June 3, 2001 - "How We Almost Didn't Make It"

So it's 9:30 AM on Sunday morning, and we're sitting in Atlanta's International Terminal waiting for our flight to South Africa to begin boarding.  We've been up all night, but we managed to catch a few zzzz's on the flight from NY to GA. 

We went to the most fabulous wedding last night.  One of my best friends - Alicia - got married in what was nothing less than a fairytale wedding - with some extra culture to add a twist to the fairytale.  She looked like a princess (and I'm not just saying that).  The wedding was at a beautiful Armenian church, and the reception at a gorgeous old bank-turned-event-hall in Midtown.  The food was divine, the bands were excellent, and there were bellydancers balancing candelabras and swords on their heads.  Enough said.  Brilliant night all around.

So we closed the reception down and said good-bye to our friends at about 2:30AM.  Then Jon and I went home to do one last load of laundry, finish packing, and clean the remainder of the apartment for the sub-letters.  At about 5:00AM, we were completely running late for our 6:30AM flight, not to mention seeing double due to lack of sleep.  So we out into the very foggy weather and tried to hail a cab, which wasn't working well for us.  Aside from a very small percentage of Wall Street, any sane New Yorker is still in bed at 5:00, so we were completely shocked that we couldn't get a cab.  Finally, a livery cab drove up (a Lincoln for hire) and we negotiated a price and got in.

This is how we almost didn't make it:  After we got through the Holland Tunnel, it seemed like the wheel suspension was slightly off, as the car was swerving just a bit - like a few inches at a time.  But the driver would pull it back and we'd continue on.  This isn't always unusual in cabs, albeit slightly annoying for the passengers in the car as you get a bit of whiplash.  But you learn to deal.  However, it wasn't until he crossed into another lane and swerved back to his lane that Jon and I looked at each other.  My first thought was "Oh My God.  We've hired a drunk driver."  But Jon realized that the guy was falling asleep at the wheel.  He said, "Hey.  Are you OK?"  And the cabbie woke up and said "Yeah, yeah, fine."  Yeah.  Right.  I was traumatized as visions of us plowing into a concrete barricade went through my mind.  How ironic that we were going to die on our way to Newark.  But Jon (smart man that I married) proceeded to start a conversation with our narcoleptic cab driver so he would stay awake.  It doesn't sound so bad now in print, but we really were freaked out by the entire experience.  On the plane to Atlanta, Jon looked at me and said, "Wow.  We could have died this morning".  But I guess you had to be there.  How funny that our experience began with a nightmare cab ride on the NJ Turnpike!  I can't wait for what's next.

Speaking of, we're off to board our 15 hour flight to Johannesburg now.  Cheers!