The 5:30AM flight was cheaper. That’s why I booked it.

When you book a 5:30AM flight there’s some cognitive dissonance regarding actually getting up to catch a 5:30AM flight. You forget you have to get to the airport at least an hour before it takes off. You forget that you have to leave your house at least a half hour before that and that, you, a guest without a car, will need to get there somehow. You need to get a cab in a city that doesn’t really have a lot of cabs so you call cab companies the night before and hear that they’re booked for the time that you need. You did not realize that 3:00AM to 6:00AM is prime cab time in Rochester, NY and you’ll have to call a few cab companies in order to get one (The Lyft app wouldn’t let you book a Lyft before 5:50AM and you were like, “What’s up with that? Is Lyft not 24 hours in Rochester?” And you decide not to risk it.) You finally get one for 3:30, which is a little too early but so it goes. Then you try to get some sleep.

You forget what it’s like trying to get to sleep when you have to wake up very early in the morning and you don’t want to sleep through your alarm. You also forget what it’s like to get out of a warm bed in the middle of a winter night when it’s pitch black outside.

You forget about all of this when you click the purchase button on that JetBlue flight for 5:30AM.

That’s where I am.

I watched them open the gate on the TSA checkpoint. That was a new one. I didn’t know that it ever closed.

The gates are slowly starting to fill up. Flight attendants are making their announcements about US Something Something Flight 123 with non-stop service to somewhere.

When I get to JFK, I’m still going to have to get home. The AirTrain to LIRR to the subway. I just want to go back to sleep. But, since I’m taking a 5:30AM flight, if I play my cards right I’ll be back in bed by 8:30.

So there’s that.