“Can you please wait for a
minute, I’m expecting my friend to come down momentarily, she is never late”, I
pleaded nicely with the cabby just outside the entrance of the Encore Hotel,
Las Vegas. It was the morning after we
competed at our latest three-day dancesport series competition, the NV
Ball. I was already nervous, having
agreed to the directive of my dance teacher Yanna to meet at 7:30AM instead of
7:00AM, my preference for departing the hotel to the McCarran International Airport in Las
Vegas for a 20 minute ride to the airport with enough buffer time to catch our depressing 9AM Hawaiian Airline
cattle car flight back home. Yanna is
indeed NEVER late, but for some reason, the minutes ticked by with no
Yanna. Propping open the entrance door,
I kept one nervous eye on the lobby corridor and one on the cabby who had
loaded my luggage – including all of my worldly dance possessions - in his cab,
my heart rate and anxiety level increased by the second. I could feel and sense her coming around the corner at any second but this deliberate visualization was all for naught - still no Yanna! A
text message sent, a cell phone call made instantly connected to voice mail – still no Yanna, it
was 7:38AM…unheard of lateness. Was anything wrong? The wildest fears suddenly pierced through my paranoid brain like an ice pick. Each second felt like an eternity.
Ran back to the cabby –
“Listen, I need to go into the hotel and try to find her, can you please hang
in here a few more minutes? I will pay you extra." The cabby responded affirmatively. Still with little trust or respect for the
moral integrity of Las Vegas cab drivers (our cabby bringing us to the hotel
four days earlier took me for twice the purse he should have), I had little
choice but to risk the possibility of the cabby fleeing the scene with my
luggage and never again seeing my carefully chosen collection of rhythm, Latin,
smooth and standard dance outfits, not to mention the accouterments, all needed
as prerequisite to stepping on the dance floor at the NV Ball or any competition in the future.
Other heart throbbing moments
of drama followed, but the agent behind the registration desk finally consented
to call the room, not without bitter protest, and after one failed attempt to unearth a human
voice on the other end, I finally connected with an uncharacteristic woozy
voice on the other end. “OMG, the alarm
didn’t go off, I’m sorry……go ahead without me, I will find my way.” Yea, right, it was already 7:46AM, and I was
sweating whether I would make it myself……I thought to myself……there is NO way
Yanna was going to get out of bed, clean up, finish packing, make it out of the
hotel, find a cab to get to the airport skirting a long line of travelers waiting for the same, find the deserted Hawaiian Airlines area in the airport, decipher the check in procedure and navigate the baggage tags out of the Hawaiian
Airlines “automated” kiosk, stick those suckers on to the luggage, deliver them to the blank faced Hawaiian
Airlines agent ready to hurl them onto the conveyor belt, get though long lines of security (without Pre-Check as I was able to do), find, wait for and catch the tram to the D gates, and find her way down a long corridor to Gate
D35. Realizing the next flight to Hawaii
is around 6PM, I was wondering whether I should just reset her reservations for
that later flight to secure a seat.
As it was, I arrived with minutes to spare, but by the time I reached the gate, I was sweaty, panicked, and trembling. People were looking at me ready to call security to investigate this obviously agitated bearded Middle Eastern man on line to board the flight that they were also flying. Well needless to say, this
experience was infinitely more stressful than competing in the 73 dance events of the competition.
To reduce my stress, I wrote this blog on my flight back home to Honolulu, and I’m happy to report
that somehow Yanna was able to muster up the will, with her quick mind and
quick feet to do what I reckoned was impossible, and miraculously with time
enough to stop at Starbucks for a soy milk cappuccino and a tasty muffin to
snack on during the flight home! While I was miserable, in pain, and timorous when she arrived, she was the picture of composure, smiling happily, and dressed impeccably as always while wearing her signature travel cap to boot! Go figure!!
I'm hoping to add just one more chapter to include some of the photos taken during the dancing by the dancesportphotography staff. That may take a few days and will only include a few pics.
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