car was about to give me a heart attack. I just knew because I had to stop and fill up that car I’d miss my flight.

The lady at the toll booth who took my $2 and alerted the people ahead “Alert: Allow pass for driver in a cube attempting to catch AA flight blah blah blah.” BLESS YOU, WOMAN.

THE HERTZ MAN. SAM. You are the MAN and your boss has already received a praise letter about you. When he saw my crazy hair (yes, this is what he said alerted him to my need to RUSH), he printed a receipt, told me to stay in the car, and HE took me PERSONALLY to my gate instead of waiting on the Hertz shuttle like everyone else. You are a SAINT, Sam my man.

The American Airlines lady, who let me check in even though it was under the “30-minute til lift-off” period. 29 minutes to be exact. She still checked me in.

The security man, who knew I was out of breath from dashing to him, who let me bypass everyone in security. NO thanks to the TSA person who pulled me aside because she was suspicious about my projector that lead to have to do a full-body pat-down.

I was quite the site to see, and I even had the man next to me give me a little round of applause. Thank you, kind man, for not commenting on my morning breath or appearance in general. Clearly, I was a disaster.

By 10 a.m., I was home in Clarksvegas, showered, and spending time with my dad and TEDDY (!!!!!!!!!) who came to visit for a couple days.

I love flying. Such good times.

Lesson learned = set three alarms not just when you are speaking that day, but when you are flying home, too! This is not a story that I want to repeat any time soon. 🙂

Except for this minor crisis, I had such a fabulous week in the Dallas area!! I spoke at five different middle and high schools, met some phenomenal students, teachers, and administrators, and am even more fired up than ever to continue this season. I get such an incredible natural high when I’m standing there about the speak and the students are coming in to sit down. My prayers is always that the students are receptive to what they are about to here. Check out our facebook page to get an idea of the kids’ responses – facebook.com/RachelsChallenge. Loving this journey!! New Mexico on Tuesday.

xoxo
Erica

Erica

Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo

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