Costly Mistakes

Good morning, friends. I write to you at 5:52am from Boston's Logan Airport. Because of this crazy Nor'easter, my flight that was scheduled for this morning from Portland (Maine) to LaGuardia was cancelled last night around 9pm. Around 10:30pm, I was finally rebooked on a flight from Boston to Detroit to Shanghai. The flight from Boston leaves at 7:05 am so I needed to be at the airport by 5am...which meant I had to leave my house around 2:45 so you can imagine how I'm feeling right now. I don't even dare take a picture for you.

Some of you may have read my tweet last night that I decided to cancel the Manila portion of my trip. I was really excited to visit Manila, but mostly to visit a friend from college who now lives there and is actually pretty famous there.

Back in August when I was booking my flights to China, I thought to myself, "If I'm going to be that far away from home, I might as well see as much as I can." So I contacted my friend who had been bugging me to go visit her and she was really excited to have me come and to host me. I booked my flight to Manila from Shanghai.

We exchanged emails about the trip and talked about how much fun it would be to see each other after almost 10 years. As the days drew closer to November, I started hearing from her less and less.

During October, I wrote to her several times and even stalked her on Twitter to try to get some details of my trip. She wrote back twice but never gave me any information about picking me up from the airport or where she lived so that I could take a cab there.

This past week, I have written to her at least 5 times (through email and Twitter), but barely heard a word. Then yesterday, I got an email from her saying that she was dealing with some things and she was really sorry.

But she never said "I'm still looking forward to you coming. Here's my address or I'll be at the airport for you."

At first, I thought I would just book a hotel and visit Manila alone. Then I ran the idea by LoLo and my mom and they were both really worried. Then I checked the American Embassy's website and saw a travel warning that said "Threat Against American Travelers". That was the last straw.

I called Delta and rebooked my flight to leave directly from Shanghai. A flood of relief came over me immediately.

Between being totally overwhelmed about a trip to a place completely foreign to me, I just wasn't feeling comfortable with being somewhere that I knew no one and knew nothing about. Now I could focus on the amazing conference that I would be attending and really get excited about it.

I cried last night because I felt like I should have seen it coming. I was so mad at myself.

I should have known not to trust anyone.

I'm seeing the silver lining though. I am going to Shanghai and I can just enjoy the conference instead of worrying about my plans afterwards. At the conference, I'm going to meet a bunch of people from all around the world who work for my company and who I have been working closely with.

And the best part: I'm going to be home for Thanksgiving with my family and with LoLo and with Bronx. And that's something I can be thankful for...no matter the cost.