Lessons Learned

My Dad says some crazy shit. Some of it is wildly unbelievable but some of it is utterly genius! Like his two rules of life, which I've adopted as my own. 

1. Shit happens!

2. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

Note: any problem with rule number one, see rule number two. Any problem with rule number two, see rule number one.

The beauty of this is its simplicity. The vagueness is its all encompassing nature of it. 

It applied to all our challenges we, Cher and I, faced while traveling. 

Lesson 1: Remember all your belongings when leaving a vehicle. You'd think that I would have this down as a goddamn science by now... Forgot my carry-on in the bin on the first connection flight. Luckily our travel documents were in it. Why, you ask? It was able to be verified that I was the owner. 

 

Or in the UberX car, my camera (Lumi) fell out of my jacket pocket while I was exiting but the driver hollered at me because I did leave a tip. 

So shit happened (lost an item) but I asked customer service to recover. I was preparing Cher on how to recover from this loss. Which demonstrates how resourceful I can be if need be.

Takeaway? When traveling label anything you want to recover if you accidentally leave it behind.

Lesson 2: Treat others how you want to be treated. As much as possible I treat people with respect, patience and tolerance. In my years of flight travel I have yet to miss a flight and / or a connection. 

First time it was the carrier. Second time was our fault. 

So shit happened (missed flights) but we did what we needed to (graciously worked with the people needed to) 

Takeaway? While traveling there are so many variables to account for that you must make peace with the fact that you'll encounter challenges. It's how you process them will determine your fun.

Lesson 3: "Concrete words" shouldn't be used to describe any aspects of the human condition.  For example, I heard, "I always have coffee with cream. Where is it?" At some point you must've had it without to realize you don't like coffee without it.

Always means always. No room for imperfection, or exceptions. So it's better to have said I prefer coffee with cream. 

So shit happened (no more cream left) but you drink your coffee happily because you at least have that! 

Takeaway? In this life, you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. If it is what you like / desire, consider yourself lucky. If it's a consistent, consider yourself blessed.

Lesson 4: Duty free only means duty free. It doesn't mean hassle free, or TSA Inspection free if you place this in your carry-on luggage. It simply means you didn't pay a dime of tax on it but you certainly "pay for it" in the end with being pulled out of line, waiting on the TSA agent to find their special packaging tape and more.

So shit happened (TSA agents), but we did what was necessary by answering their questions without frustration or impatience because in the end we kept the alcohol. 

 

Takeaway? If you buy duty-free alcohol, place in your checked and pray that it survives the piss-pour treatment from the baggage handlers. 

There was many more little lessons and observations I noted about traveling public, Cher, etc but I'll keep those to myself for future use.

This has been your C-note.

'los; out