Saturday,
March 2, 2002

Ewww. . .

I can tell I'm going home today -- the day dawned bright, clear and wonderful, a complete turnaround from the overcast chilliness of the week.

And of course, it snowed in Dallas. Ew. I did my best to see if I could rebook my ticket and stay an extra day in San Diego (with Janis's enabling, I must admit -- she started dangling the prospect of driving down the coast and having margaritas and steamed lobster at some seaside dive), but it would have cost $190, almost half the price of the ticket. I could have afforded it, but that's the price of a new set of contacts, which is something I really want.

So, regretfully and with promises to come back sometime in the spring, I got on the big silver bird for my first leg to Denver. And realized halfway through the flight that I really should have had lunch before getting onboard, because all they had were pretzels. Joy.

Luckily I had a 110 minute layover at Denver, and they offered a food court with Panda Express, so I was able to chow down on some ersatz Chinese food and hit the gift shop (personalized Colorado zipper pulls for Steve and everyone in FutureClassics, and a t-shirt for me) before getting on the flight to Dallas. Which was made even more special by a six-year-old sitting behind me who had bad Eustachian tubes and was kicking my seat and crying in pain all the way to DFW. On the one hand, I sympathized with the kid -- the pressure changes make you feel like someone is driving an ice pick into your eardrums. On the other hand, it was moderately annoying to have to listen to a whining, droning, "Owie. . .owie. . .owie. . .mommy. . .mommy. . .owie. . .owie" for an hour and a half, interspersed with whacks to my seat.

I know -- it's a goodness that I don't have my own.

Eventually we landed, I retrieved my bag, located the Hoosiermobile and headed home on roads that were ice-free for the most part (except when you were going under an overpass -- then you had mini skating rinks, which made changing lanes such fun). But I'm home, I'm unpacked, the laundry is chugging along, and maybe now I can finally relax.

Yeah, right.