Current Mood: Crabby

It's true. When you put negative energy into the universe, it throws it right back at you. At least that's my theory at the moment. Which would mean my horrible day of traveling is really my own fault...because I started off today dreading this trip.

There were several reasons. I'm swamped at work and being out of the office for another 3 days is not ideal. There are some "hot button" issues on the board's agenda this week so it's likely to be a fairly tense meeting. And while I've been feeling fantastic and have no reason to have any "pregnancy anxiety" whatsoever, last night I started to have doubts about being nearly 7 months pregnant and over 1,000 miles away from home, Drew and my doctor. Then this morning I said goodbye to Drew before he headed off to work. He walked all the way to the bedroom door before turning around, coming back to rub my belly, give me one more kiss goodbye and say "Take care of our little boy". It was all I could do to not burst into tears.

I sucked it up, finished packing and headed to the airport at 11:00 this morning. Everything started off totally routine, but about 15 minutes into my first flight (KC to Philly) we started hitting some turbulence. Major turbulence. I travel a lot and I'm not a nervous flier at all. But today I was nervous. I suppose it was because it's not just me anymore...I have a little life inside of me that is my responsibility too. Luckily, he seemed to enjoy the rocky ride. He kicked me almost the entire flight - which made me smile through my terror. We made it to Philly safe and sound and I thought my travel woes were over.

Flight #2 (Philly to State College) turned out to be equally annoying. Only this time it wasn't turbulence related. Instead, after taxi-ing to the runway, we were told by the control deck that all take-offs were routed to the eastbound departure runway. Apparently that causes major traffic jams on the runway (which makes me wonder WHY IN THE WORLD YOU WOULD DO THAT!) So we proceeded to sit on the runway and wait for our turn to take off for 1 1/2 hours. The most annoying part - the entire flight is only 45 minutes. We sat on the runway for twice as long as the flight takes. And of course it was 100 degrees on the plane and by now I was absolutely starving.

After finally arriving in State College, I picked up my rental car and went to baggage claim. But wait...there is no baggage claim. Instead, at this tiny little airport, you simply go out the front door. Eventually, someone pulls a cart up to the curb that is piled high with luggage. You then proceed to dig through the piles to grab your bag. Seriously. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.

There were other minor annoyances along the way. The hotel (while very quaint) is located on the PSU campus. So finding the Nittany Lion Inn in the midst of campus buildings and frat houses in the pitch dark and light rain was not an easy task. The hotel staff didn't exactly run outside to greet me and they had our billing set-up wrong (even though I've been over it again and again with the sales staff in my planning for the event). And there was no Internet cable in my room.

I've learned my lesson. Tomorrow I will be sending only positive thoughts into the universe.

Now I'm going to curl up in bed, pop my ipod in my ears and fall asleep to the little man wiggling around in my belly. I can't think of a better cure for crabbiness!