Finally made it home about 5:00 today, approximately thirty-two hours after I left my hotel for the airport yesterday. Ah, the marvels of the jet age, which allowed me to race home from the West Coast at an average speed of about eighty miles per hour!
Of course, just to make the trip completely symmetrical, my luggage is once again missing in action and will likely be delivered at some unspecified time tonight. My rerouted trip sent me home to Greensboro by way of LaGuardia and also involved an airline shift that they didn’t warn me about. Airline shifts at LaGuardia, by the way, involve leaving the secured area, taking a shuttle bus ride to what seems like the next county, and going through security again: a nice trick with a forty-five-minute layover.
So all in all, a great trip sandwiched within really shitty travel days at the beginning and end.
And upon my return, when all I really wanted was a few hours to decompress and relax before work tomorrow (I’d originally planned on a whole day, after all), I found that:
- My air conditioner is not working. This, mind you, is in the midst of the worst heatwave in a couple of years.
- My mom is having another major episode, apparently threatening to walk out of her assisted living facility.
So I get to spend my first morning back at work dealing with fallout from all that, too. I know problem number one is very “first world” and I don’t want to whine (more), but it really sucks to be completely exhausted within two hours of returning from a vacation. And to know that you also probably won’t be able to sleep it off either because it’s so fucking hot.
I think I’m going to turn around and go back west. Or north. Or something…
