Homeward Bound!

Friday July 8th - Have you missed me? Can you believe how long it has been since I posted? Yes, I realize I have been remiss, I promised to post for awhile longer after I returned home so let me make good on my promise now. It’s funny; originally this blog began as a way to keep my family, friends, and especially my coworkers up to date on what I was doing and obviously they already know what I am doing now that I am home. However, so many people who don’t know me in person discovered this blog and wanted me to tell a little about my “normal” life that I have decided to continue for a while longer. So I am posting the 1st thru the 7th right now, hope you enjoy!

Saturday July 1st - So, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, I’m going home! So Grant and I went to the airport with our ton of luggage hoping to get it all home without paying excess baggage fees. We flew on different airlines on the way home as Grant had found a good deal on Air New Zealand and I was on Qantas. To make a long story short we managed to avoid excess fees (barely). There was some bickering with Qantas about a mere .7 kilo which I had to put in my carryon, this turned out to be one tennis shoe and one sandal (I couldn’t find a matching pair). They also made me transfer stuff from one bag to another to balance them out and they both ended up at EXACTLY 32 kilos (the upper limit allowed). The flights home were long and boring and of course we didn’t get much sleep.
I arrived in San Francisco about an hour before Grant and my mom was eagerly waiting at baggage claim. It was great to see her even though I had been awake now for about 20 hours. We grabbed my bags and headed for my van, only to discover that in her excitement to see me my poor mom had gotten disoriented and couldn’t figure out which parking lot she parked in! So here I am pushing a trolley loaded with 74 kilos (163 pounds) of luggage all over the SF airport on very little sleep. I tried not to be too grumpy and my mom felt so bad! After about an hour we dragged all 74 kilos to where Grant was arriving, located him, left the bags and searched on foot for another ½ hour and finally found it! (Mom wants you all to know that she did write down the garage and level, but got the domestic and international terminals confused)
Oddly enough switching back to driving on the right side was really easy. I only had to chant to myself a couple of times, “stay to the right, stay to the right”.
We got home and my two old dogs Bandit (12yrs) and Cayenne (11yrs) who had been staying with my mom for the whole 4 months were ecstatic to see me. They bounced, and wiggled, and whined for a long time and followed me around for the rest of the day.
Grant and I managed to stay up until 9pm and had no trouble falling asleep and sleeping through the night.