Homebound

Wednesday November 22, 2006 - Dear God the trip is over. Steve and I woke up this morning a little after 5am. His mom called for our wake up call, plus his phone and my watch alarm were constant reminders. It was time to get moving. I was tired just because it was early, and he was tired because in getting rid of my cold (mostly), I had given it to him. I felt bad but there was some justice in it - he gave me his cold in China and went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors without me while I stayed in. Now we are even, Stephen. (Oh, so that's where that phrase originates).

By the time I got me and my stuff downstairs he already had my tea ready, so we sat for a few minutes on his kitchen stools, me with my tea, him with his good morning breakfast of coffee and cigarettes.

We got the bags in his car and started our drive in the dark. I happen to have the opinion that sunrises are overrated and that that is a time of day best used for sleeping if and when you can. But I must say that that is just my inherent sloth talking becuase as we drove, it was quite amazing to watch the sky slowly start to light up. People talk about sunrises being amazing, but I think what they mean is that pre-sunrises are amazing. To actually see the sun rising does nothing for me after a few seconds but blind me, but the way the sky looks a little beforehand is something else. My favorite time is when the sky has that line of red along the horizon that is very thin but somehow fades into orange and yellow before the light blue sky. We got to see that as we drove and it was a great way to start the day. Then the sun came up and blinded me, making me wish for sleep again.

This flight was from Aberdeen and we arrived there in about 90 minutes. I was able to check in with the little kiosks by scanning my passport instead of a credit card. When did it all become so advanced? Have I been gone so long? Or is the UK just that much better than home?

After I checked in and got my less than desirable seats I had to drop off my backpack in a special place so they could deal with the straps, making sure they didn't get caught up on something on the way in or out of the plane. Or so I was led to believe. When I came back to Steve, he was talking to one of his friends from the party Saturday night! They are everywhere. I ran to the bathroom and when I came back he was gone. Now it was time to say good-bye. It wasn't a frantic time-crunched good-bye, since my flight was delayed a bit and we were there early enough (so unlike me), but Steve is notoriously bad at good-byes and this was no different. He didn't even give me time to form a tear and he was out the door! Part of the fun of good-byes for me is the crying, and I was denied. But, after two previous good-byes, I expected it and was ready for it this time. See, I'm stronger now.

Once Steve was gone I sat down and reflected a little on the last week. I had some time to kill anyway. After I said my good-byes to Scotland I made my way to security. I took off my hiking boots, put them through the machine, got the general feel up and passed the exam. It was still early so I spent some time reading. When the plane was called I got up there quickly. They don't call you by row (uncivilized), just the whole plane at once. I don't know why I always feel the need to be quick - you just stand in line or sit and wait on the plane, either way you're waiting for everyone else. But I do like to be on the plane, get my things above my seat where I want them, and then just wait it out. This was a short flight to Heathrow and then I had lots of moving to do there to get to the right terminal. I was concerned I would miss my plane since the first flight was a little delayed. I had to take a bus to a different terminal, was worried about immigration but didn't seem to need to go there to get out out the country, had to go through security again, had to run down several long corridors....In the end I made it there way early. I am just that fast.

The waiting room was only for people flying to the US, and seemed weird because of that. I am so glad I am flying to the US as an American, as there are so many weird and complicated rules for visas and checking in if you are a foreigner. Even if you are landing in the US on your way to another country and not even getting off your plane you have to jump through hoops. So happy not to deal with that.

This was another almost 10 hour flight. The plane has 10 seats across - 3, 4, and 3. I was in an aisle seat in the group of four seats. It wasn't too bad since no one was directly next to me, but I had been hoping to sit in one of the groups of three, since I like that better. Fortunately for me, two people who did have those seats near me moved, and I jumped on the chance to take them. I ended up with all three seats to myself and I was happy. The anti-social American within me is waking.

I thought I would sleep most of the flight but I wasn't too tired for some reason. I watched movies and read and the one time I did try to sleep, laying down in my three seats, the flight attendant woke me up. There was some turbulance and I needed to put my seat belt on. Bad timing.

We landed in Miami at 6:15pm or so, and when they let us off I made my way to Immigration, which was quite a far trek away. I was going as quickly as possible since my sister was waiting for me somewhere, and there was another man who was also in a hurry and was even faster than me. I got in the US citizens line, and he didn't. I remember coming back from previous trips and having them ask all kinds of silly questions like Where have you been? and Why were you there? I knew it was going to be an issue coming back after having been to 25 countries since I got this new passport in December of last year. Especially since Russia, China, Jordan and such other places numbered among them. I was right - where's my gold star? The woman who was working the desk started asking me the same kinds of questions, including asking me about my henna tattoos. Then she told me to go wait at the end of her desk and someone else came to collect me and my passport directly from her hands.

On the way to the "special" room, I asked my captor if I was allowed to come home, in a joking manner. He didn't speak to me except to tell me to sit down when we arrived in the room. He gave my passport to the desk and I had to wait with another group of people until my name was called. Funnily enough, the other quick guy was there as well. So much for being in a hurry. He was Enlgish and got called into a back room for an interview of sorts before they let him go. I had to wait 15 or 20 minutes and then they just called me up to the desk, rather than to the back room. The woman who further questioned me was nice, and that curbed my desire to tell her what I thought of this crap. She asked me about my trip, where I had been, why, had I been traveling alone, and my religion. Is that even legal? When she let me go I had trouble finding my bag. It had already been removed from the baggage claim moving thing and was on the floor. I got it and got out of there. Jackie was waiting for me inside and I saw her early on. My nephew wasn't there as I expected but Jackie's cop friend Chris was.

Now it was real. I was in the USA, going back to my mom's house, out of money, with no place of my own.

My homecoming was a surprise to everyone but my sister Jackie, or so I had thought. We had not even started driving when my other sister Jamie called to talk to me. How did she know I was there? Oh, Jackie says, I told her. And Dick (our stepfather) and the neighhbors across the street. I spoke to Jamie and it was all going downhill fast. Everyone was very impatient for me to get home - it seems they had cooked up a way to surprise my mom with me without even asking me first. This was all news to me. I had been awake for almost 24 hours at this point and wasn't quite ready to start in with the family arguing. I was quickly informed that I was to go to Leslie's house (the neighbor), get in her pantry, and then my mom would come over. Leslie would ask her to get some aluminum foil from the pantry and I was to hold it out for her when she opened the door, saying "Is this what you're looking for?" I know, I had trouble digesting it all too. Within five minutes I went from being weirded out from my being home to annoyed. This was my surprise - what the hell was everyone else doing getting involved, or even knowing I was coming?

The original plan consisted of me and Jackie having dinner at Chili's (I have been missing their ranch and chips all year) and then going home. End of plan. But everyone else was personally affronted at this lack of respect I had for my mother - how could I not rush back immediately? It seemd to me I was the only relaxed one and they were all out of their minds. On the way home we received about 10 phone calls from my sister, my stepfather, and the neighbor. Where are you? How dare you go out to dinner while mom (who doesn't know you're in the country) is waiting? It was a bit too much. So of course we made the choice to go out to dinner, although we did abbreviate it severely. We sat in the bar and ate chips with salsa and ranch, no dinner, while sucking down some unlimited refills of coke in 20 minutes flat. Can I just mention my American-bred love and need of unlimited beverage refills? Having only one drink at dinner, in every other country in the world, was a hardship for me constantly. How can you make a little bottle or can last all before and during a meal? I still have trouble with it.

A few more minutes and we were home. We had dropped off Chris before the "meal", so it was just me and Jackie. I ran across the street, got in the pantry, and felt foolish. Am I coming out of the closet? But if I had said no, I would have hurt everyone's feelings and been the bad guy, even though no one asked what I wanted to do. So I agreed to the plan and found the foil to hand to my mom when she came over.

I guess they used the excuse that they needed help bringing over some things for the next day, as they would be having Thanksgiving with our family. I heard my mom come in and then Leslie asked the question, and there I was with the foil. My mom just stared at me for what seemed like an eternity, her brain trying to piece together what she was seeing. Then it clicked and she started screaming and crying and hugging me all at once. I guess the surprise worked. It was insane and everyone was there - the family of six whose house we were in, my whole family, some other neighbors. There were pictures being taken and everything seemed crazy, but I was happy my mom was surprised.

Things calmed down shortly thereafter, except for my mom, and everyone started asking me about the trip. The kids - my nephew Cristian (6), and Caroline (5) and Mandy (3), two of Leslie's kids, started drawing me welcome home pictures and presenting them to me. It was very cute. I ate a brownie - it was like heaven. I haven't had a good brownie in so long and these were amazing.

We made it home and everyone was tired - it was already late. I talked a bit more with my mom and then read for while after everyone else went to sleep.

The trip is really over. I am home.

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