I woke up at 7:20am in a panic. "It's time to get up!" I blurted out. "No, it's not. There's no school today," was the answer. So I proceeded to go about my business, preparing for my trip, while everyone else slept. I tried not to disturb our visitor in the front room. Luckily, he can sleep through a lot. Bean woke up first. She seemed a little out of it, so I felt her head. Hot. I hope she isn't coming down with the flu. Part of me wanted to just say, "Screw it," and stay home. My not-positive-for-strep throat was still sore. And it seemed like such a hassle to travel all the way across the country only to return on Saturday.

But I ignored those dangerous thoughts and got out the door almost when I wanted to. The trip to Houston was uneventful. I already had a three-hour layover there, so I was prepared to find my favorite electrical outlet across from the Starbucks in the spacious Terminal E. Unfortunately, though, my flight to Louisville was significantly delayed. By the time I left Houston, I'd already been there for over five hours. Not as bad as the time when I had to spend the night in Terminal C as an undergrad, certainly, but also not my idea of a productive use of my time.

The real excitement started once I got to Louisville. The pilot came on to announce that we couldn't go to the gate for awhile because, I thought I heard him say, "someone was smoking." Since I was