It began as the most simple of ideas. I’ve got hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles. Why not use some to upgrade to first or business class? American Airlines didn’t mind. Delta was happy to separate my record from the other PC travelers. Washington, on the other hand, was not pleased. Their reasoning? If I can’t make the trans-Atlantic back in steerage, I’m probably not suited for 27 months without toilet paper. Well, that may be extreme . . . perhaps I’ll occasionally see a roll of Charmin.

So, how many Peace Corps Trainees does it take to foul-up the entire airline record locator for the Burkina staging group? Just one! No speculation involved there. I haven’t even left Dallas and I’m already trouble. What was I thinking?! Was that the best judgment of a business advisor in the SED program? Hours later the issues are resolved. I’ll happily sit in my coach aisle seat. I’ve promised the Country Desk that I’ll never, never-ever, be one ounce of trouble. Truly, I will never ever intentionally be trouble. It is possible to be trouble by omission of judgment? We can only speculate.