Robert Plant 'Pictures At Eleven'

I took Kristina to the RDU Airport this morning. She was catching a flight to Philadelphia and would ultimately end up in Atlantic City. For some reason, she has more money than she knows what to do with and has decided to throw it away at a casino. It’s not that I’m against gambling… I’m really not. I just don’t understand why someone would take money that’s very useful in other areas and instead, ultimately hand it over to a casino. I mean seriously… The odds are in the favor of the house. Chances are that they are going to win. Why bother with the gambling? Just give your hard earned money to anyone on the street.

But hey… That’s how she gets her kicks and I suppose it’s better than trolling the highways looking for lost travelers to hunt, terrorize, and kill. Not that I see her doing those sort of things. It’s just because I watch way too many movies.

I wanted to leave early this morning. A lot sooner than she apparently wanted to… Because she quickly informed me that I was being WAY too cautious with my timing.

Here’s one of my “bad” traits: I always expect the unexpected when traveling. I tend to allow time for any traffic problems or unexpected delays when I have to be somewhere at a designated time. I like some wiggle room.

So since I’m driving her to RDU Airport, I know that sometimes traffic can be a bit congested on the combined I-85 and I-40. Even when they split… 40 goes down to 2 eastbound lanes. It can be maddening sometimes and who knows? An accident can always happen. That sort of thing can bring things to a complete stop for a while.

As we headed into the beautiful rising sun, we ran into a little traffic at the Jordan Lake exits… She said, “Ohhhhhh… This must be the traffic jam you were worried about. Look at all the brake lights. What? Did we slow down to ONLY 60 miles per hour?”

I told her this… “Even if you don’t believe in alternate universes… Think about this… In our current universe, we’re running ahead of time. We’re ready for a traffic jam or accident with time to spare. And in the other universe… We’re 30 minutes ahead in the future. We’re running on time until we happen upon slow or even stopped traffic due to an accident. You’re upset because you could miss your flight. You’re running up and down my spine like an angry monkey clawing and tearing my flesh, pulling out my nerves. Which universe would you rather reside in?”

That’s when she said, “I can be such a bitch sometimes.”

Believe me, I’ve spent 6 years with the truest definition of bitch and Kristina’s only a 5th of that.

I got her there with ample time to waste. Before I got back to Durham, she sent me a text message telling me that she had cleared the security checkpoint. She also told me that she was bored.

And that’s a lot better than being late with an angry Stina. Believe me… No one wants that.