September 21, 2006
Day 52

Thursday was not the strangest day I’ve ever had but it ranks up there in the top 20. It was my last weekend out of town and I was determined to stick to my diet. I didn’t want to let travel disruption be the consistent sabotager, the reason that everything always breaks down. I dutifully had a JC “Egg Mcmuffin” breakfast in the cab on the way to the airport. I left myself plenty of time for an anxiety free departure. One 6-hour delay later, I found myself digging into a piece of chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting with no hesitation at all. It was really good by the way, in case you should ever find yourself in SFO with time on your hands and a sugar craving. On the return trip I sampled the coconut cake and the German chocolate, alternating spoonfuls between the two of them. They are both splendid.

As I had six hours, I ran back and forth between gates trying to get on other flights via standby. Of course, that didn’t work. While in line at customer service, I ran into a couple of IT guys who were stuck as well. They pulled me out of line and told me not to waste my time. We ended up eating lunch together and the subsequent 5 hours were very odd. We would wander about on our own for a little bit, come together again, and then wander off on our own once more. This pattern repeated itself for many hours. That part wasn’t weird. I mean it was a little strange because you feel like you live in the airport and are about this close (holding my finger and thumb one inch apart) to putting on slippers and one of those neck pillows and just moving in. The strangest part was that one of the IT guys took a shine to me and would not stop following me around trying to keep me engaged in conversation. The conversation was already strange and became increasingly disturbing as time marched on. Once it began to get a little too dark I made a hasty retreat.

But the damage was done. The nervousness took its toll and I broke down at the soup and sandwich place and had a huge turkey and havarti on sour dough. I actually did consider taking a cab back into the city, eating a JC meal and driving back to the airport but that felt a little too insane for me. Anyway, still reeling from the weird trip, I arrived at the airport in DC at around 12am and immediately drove to the grocery store with a friend to stock up on diet coke, diet yogurt (me), Kit Kat bars, sugary cereal, smore materials, cup cakes and ice cream (him) for the weekend. So, how do you think my willpower stood up over the next two days? Use your imagination.