Tuesday, May 19, 2009

there's no place like home . . .

so today . . . it is after 10:00 p.m. and i am just starting my blog. this is not good, not good at all . . .

i've been playing with my farm and my farmer friends on facebook. my farmer friends seem to be on later in the evening, so to connect with them i have to be on kind of late. i think i am going to have to start blogging earlier . . .

i flew home today. it was a pretty good flight--the plane was only about half full. i got a window seat, and the two seats next to me were empty! pretty nice . . .

but it didn't start out quite that nice. i went to bed, and woke up to rain. it rained hard!! and my mom had to drive, because dad's eyes were dilated from his visit to the eye doctor this morning. my mom is a good driver, but she prefers not to drive across town--especially in the rain! she did it though, and we didn't have any problems--well, except for the limited visibility caused by the rain . . .

it is different flying by myself than when i fly with rollie. my darling husband is a boy scout--he is always prepared! and when we fly, that means being at the airport AT LEAST two hours early--and he really prefers to be three hours early. he likes to get there, get his ticket and go immediately through security (which cuts down on the opportunity to shop at the airport shops . . . hmmm, maybe that is his evil plan . . . ) and get to the gate and lay claim to a chair. then he sits there until we board the plane. once we get settled at the gate, he will babysit the luggage so i can wander about (you see, he is not totally unreasonable!) when i fly with rollie, i never have to worry about missing a flight--because i know he will get us there!!

when i go alone, i think being at the airport an hour and a half early is enough. i get my ticket, check my bag, and head to the shops. i know that the stuff in airport shops tends to be overpriced, but sometimes you can find a good deal. and the merchandise is different from what you find at the mall. so i like to look, and occasionally take a treasure home. today my flight left at 2:00. we got to the airport about 12:45. i had my ticket in hand and my bag checked by 1:00. my mom and i visited a couple of shops and then i said goodbye and headed for security about 1:30. i was pretty relaxed--i still had half an hour before we were scheduled to leave. i stopped to check out the map to see where i was going to buy food before i boarded, because you know they don't feed you on the plane anymore. but when i got to the gate for my flight, it was deserted. uh-oh, i thought, maybe it is a good thing that rollie got me flight insurance. maybe this is WHY rollie gets me flight insurance. but i noticed that the door to the plane was still open and manned. so as it turned out, i even had time to go to the restroom--but i did not press my luck by buying a hot dog and soda.

it was a great flight--no one next to me, a good book, my computer--well, there was that kid behind me who kept kicking my seat . . . but i just chose to think of it as a back massage . . . and be glad i wasn't going to be spending the next two days with him at disneyland!

i took lots of pictures out of the plane window, because i knew i was going to blog my trip today. see, i was thinking of all of you . . . and you get to see just about every kind of terrain and community on this trip--from the lush green of portland, to the snow in the mountains of northern california, to the farmland in central california (this is what our facebook farms should look like, people!) to the swimming pools in every back yard in long beach--well, almost every back yard.

we went out over the ocean, and then back in to land. i stepped off the plane, and of course rollie was there waiting for me--because, you know, he is a boy scout. he had probably been there waiting for me for a while. we snagged my bag and headed for the parking lot. we stowed my luggage in the trunk, rollie handed me my car keys, and off we went--with the top down, the sun shining, the wind messing up our hair (ok, my hair) and the palm trees zipping by. i'm telling you people, there's no place like home . . . especially if your home is in the land of perpetual sunshine!

2 comments:

Mom said...

I certainly didn't realize you were taking so many pictures. Not bad. Sorry you didn't have time to buy food but you did have brownies and pretty silver earrings and a nice long walk before boarding. Always glad for a safe trip.

Jewelielyn said...

hehehe--that's me, stealth photographer . . .