New York, New York

So today has been another one of those longest-day-of-your-life sort of days. Last night I was up almost all night long packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye to friends. I got about an hour of sleep, and that in my clothes with the lights still on. By some miracle I finished everything I needed to do, and went to sleep just before 4 am. Then I had to get up again at 5am, showered and finished up some errands in order to pick up my final paycheck at 6am. After that I had a quick breakfast before bringing my carry-ons down to our meeting point at the gangway. We were all supposed to be leaving the ship at 6:45, so there we were, ready to go…..but security wasn’t, so we sat there for an hour. Once we got off the ship and into the cruise ship terminal outside it turned out that our airport transportation wasn’t ready either – so we sat there for two more hours, and didn’t actually leave the port until after 10am. (Why did they make us get up so early!!!!??) The neat thing about that delay was that I got a chance to meet my replacement. His name is William and he’s at least 60 years old! And this is his first contract! Wow. I’d have liked to have heard his story, but I only had a couple minutes to talk to him, answer his questions, and wish him a good contract. But I was really excited to get to see him.

So I had a good time playing some games with my friends last night, and said goodbye to everyone. It wasn’t too hard to say goodbye, because I found out that when I’m on the Summit in January it will be in port with the Galaxy, so I’ll get to see my friends again. It was a bit hard to say goodbye to Hayden, though, just as it was when Marie left. He really was my best friend on the ship. We said goodbye last night and then he stopped by my room this morning to give me one more hug. I will really miss my New Zealand brother. I already miss him. ☹

So anyway, we finally did make it to the airport on time (Barely – I walked straight through every checkpoint right onto the plane and it left shortly after I got on), and by the grace of God, no-one gave me any trouble about my luggage (DEFINITELY overweight) or my instruments (one checked, one carry-on), or my carry-on backpack (oversized AND overweight), or the extra purse and camera I had hidden under my sweatshirt (both of which caused me to exceed the two carry-on limit)…..Yay! I guess I shouldn’t count my chickens yet, I’m not quite home….but I’ve already gone through customs and security here so I’m sure I’ll be alright. I don’t have to do customs in LAX since now this is a domestic flight. Woohoo!

So now I am sitting at my gate, 2 hours early, writing this post as per suggestion by my wonderful family, with whom I just got off the phone. I am pretty tired, since my day has already been extended 7 extra hours, and will be extended 3 more hours by the time I get back to LA. When I add it up, I will be arriving in LAX at 11am Sunday morning Mediterranean time, 30 hours after beginning my day after my one hour nap last night. These time changes are already confusing me. Anyway, it has already been a long day (right now its 2am in my brain) and it isn’t over yet! I’m about to complete the final leg of my flight, six hours to LAX. And another 3 hour time change….ok, now I’m really confused, so I’ll stop thinking about it. ☺ I’m content to sit here and listen to the funny New York accents on the P.A. system announcements. I am back in the U.S.A after 6 months!!! Wow! ………..and the funny New York accent just told me that they changed my departure gate and my flight is delayed 20 minutes. Come to think of it the accent doesn’t seem that funny anymore….sad day. I want to go home now! Not 20 minutes later than an hour and a half from now. Sigh. Well, I guess this post is pretty much over cause I have to switch gates now. Ok, bye!