Mi Casa!

I'm home. :)

I stepped off the plane two days ago to be greeted by chilly air and fog.  It was wonderful. I so enjoy the type of weather that Oregon has.  In my hotel room that morning I had opened up the curtains to see rain-slicked pavement, a light drizzle and trees with color.  It made me smile, a 'welcome back to the best state, signed Oregon' card in the form of nature.

And then I stepped past security in the airport to see a beautiful woman.  I hugged her and she hugged me back.  And smiles abounded, and then, *then* I was home.

My travels and preparation to leave was stressful.  The CD's refused to burn, so about half of my images are locked away on Sarah's computer in Ecuador.  I spent the entire night staying up transferring them to storage places online, so the total amount of sleep I got was about an hour and a half.  There was an airport exit fee that ate a lot of my money, and I got paged while waiting at my gate to have my luggage searched.

In fact, at every airport except for the Portland airport something happened that was stressful.  In Miami I couldn't find where I was supposed to check in, and was told two different places, both of which I had already visited.  In San Fransisco I put a foot *on* the security threshold and had to go back through security, with 30 minutes until my plane left.

In the Portland airport I felt like a detective.  My Dad had put me up in a hotel for the night and sent me the information for the hotel, which, in my infinite wisdom I forgot to print out.  So I had no idea what the name was, or the phone number.  I knew, in a general sense where the hotel was, but not the address so I wouldn't have been able to get a taxi to take me if I couldn't find the number.  The only clue I had was that I was sure I had stayed in the same chain while in Miami, and I had grabbed a hotel pen which, at the last minute I had put in my pocket instead of my checked bag.

This pen had a 1-800 number, which I called from a pay phone.  I asked if I had a hotel reservation through them, and where it was located.  Then I asked if they could call for the shuttle since I wasn't sure if I had enough change for a call.  Success! Detective work complete!  I'm not sure what I would have done had I not had the pen in my pocket.

It will probably take me a while to re-adjust to being back.  My first night I slept for eleven hours, and last night I only slept for about four and a half.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll be in the seven to eight hour range, wouldn't that be joyous?  Now I need to get back to "real" life.  Find a job, pay my bills, work on school (which has a project due this week), ect...