When bad things happen, and boy do they happen, I try to look at the positive.

Recently, I had a quilting “gig” in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With all the TSA travel rigmarole and new baggage regulations, flying is definitely the pits these days! My original flight took off late, which meant I barely had time to catch my connecting flight in Houston. Schlepping my carry-on bag stuffed with quilts behind me, I sprinted across two terminals to catch my flight.

Gasping for air, I made my way on-board with just seconds to spare before the cabin door slammed shut and we took off. When we landed, I made a bee-line to baggage claim to pick up my suitcase. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. Round and round the carousel went until finally, there were no bags left. Muttering an obscenity, off I went to the baggage claim desk where I was told my bag hadn’t arrived. Duh, like I didn’t know that already. After a frenzied discussion, I was told my bag should be on the next flight from Houston and would hopefully be delivered to my hotel by midnight. I told the attendant, there could be no “hopefully,” and that I HAD TO HAVE IT!

He assured me my bag would be delivered and sent me on my merry way. During the cab ride to the hotel, I went into panic mode, thinking, “How in world am I going to teach for four days without my teaching supplies and samples, and what will I do for clothes and toiletries?” In my hotel room I anxiously paced with thoughts of doom and gloom until the hotel desk called at 11 p.m. to say my suitcase had arrived. I did a victory dance on the spot! Can you imagine how “ripe” I would have been wearing the same clothes day and night for four days? Not to mention my terror at appearing in public sans make-up. Holy Moses, I’d scare myself without my war-paint. Just thinking about teaching without my much-needed supplies and samples made me sweat bullets.

So, even though it was a bad experience, it turned out with a positive result and I learned an important lesson during the whole icky experience. In the future, I won’t travel on connecting flights without a pair of extra jammies and underwear in my carry-on bag! Also, I vow to ship my teaching supplies and samples in advance vs. packing them in my suitcase from now on. The moral of my story is: Keep things positive. When something bad happens in life, learn from it so your next experience doesn’t repeat itself! Happy Quilting!