Twilight Zone Shuttle Ride

Wish I had pictures to add to this entry, but no luck. I'm sitting in the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport. My wishful thinking to try to get an earlier flight out of here was just that - a wish. Class got out early tonight, so I made a dash to the airport in the SuperShuttle, but Spokane being the booming metropolis that it is, turns out there's only the one flight out tonight - at 9:40 pm. Bummer. Especially considering I arrived at the airport a little before 5 pm.

So, that leaves me plenty of time to ruminate, and bore you all to death...

First musing is regarding the apparent requisite that shuttle drivers are foreign, speak broken English, and must text and/or talk on their cell phone while they are negotiating rush-hour construction freeway traffic, all the while doing this annoying push-on-the-gas-pedal-now-let-off-the-gas-pedal-so-everyone's-heads-bobble-around-the-ENTIRE-30-minute-ride. Then, there must be some rule, or perhaps increased commissions, for squeezing as many freakin' people in the van as possible. I apparently was the only female in the greater downtown area heading to the airport, because everyone we picked up was the sterotypical businessman in the sterotypical business attire with the sterotypical loud banter with fellow shuttle riders. I was squished onto a bench seat between a 250-pound pinstriped-clad mafioso and a 300+ pound loud nostril breather. When are we getting to the airport????

Second musing is regarding the way our society continues to spiral into this black hole of decreased face-to-face contact. Translation: Why can't I check-in at the airline counter with a real person anymore? I don't WANT to use the self-serve kiosk! I want to see if I can change my seat to somewhere aft of way-the-hell-in-the back.... Oh.... I have to PAY to change seats? I have to PAY for a mid-air snack? Good grief. It's no wonder I hate flying. Now I just have more excuses.

I don't really have a third musing. Guess my brain has sort of shut down after the long weekend. I can't wait to get back home, get back into a routine of riding again. Hopefully Kendra will let me! That's what I love about having a coach - having her tell me what to do (even though it absolutely killed me to stay off the bike) to make sure that I'm "training smarter, not harder" as the adage goes. I'm feeling considerably better (thanks to a much-needed Z-pak and plenty of Sudafed, not to mention the roughly 2 pounds of cough drops ingested over the last two days to keep me from disrupting the entire course...) - so hoping I didn't lose too much ground. I know it's just because I'm so nervous about this race - just because I've never done such a big stage race before. I'm excited to add this to my list of experiences - because really, no matter how it goes, I'm sure to grow from it somehow!!

Here's to no more shuttle rides for awhile!