H o M E !

Well, my ticket back to California was bought around late November. The first half of the battle was waiting until my flight home yesterday. The entire second half of the battle was all of December 23rd and the trek home itself. Oy!

My flight was at a leisurely 10a (not bad) but that still meant up at 6a, getting dressed and ready, packing my carry-on purse and out the door at 7a in the frigid and windy New York morning (the sky was dawning, but the lights of the Chrysler building were still glowing) and catching one train to the next, then to to the AirTrain to JFK. Then checking in, going through security, and finding myself in a bustling and crowded waiting area for my gate an hour before boarding. There was a sparrow that was somehow caught in there that hopped around, cocked its head looking at us, bit crumbs from the carpet and flew around. It was a surprise when I first saw him, but for that entire hour, all everyone could talk about was the bird! the bird! the bird in the airport! I was going crazy. People, it's a SPARROW not a freakin' MONKEY. WE GET IT ALREADY!

I had a middle seat. A MIDDLE SEAT from JFK to Phoenix. In the end, actually, it wasn't that bad. And I sat next to a very friendly and motherly lady who turned on my reading light for me, threw away my trash for me, and mentioned that she loved the book I was reading. I closed my eyes during take off and awoke an hour later. Already an hour down! And the flight had been so smooth, this was going to be the easiest thing ever!

WRONG. I was counting down the minutes for the rest of the flight. I couldn't go back to sleep, I was losing interest in my book, none of my music was distracting me, and I really hate people reading over my shoulder, so when I wrote in my journal I wrote in French, but my brain started hurting. (What's the French word for "scrumtrillescent"??) So landing in Phoenix was magical (plus, I LOVE Phoenix) but it was still a 2 hour layover. I got through that by laying across seats and watching Bruno on my laptop, and the flight from Phoenix was of course negligible, and I even sat next to an old cowboy from Durango. Talk about chivalrous! He wouldn't even drink his drink until I sipped mine first, and he referred to me as "A" (due to my seat assignment") and said I could call him "C". Somedays, I just never know what's in store for me.

Landing felt like Christmas morning already. Was this real life? Turns out it wasn't, cause Kathleen and Heather weren't there yet, but Kathleen showed up while I was waiting for my bag, and we met Heather outside. I sat in the backseat and got to meet Dexter and was presented with a box of Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's!

We then proceeded to the nearest Del Taco, taking it home, and I proceeded to eat FOUR Del Taco burritos (old habits die hard) and up to Kathleen's room with Dexter where I put on Friends (again, old habits die hard) and we fell asleep together and I woke up this morning with Dexter gone and replaced by Kathleen. But not replaced entirely, cause she wasn't asleep on top of me and instead stuck to her side.

It would be nice if it weren't all gray and drizzly today, but at least I'm home!

UPDATE: Kathleen and I went to make a gingerbread house from HOME DEPOT (so we already win) and we were a bit distracted since we were watching Friends... and it fell apart a few times but... here's basically how it went down.

If there are any redeeming qualities of that house (i.e., the white icing and colored dots) it is all thanks to ME. Kathleen was in charge of the roof (which I basically ended up doing anyway) and the orange frosting, and you can see how well that worked out for her.