stuck in a vial

I wasn't sure I would make it to my destination today because it was unexpectedly quite snowy this morning when I was getting ready to leave the house. I knew there would be bad weather around Des Moines, but I had thought my part of the state would avoid almost all of it - however, huge flakes of snow were falling as I was trying to get myself out the door.

Luckily this morning wasn't really a scramble - I got up, made some coffee, showered, repacked a few tings after reconsidering my wardrobe choices, and talked to [censored] while touching up my nails. Then, I drove to the airport and didn't run into any issues. I made the genius (self-described genius; your mileage may vary) move of parking in short term parking just to check in my suitcase, which, since Des Moines' short term parking is very close to the terminal under a covered walkway, meant I could get my bag in without having to drag it through a lot of slush. Then I drove to an economy lot, dropped my car, caught a shuttle (as the only passenger on the shuttle) and was back at the terminal in less than ten minutes. Iowa has some downsides, but the convenience of the airport isn't one of them.

However, I am rusty at the travel game - I somehow forgot to dump my water bottle, and I had to leave security and go through it a second time. But despite that, I had time to grab a salad at the bar before boarding my flight. My flight to Denver was smooth (except for some final turbulence), and I had just enough time to grab an iced coffee on my walk through between gates before boarding my flight to Portland.

And now I'm safely ensconced in my hotel for the night. I have zero plans in Portland because I wasn't sure that I would get here tonight or that I would have time for anything tomorrow, since I'm leaving almost immediately for the coast - but I will get to sleep in tomorrow, so there's that. And I'll probably dream of my fantasy novel tonight; I spent both flights + a couple of hours after getting to the hotel reading THE GOLDEN ENCLAVES, which was the third and final book in a fantasy series that I should have finished when it came out a few months ago. I'd been saving it for a rainy day, and this was definitely a rainy day (literally, not metaphorically), so I picked it up and then read it pretty much straight through. My book isn't anything like that book at all, but all books are interesting to throw into the well of my psyche, and this one was a little more interesting than most.

And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!