Back home

I am so glad to be home.

A big thank you for Noodle, Spy & Sass for picking me up at the airport last night!
A big thank you to Lori for picking the flights for me and getting me all booked.
A big thank you to J&Bubbles for letting me stay the night Sunday night and taking me to the airport Monday.
A big thank you to G for getting the mail out of my box.

Yesterday was a bit eventful. After arriving at the airport and checking in without any problems, with plenty of time to spare, I was paged back to the ticket counter. It's not really a long way there in Norfolk (which they pronounced Nor-fick) and the guy at the Northwest counter was a psychic.

"You're going to miss your connector."
I thought, "Well, I've run before, but never been told in advance I'll miss it." Pretty cool, he's psychic.

"So I've rebooked you. You'll leave at 2:30 (instead of 12:30) You'll take some different flights and get home about 5:50p.m." I said, "Lucky for me, I just bought a book."

So he got my luggage back, gave me ten bucks in lunch money, sent me round to U.S. Airways and I waited for two hours additional. Lucky I had just bought a book in the airport because the one travel book I took I had already read. So I used my lunch money at the A&W All American Food place (because I am an American!) and then at the ice cream place (because I'm just not fat enough) and read my book until I boarded the flight.

I had to go back through security and this time I beeped twice. With my head so full and stuffy, I forgot about the foil pack of Dayquil's I hd bought at the Hudson's, so I got a mini-date with a TSA guard named John. The lady who said, "You've been chosen for an additional search" smiled when I said, "Oooh and he's handsome too!" Do not doubt for a minute that I flirted with him every second of the search. I figured I might as well have fun. John was about my age, I think, probably a wee bit more chubby than me, and he looked to be of Latin descent with this shock of unruly black hair. He really wasn't attractive at all, he wasn't unattractive either, just sort of an average guy, but he seemed quite fun and took it in stride when I grinned and said "My front or back first?" When he said, "It was the foil pack that got you" I grinned and said, "At least I got this time with you."

Had a one hour layover in Charlotte which was just barely enough time to cover the distance from the U.S. Airways terminal to the Northwest terminal to catch my flight. Maybe more than barely, I wasn't rushed and didn't miss it. But it was a fair distance. Got to Memphis and lost myself for a few minutes in the wrong luggage area. . . went to the right luggage area and somehow had missed my luggage. After an hour, it was determined that it was probably with U.S. Air, so I went up there and the girl said to me "Aren't you supposed to be with Northwest?" I wasn't sure how the question was relevant since I was pointing right at my luggage with the red cord on the handle and the tag with my name on it. I replied, only mildly ugly, "I've been downstairs an hour looking for it!"

After a quick stop at the grocery to secure milk and orange juice, I went straight to Molly's. It was crowded up in there! So I landed a seat with my (steps to Kevin Bacon here: one of my best friend's best friends) Mark and his friend who I've seen a dozen times but never can remember his name but with whom I had the most enjoyable visit. After ordering the steak fajita nachos with white cheese dip and receiving the chicken fajita nachos with yellow cheese dip, Mark's friend suggested that the kitchen "knows you better than you know yourself." I agreed, and we decided that probably Kelly had walked by, seen my ticket and said "Hellno! Don't give him steak with white, fix him chicken with yellow!" Mark's friend made fun of the way I said "yellow" as "yella."

Then we discussed my sister in law because she wants something done with her hair and I told Mark that I had to refer this to someone more faggoty than me, and Mark's friend agreed that Mark fit the bill. So Mark is up to the challenge.

I walked home and popped about 3 Nyquil pills and slept mostly through the night, am awake now with a stuffy nose, but I've got 3 Dayquil's in me now to try and counter act this feeling of dark-plague-of head-congestion. Plus the remainder of the Diet Coke that Noodle brought me at the airport. (Thanks!)
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P.S. Apparently 3 Dayquil pills changes the mix from "non-drowsy" to "decidedly drowsy." That nap came on me and quick, and deep, and lasted a couple of hours. My head wasn't stuffy though, so it was a comfortable nap! But that's something to remember. Best not to operate heavy machinery! The weirdest thing was I sort of/almost woke up a full half hour before I was able to pull myself up. I could open my eyes enough to see the clock and realized I had been napping, but I couldn' wake up enough to get up. Super groggy!