We land in Doha at 4:30 am local time, but the airport looks like 9 pm on a Saturday night in Times Square.
People and overly brilliant lights everywhere. No escape.
I’m as introverted as they come. I enjoy less people so much more than more people. And when I’m agitated, I prefer even less people. At this point, I haven’t slept for over 24 hours.
The InstantPot in me is now building pressure.
Luckily we have a savior in the form of my boss. He has a pass to the Qatar Airlines lounge and is happy to bring us. All we have to do is cut through the haze of brain fog and exhaustion, wade through the crowd, and find the lounge.
We stumble upon the lounge. Yet another line, but upon entry, we sit down with some sparkling water and snacks to kill the next couple of hours.
Snacks and sparkling water. WTF is wrong with you? Quit your bitching. You live like a king.
An hour before boarding, in full zombie mode, I waded through the masses and found my way to the gate.
After a quick and easy gate-entry security check, I hand my boarding pass to the gate agent for what I assumed was simply verification of my identity and acknowledgment that the passenger in seat 23D was at the gate.
That’s when the lid blew off the InstantPot.
