Friday the 13th and Full Moon

Not ten minutes after Stacy left for work the phone rang. At 6:15 AM this was not a good sign. It was Stacy and she was fine, but she had a close call, what, with the hood flying open while on the highway. Ben and I were scheduled to leave for Newark Airport at nine (for his flight to Prague where he will be spending the semester studying abroad), so the morning was already a little tense. We were able to rescue Stacy and her car from the left shoulder by tying her hood down. It was Friday the 13th and a full moon. I'm not the superstitious type, but...

Everything else went like clockwork. We left on time, Ben had everything he needed including ticket, wallet, passport, visa, whatever. Got him to Newark an hour early. Well, I had never driven there before and figured on getting lost along the way in New Jersey. Since it was an international flight, three hours prior to flight is the recommended time frame, so I dropped off Ben four hours early. Good, better early than late, and he was headed into the restaurant to have lunch before checking in as I drove off.

About an hour and a half into my drive home (Albany to Newark is just under three hours) the phone rang. Uh, oh. It was Ben. "Dad," he says with noticeable anxiety, "I'm supposed to be at JFK!" O-o-o-o-oh, m'gad, I dropped him off at the wrong airport! Newark is in New Jersey, JFK is on the other side of New York City. Panic.

There was not enough time for me to drive back to Newark and then drive to JFK. Actually, I had no idea how long a drive Newark to JFK was, but clearly my hour and a half out was too far gone. The only alternative was a cab. Ben raced with luggage to ground transportation, got a cab, and made a run for JFK. Turns out that it was only 45 minutes, so he was there by 2:45 or so. He was able to check in on time and (phew!) catch his flight.

He called from Prague, Czech Republic, this morning to let me know he had settled into his dorm and all was well.