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It was quite the day to get here!

This morning my alarm went off at 4:30am, unfortunately I was already awake and had been most of the night:(. My mom and I were ready to be on the road by 5am, but my diva dad took longer. Who knew he took so long to get ready?!?!

It was out the door for the long drive to the airport. I know now why people would fall asleep driving! At home, I’ve always wondered how that is possible as you’re always having to turn a corner or go up a hill, but in Arizona you just drive straight forever!!!!

The sunrise was gorgeous, but of course, I didn’t manage to get a picture:(. There was one spot that was so beautiful- the entrance into a housing development that had tons of palm trees and their trunks were wrapped in white lights. With the sunrise right behind them, it was spectacular!

I ended up being at the airport about three hours and forty five minutes early. We could have left at 5:45am like my mom and I wanted to, but I guess it was a good thing. I walked in and the place was crazy. Not only did you have all the people returning from holidays, but then I guess there were a lot of flights delayed, cancelled or changed yesterday because of the weather and today was the fallout from that! I was glad that I had no time worries as I was standing in a security line up forever!! I don’t even know why I had to stand there in the first place because I have Nexus!!! That is supposed to bypass me from the lines in both the US and Canada, but so far I have only found it works in Canada:(. In addition, everywhere you look they have signs that they are the friendliest airport in America, but they aren’t!!!! Everyone who worked there that I interacted with was gruff, rude, impatient and just downright unpleasant!! They need to look up in the dictionary what friendly means!!!

I was so early at the gate that I got to talk to a woman who was leaving from that gate going to Des Moins. I don’t know how I attract people talking to me?!?! I was just sitting there reading blogs while I had wifi and suddenly I heard all about her granddaughter’s Christmas wedding on the beach in California and how she then went to San Diego to see her daughter and then back to Monterey. I heard about her delayed flights yesterday and how she had to stay overnight unexpectedly without her luggage. She seemed a very nice lady and definitely made the time go faster.

I finally got into the plane. I have never seen people rush to get into a plane before! We all have assigned seats people, you don’t need to rush!! I had exactly the same seat as when I went down, 18A. The coolest thing was that I was the first in my row and it was so much easier to get myself organized with all that room to move!! I ended up beside a lady from Maryland who was visiting Whistler for the first time (a local ski area), and a young college student who was visiting her best friend at our local university. She’d had quite the experience trying to get there and was three days later than planned! She was from New York but went to school in Maine and was heading out this coming Sunday for a semester in Ireland! Again, I don’t know how I ended up knowing so much about them, I was just sitting there quietly reading my murder mystery!!

The plane ride was fine. I have no complaints about planes. Once I have my bag under the seat so my feet have something to rest on, I am perfectly content:). I made good progress on Glazed Murder and have less than a hundred pages to go!

Getting off the plane went fine and I was doing pretty good until I got to customs. As a Nexus holder I walked up to the Nexus machines and waited for the wheelchair one that has an iris scanner low enough for me ( we won’t talk about my issues when coming back in May😳), and yet again I had trouble:(. After the sixth attempt I nearly cried ( which never happens!) I was just about to give up and stand in the super long regular lineup when it finally worked and I got to walk down, bypass every line up and go through customs where the guy said absolutely nothing to me except that I should invest in some very high heels to wear at the airport. I don’t know if he saw my troubles or was just reacting to the fact I could barely see over his counter on my tip toes!

I walked out and got into the skytrain. I had decided not to make anyone make the over an hour drive to the airport to get me since I was getting in during the afternoon. I figured it would take me about two hours to get home on the skytrain, and I was only two minutes off my estimate! The skytrain trip wasn’t exciting. I had to transfer a bunch of times, but I just sat quietly and kind of mindlessly. By this time I felt like my body was detached from me. Am I getting old that travelling now wears me out??

Lol I got off the skytrain in my city finally to cold, gray, drizzle. I knew it was coming, but it was still kind of a shock! I had to laugh because in Arizona I had a difficult time getting used to the fact everything is brown and flat and that there are no big trees. When I got off the skytrain, I thought wow, my town even smells like Christmas trees as there are big trees everywhere. Then I realized it was just because the firemen were having their annual tree chipping event🤣. No wonder it smelled like Christmas trees! The walk home from the skytrain was fine. Three blocks of cold and wet:(

I found my keys in the first place I looked which was lucky and finally opened my condo door at 3:58pm. Glad to be home, still alive and only down one nail which broke while I was putting the key in the door????

Just in time to be sick:(. I spent the next hour vomiting ( I have no idea why) and slept for the two hours after that. I feel better now and think I will work on my year in temperature scarf and hopefully finish Glazed Murder!

Well, I hope you all had a quieter day than me! Oh but thank you to everyone who posted today and kept me entertained and to Julie who was messaging with me while I was on the skytrain which really helped!!

Have fun!

AJ