Home!

I made it!

Of course saying goodbye on Friday morning was sad--I was doing ok until I hugged Gary Brown goodbye. Then it went down from there, and I cried saying bye to everyone else.

The bus ride was ok. We had one girl throw up--I always have a puker on my bus. At least she made it in the little bag I gave her. Then when we got to Long Island the car service came to pick us up. 14 bags--8 of that big suitcases--for 5 people and one black sedan. You do the math. I wasn't about to sit there and wait for another ride to the airport, though, so I made sure everything fit. We didn't have leg room--Katie up front was sitting cross-legged, and the 3 of us in the back weren't doing too much better. And then the driver took us straight through Manhatten, through China Town, and into the Holland Tunnel. It took forever.

I stayed in a hotel at Newark that night and then went to the airport at 5:30 in the morning for my 7:50 flight. I of course went to the wrong air carrier to check in. I thought I was flying Northwest but I was flying United instead. Suckiness! That didn't make me miss my flight, but it did mean I didn't get breakfast. I popped some Dramamine because I didn't want a repeat of the flight over and that put me to sleep for the entire 3 hours until Denver. Then I took more Dramamine and slept from Denver to Great Falls.

I also sat next to 3 military guys in civilian clothes that were headed to Montana for the first time. They asked me if I was stationed in Great Falls, to which I kind of laughed, because I clearly do not look like I am in the military. Do I? Anyway, the guy next to me called in on his cell phone before we took off and said he was Agent something-or-other. That was intriguing. He had a military backpack and a Marine tattoo on his arm. I wonder just what they were doing...

And then I arrived and proceeded to switch cell phone carriers to Verizon and to buy a new cell phone. I didn't really want internet on my phone, but after seeing the other cell phone options I went with the Ally Android smartphone--it was the only one that wasn't a step down from my current cell phone. And so now I have unlimited text, 5 friends, and unlimited data. It is so strange to have Gmail on my phone and to be able to Facebook. But I totally dig my star charts and all my GPS capabilities.

Mom and I are off to Spokane, Washington, for the week.

Ciao!