The big day is finally here

This blog post is coming a day early, and I'm writing it from the airport in Seattle. I'm waiting for my plane to China, it's in an hour and 15 minutes. I'm to exhausted to be anxious, which is a really amazing thing when you think about it. I had a series of mishaps here in Seattle today, which have worked themselves out now, and in the grand scheme of things, probably appear minuscule, but at the time, could easily have registered as the most difficult and stressful situation I have ever faced in my life. First, I thought I had to go to baggage claim here in Seattle because I was to change airlines from United to Hainan, and I was mislead by my dad, but it's my fault for not doing my own research, plus he was only trying to be helpful (pardon the run-on sentence). After learning that I was to go to the Hainan Airlines' ticket counter, it was probably a walk of about half a mile. That, with guitar in hand, and a backpack on my back, borders excruciating. When I got to the ticket counter, I was told that I had to check my guitar, and that I had no choice but to pay $110 to do so. So I cried. Thankfully, for once, crying got me somewhere. The ticket counter lady bumped it down to $80. I took it. The woman asked for my baggage claim ticket, at which point I realized...I lost it--yay! So I had to walk another half mile down to United's ticked counter, where I stood, still crying, for like half an hour, waiting, and finally got that. Then I walked the half mile back to Hainan's ticket counter. Well, I finally got my ticket and everything, and for $80, at least I didn't have to lug the guitar through yet another airport, freeing up my fingers for other things, like posting this blog for example. Also, I am grateful for this four hour layover, as I may not have survived anything less. I feel like when this is all over, it will wipe itself from my memory like a bad dream, so long as, I hope, the rewards are worth the sacrifices. And like a bad dream, I can't wait for this airport shit to all be over.