I lost my mind, I stopped feeling the rush and anxiety that makes me get on time every time we are traveling. The stress of missing a flight, a train, not getting to our destination or having a place booked to stay has been with me for years…not last weekend.

6:10pm flight from Mexico City to San Francisco, all packed after 30 days of working remotely and spending quality time with our loved ones. 3:15pm was the appointment time to head out to the airport, everybody ready and I wanted so badly my last horchata coffee from Cielito Querido Cafe. So, since we were on time let’s pick the coffee up on our way and home we go. 

4pm-ish we head out to the airport, car #1 full of laugagge, the kids, passports, everything goes directly to the airport. Car #2 heads out in the search of the nearest Cielito Querido Cafe. As we drove around Mexico City “following” Waze’s directions, we missed one and two exits, we turned right, left and ended up trapped in the traffic in a dangerous neighborhood.

4:30pm already and I am still relaxed, I am sure we will get there on time. Finally, we got back on track to find the coffeee place. We rushed into the store asking the barista for all our drinks, the order takes less than we expected and now we are heading to the airport.

4:50 we hit heavy traffic with no options but to keep going forward, a message from car #1 arrives indicating that closer to the airport the traffic is worse. I felt a little pressure but still thought we would be able to make it on time.

5:10pm we drive at 10mi/hr, I start thinking about the possibility of missing our flight; however, another message from car #1 indicates that they have reached the airport and are in line for checking the bags in already.

5:20pm we are parking at the airport feeling somehow safe after hearing laugagge is in and boarding passes on hand, and then…

5:30pm I told everybody that I wanted to have lunch with them, my family, I didn’t want to rush anymore, I wanted to spend more time with them. During the next 20min I was blocked, everyone was telling us that we were about to miss the flight, that lunch was not an option, hurrying us to pass security but I still got them to join me for lunch. I wanted to be there, see them, talk to them, touch them.

5:45pm we say our goodbyes, go through security, dodge people as we run passing all gates until we finally get to ours just to hear our flight was gone. I felt sorry for making my wife and kids go through this, she was worried of what just happened and her face was indescribable. I’m sorry wife, I love you.

For the next two hours or so I needed to fix this mess, find our laugagge, book new tickets, get a place to stay (that was the easy part), all while assuring everybody that I was mentally okay and this was just a small lapse.

Don’t ask me why I behaved like this last week, I still do not understand it. I am just happy to know that our families are always there to hold our back. The coffee, the airport rush, the lunch, waiting for us knowing we will miss the flight, their patience while I dealt with the situation, their smiles at the end of the day.

Thanks, I love the 11 of you so much.