I’m writing this on my flight from SFO to BOS. We have about 30 minutes left and I am at hour 37 of this day. Really, it has been May 3rd for 37 hours. One more hour to go. Stupid date line. We woke up around 8:30 but didn’t really get started until 9. We had delicious bagels courtesy of Brett and then packing began. I did everything pretty quickly and then Dave placed one of my suitcases inside this giant thing that I was going to be taking back to the states. He wrapped all of this water sample bottles in toilet paper and then in tape…they looked like packets of cocaine. Customs should be a good time 😉 Nah, s’all good. Brett arrived around 11:45 and we hung out until 12:30 when I had to go to the airport. The ride took a while and I secretly hoped I would miss my flight, which of course didn’t happen. We got to the airport and found absolutely no line at the United counter. Turned out that everyone else had already checked in?? We were there 1:40 early! The mega suitcase was a few kilos over but the girl let it slide which was just plain shocking. From there we headed over to the food court for my last meal in Sydney. We decided on Chinese food and I had some chicken dishes and noodles. It was nearly impossible to find a seat and I think it must have been lunch time for the entire airport. After lunch it was time for me to to say goodbye. For me it was really really hard…but somehow not at all for Dave. I’d been waiting for this vacation for so long and it was coming to an end. We said goodbyes many many times and all those months that we just spent apart..we’ll have to do all of that again.
Finally I went through customs…and after that was promptly pulled aside to be checked for something, I dunno…I had to read something, I didn’t, I just agreed. They made me open all my bags, they took swabs of the inside of my bag and then patted me down…and, well, I just cried and they kinda stopped and let me go.. That was it. The were calling my name to board and somehow I could not find the gate. Finally I made it, sat next to a Chinese lady, saw that the flight was packed, so that sucked. After takeoff, I wrote, watched 30 Rock, ate the potatoes out of the nasty dinner they gave me, had some wine, an Ambien, and fell asleep around 4 or 5am Boston time. Next thing I knew they were serving breakfast. I asked if there was another meal and she was like…no, we land in an hour and a half. I ate a piece of melon and went back to bed. Next thing I knew we were landing.
Customs was easy, no stamp as usual. I waited at the baggage claim for what seemed like forever and finally my bags came out. I hurt my foot a little bit with the big one and there aren’t any bathrooms in that area so I was kinda bleeding for a bit…lucky no line through that 2nd checkpoint and then following signs for the domestic terminal….wow long layover. Back checking the bags, security… I talked to my mom for a while which was nice and told her some fun stories abut the trip. After that I just hung around…got coffee..clam chowder (good), asked about first class…the guy said the don’t move people up as a courtesy which is just wrong wrong wrong even though I was nice, told him my legs were bothering me from my long flight AND he said there were plenty of seats that I could pay for with miles. Screw that. If those standby people are sitting in first class right now I’ll be so mad. Whatever, I have an entire row to myself right now. I called Dave before boarding just to check in but it was only 7am there but still, happy birthday!! Anyways, the flight was a bit late but I think we are getting in on time. We will be on the ground in 20 minutes, so 11:44pm. This flight was fine, no complaints. Ah well, hope Jean is waiting for me. Goodbye from somewhere over MA…sucks 🙁
