We are currently at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport waiting for the first Philadelphia leg of our trip to begin. The car picked my mother up early, at 11:45 instead of 12:00, so we were running early or on time until just a short while ago. I was rushing around at home at the last minute, as usual. Having to get Radar walked and packed and off to Mary Jo’s didn’t get me back to my house and into the shower until about 11:45. So, I was barely dressed and dried before the car pulled up. I had arranged an airport car service to drive us to save time and money. It actually ended up being cheaper to hire someone else to drive us to the airport than to drive ourselves and pay for parking.
We stopped for lunch at TGIFriday’s in the airside terminal:
My mom was hoping for a place to have a cigarette, and I was hoping for a drink to augment my Xanax, but only one of us was satisfied (me). Smoking is entirely prohibited at the airport now, so she’ll have almost 18 hours before she can have another one--unless she can find a place in Phila. At Friday’s, she tried sliders for the first time, but didn’t think that they were any less filling than a regular burger. I had the Portobello mushroom sandwich and a bowl of red pepper soup. I’m still planning, hoping, to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle while I’m away, but I’ll be flexible if I have to. The thought of eating meat now makes me sick, so I will try everything I can not to eat meat.
On our way to the gate from the restaurant, we began to experiment with Headi for the first time.
Above: our new-found friend, Headi, in the Pgh airport with the Calder mobile.
She spends most of her time wrapped in bubble wrap, but we got a shot of her with Franco Harris and a shot of her on the people movers. We were laughing so hard, I almost peed my pants and people were looking at us like we were nuts. But what else is new. We are off to a great start.
The first unfortunate news when we reached the gate is that the plane is already delayed. Right now, it’s only 20 minutes and the gate personnel are reassuring us that the delay does not affect anyone’s connections, but I’m not convinced. I won’t relax until we are on the plane to Rome. After the trip to Ireland in 2005, I think the Philadelphia airport is HELL ON EARTH, so I won’t be happy until we are free and clear of its airspace. One possible saving grace, however, is that we don’t seem to be the only passengers connecting to Rome. So, if USAir realizes that they have a number of people trying to make the same international connection, the pilot might wait for us.
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