1/3 Of The Way There: Hasta Oaxaca

“We’re in Texas now,” the mom across the restaurant aisle says to her daughter. It’s really Any Airport, USA. I’m sitting at a TGI Fridays-DFW eating tomato basil soup between legs. Next stop, Mexico City. The RDU airport at 7 a.m. was barely bustling and the flight was not full. It took me 2 minutes to check in at the American Airlines ticket counter. It has been easy so far, even though the flights will have started at 8 a.m. and get me into Oaxaca at 7 p.m. tonight with 2-3 hr. layovers each in DFW and Mexico City. The tram rider between Terminal A and Terminal D noted she felt like she was in Disneyland. The woman next to her nodded, her bald head with bit of gray stubble growing out — a recent chemo survivor. I thought, how wonderful that she doesn’t want to hide herself by donning a wig. She shows a pride in her face that smiles out at the world, strong and satisfied. I wonder where she and her friend are off to. TGI Fridays is a familiar, safe world…we know it, depend on it, it gives us comfort food before we continue on. Not exotic, but nice.