“oh [bleep], oh [bleep], oh [bleep]!”

of all of the ways one could be awoken from a dead sleep, i’m going to venture to say that hearing your girlfriend scream a string of expletives doesn’t top the list. but that’s exactly the wake-up call S received on sunday morning when i realized that not only had our alarm not gone off, but we had exactly one hour to get dressed, pack up our suitcases, leave our hotel, return our rental car, shuttle to the airport, make it through security, and onto our early morning flight. we went into overdrive.

somehow we managed to get dressed, zip up our previously packed suitcases (thank goodness we’re a pair of OCD’s), and make it out of the hotel in three minutes flat. i ran my hands through my bedhead-tangled hair as i dragged my rolling suitcase behind me to the car. how could this have happened?

if you know me, you know i’m organized. i get sick pleasure out of having every “i” dotted, and every “t” crossed. so as trivial as it may seem, oversleeping through what we later learned was a non-existent alarm (how it got switched off, i’ll never know), was my worst nightmare come true.

i’m so sorry, i’m so sorry.

(when in doubt, apologize profusely.)

as i jumped on the phone with southwest to hopefully find a later flight, S punched the directions for dollar rental car into his phone. as i was mid-conversation with our flight fairy godmother, i noticed that we were moving toward signs that read “DFW airport.” which would have been comforting if we were flying out of DFW. however, our flight, and subsequently, our rental car drop-off site, were at the other dallas airport -love field. whoopsies.

i finished up the call with southwest and calmly delivered the news to S. good news was that we were on a later flight so we could take our time getting to the airport. bad news was that we were headed in the wrong direction (and out a few extra dollar-signs due to the flight change). S took a deep breath. “okay, i think we need to take a five-minute pow wow.”

great idea.

we pulled off the freeway and into a vacant lot. S turned off the car and we idled in silence. deep breaths. he told me to “come here” and i leaned into the center console as he pulled me close to him. he kissed my forehead. “you’re okay. we’re okay. it’s all going to be okay.” he was right (he always is). in the amount of time it would have taken me to properly freak out, i had calmly called southwest, changed our flights, and was in the process of redirecting him to the proper airport to drop off the rental car. while i had certainly wanted to erupt in sobs, i had miraculously managed to keep it together.

while i’d like to take all the credit for staying (relatively) calm in the midst of chaos, i had to point to S’s level-headedness as the ultimate antidote to my frazzled nerves. yes, we were frustrated -the situation in no way helped by our lack of caffeine, but taking a moment to pause and regroup reminded us that our frustration was with the circumstances, not necessarily with each other.

so with a renewed attitude and directions to the proper airport, we hit the reset button on our day. we dropped off the sonic, made it through security, and to our gate well before our new flight. as we sipped our starbucks and completed a crossword puzzle on S’s phone, i felt extra grateful to have him by my side. while i certainly wouldn’t have wanted our trip to end on such a stressful note, i couldn’t help but think that perhaps our mini mishap had been a blessing in disguise. in seeing how we worked together as a team to formulate and execute plan B, i became even more confident in the strength of our bond. S truly is the yin to my yang, and the namaste to my million-mile-a-minute-moving mind. he’s my teammate, plain and simple. and there is no one i’d rather race out of a hotel room, half-asleep, under-brushed and under-caffeinated with than him.

everything had worked out in the end. sure, we made it home five hours later than expected, but we made it home in one piece (and with our luggage which had to be checked before our connecting flight in houston) and with enough time to even swing by sprouts and get sushi from our favorite spot. we even managed to sneak showers in to feel like real humans again.

you know, in the days leading up to our dallas trip, i had playfully teased S that we were headed for an adventure. as i mentioned in the recap of our weekend in the lone star state, traveling with anyone (especially a significant other) for the first time can pose any number of “adventurous” situations. but apparently sneaking a photo op on a red tractor and navigating texas highways weren’t enough to fill that quota. we needed something a little more exciting. and while i would have preferred “running into tami taylor at the airport” or “finding the perfect pair of cowboy boots” as our token adventures for the trip, i’d miss a flight any day if it means i get to formulate a very viable plan B with my number one.

image via oh hello friend blog