The long journey home...

hello, friends,

i'm now back home in philly and i thought i'd share a wee bit about the trip home.

rob and i left his apartment in sapporo at 7 for the 2 hour ride to new chitose airport. we listened to our two favorite CDs in the ride:










we hung out a bit until i got on my flight at 11:00AM. it was so sad to say goodbye to him, but he swears he is coming home for christmas, so that is good news.

the flight from sapporo to tokyo(nagoya/chubu airport -- the new one!) was packed -- and i was the only white face on the plane. there were video screens at the front of each section and the craziest thing happened upon landing. the plane apparently had a camera at the front of it, so we could watch ourselves landing on the strip. nutty. and, after we landed, the video switched to the TV news, which seemed to be reporting on the earthquake, which had happened just about a half hour before. people started talking, but of course, it was in japanese (as was the news) and all i could figure out was that something was wrong with the bullet trains. however, as we were descending, the water in the inlet around the airport was red and really rocky looking. it wasn't until i got inside the airport to get online that i realized that the earthquake had hit.

next, i took a flight to san francisco and again, every seat was packed. while i was sitting in the lounge, i observed a guy talking to everyone in the area. i thought, "dear god, please don't let chatty charlie sit next to me. it's THAT GUY that i just can't stand." of course, he was my seat mate and of course, at one point, he had his 3-year-old son take his seat for about 2 hours. oy. so there was no sleeping there, either.

i had originally planned to spend the night of the 16th in san francisco with the lovelies holli and robin, but all i wanted to do was get home (i had gotten an ear infection on the frickin' mountain...alas, not SARS, lois). i pleaded my case to a ticketing agent, who told me on the DL that there was "job action" happening with the mechanics. i said i didn't care, he waived all fees and wished me good luck.

so, the 8:25 AM flight that i lucked into still hadn't taken off when he put me on it at 10AM and in reality it didn't go until 1PM, putting me into minneapolis at 6:30. i missed my 5PM connection time, but was able to be rebooked on a 7:17PM. a dash through the airport, a regrets phone call to liz and MBD and one bottle of water later and i was on my fourth packed flight of the "day," this time headed for philly and home.

mama and dad picked me up at the airport at 11PM, bearing the girl and a cheese hoagie.

it was the longest tuesday, august 16th in recorded history. but i was home.

i did a little unpacking, ate the hoagie, sat up with ms. jess and went to sleep around 2. i had started my laundry, thinking i'd get up at some point to do it.

however, when i finally emerged, at 9PM on wednesday, jess had finished both loads. cordy, meanwhile, slept right next to my head for all 18 hours without asking to eat or be let out.

wednesday night i had another greatly missed meal -- pizza. and i got caught up on the missing episodes of ENTOURAGE. if you are one of the few people not addicted to these 4 cherubs and their prickly agent (played superbly by the finally-getting-his-due jeremy piven), run don't walk to your HBO agent to get it. or, check out http://www.hbo.com/entourage/index.html. look at how cute they all are!:



i have some final thoughts on the trip, as well as some questions about the future of this blog, so stay tuned in the next day or so. photos are also due sometime friday or saturday, so they'll be posted. in the meantime, look at how sad rob looks since i've been gone:






and thanks for being a part of my journey. i hope to see you all soon.

gotohellifyouhatefreedom,
volansky