Going in circles, from Vessel to LaGuardia

At midnight, the food court at LaGuardia airport is surprisingly (and annoyingly) noisy. I'd really like to curl up somewhere and sleep, but these hard cafe chairs don't encourage comfort, and even if they did, the noise would put the kibosh on and slumber. Aside from frequent public announcements warning of the dangers of leaving baggage unattended or parking empty cars outside the terminal, we're subjected to urgent chatter in a mixture of languages plus an intermittent squeal produced by a nearby escalator. My husband wadded his jacket into a sort of pillow and put his head down on the table in front of him, but I don't know whether he's actually asleep or just pretending. Either way, a crick in the neck is inevitable.

We would both be asleep in our own beds if our flight had left on schedule, but it was delayed one then two then three hours and then we finally boarded in cold, wet, windy fog and then taxied out on the tarmac to get the plane de-iced, where we sat for nearly an hour with poor ventilation. The heat and fumes made me woozy, but that wasn't the worst of our problems: de-icing fluid leaked inside the plane, and while the Powers That Be were deciding how to deal with that problem, the pilot reached his maximum quota of hours for the day and another pilot was not available. So they took us back to the terminal, gave us a bag of free pretzels and a new flight for tomorrow morning, and bid us farewell with a wimpy "Sorry!"

You'll notice that no lodging was included in the deal, nor any food vouchers, which didn't really matter since all the restaurants were closed by that time. Sorry doesn't quite cut it at this point, and I suspect that Sorry will feel even less adequate when we reach the wee hours of the morning. 

It's funny: we started the day walking in circles, and now we're being kept awake by an escalator that keeps circling and squealing and reminding us that we're going nowhere. This morning we walked over to Hudson Yards, where, despite more cold, rain, sleet, snow, wind, and fog, we walked to the top of the Vessel, Thomas Heatherwick's walkable outdoor sculpture. I suppose the views are spectacular when the city isn't socked in with fog, but even under such adverse conditions, it was a fun and fascinating installation. Each flight of steps or turn produces new angles and views; we were alternately walking inside a beehive, a giant erector set, or an Escher print.

We made it out of that experience feeling refreshed and invigorated, but our circular journey in the aiport resulted in less pleasant feelings. I know I'll be a wreck in the morning if I don't sleep, but I also have a pile of freshman drafts I need to read and if I can't sleep, I may as well make myself useful. And I really ought to get back to campus tomorrow, but let's see if our flight actually takes off tomorrow morning. If not, I'm going looking for something more significant than a mere Sorry. I just wish the airline could deliver a good night's sleep.