Departure and Arrival

Well kids, we made it here.  All in one piece.  And we're still married. 
 
I'm starting to get acclimated a bit, although I'm still trying to find my bearings a little bit.  I know that some people have an alter-ego that they like to blame their behavior on when they are drinking.  I want one for when I am sleep-deprived and jet lagged and just generally out-of-it.  Any ideas on names?  I've thought of Stephañia, but that just sounds so exotic and sultry and... pulled together.  Not at all the zombie I have been for the past 48 hours.

As I think I mentioned previously, I had a list of approximately one billion things I wanted to do before I left-- most of them involved deep-cleaning my house.  Yeah... that didn't really happen.  Or at least not like I wanted it to.  "I'm so surprised!" said no one ever. 

Packing Saturday night took several hours.  I started with the stuff I really wanted to make sure I had and packed it carefully (oh so carefully) in my big suitcase I was going to check.  I also put my liquids and sharps in there as well.  I crammed a lot in.  Shelby, you would have been so proud!  Then I put things like underwear and t-shirts in my smaller roll-aboard that I would be carrying on.  I had my stack of shirts that I really wanted to take, and once I got those in, I started adding others that I could have lived without if there had not been room.  It was a perfect plan.

Then I decided to weigh my big suitcase.  60 pounds (it needs to be under 50, or they charge you another $100).  Yikes!  I realized that the time to weigh that suitcase would have been right after I packed it, before I packed my other one.  Whoops.  The initial packing took maybe an hour.  The Suitcase Shuffle game took about 3 hours.  Not even exaggerating. A big help in reducing the weight of my large suitcase was exchanging my bag of liquids for some of Tim's sweaters.  My bag of liquids weighed 6 pounds!  I didn't realize I had that much.  Although, I did pack 4 colors of nail polish and 2 bottle of clear coat, because who could be caught dead in London with any less than 4 colors?! Never mind that at home I often go at least 5 months without wearing any nail polish.  But I digress.

We crawled into bed at 2:15 am, and I set my alarm for 6:30.  I still had last-minute mopping to do before we left!  I had 4 hours to sleep and I did not sleep well.  Again, no surprise.  I was up before my alarm, and with about 10 cleaning tasks I wanted to do before we left at 8:30, I made sure to take my sweet old time and make sure my hair was perfect.  Also, I had to put on mascara.  Because that's the logical thing to do when you're about to spend hours and hours on a plane, most of that time sleeping.

We got to the airport in plenty of time.  I met Tim's coworkers, and we got on our way.  In Chicago, we had a 4 hour layover, so my friend Lisa met my by the baggage claims, so we could sit in airport chairs for half and hour and laugh until we cried while I had some hummus and pretzel chips for lunch.  All to soon I had to say good-bye, but not before she was accosted by a man who wanted to give her some books about spirituality and yoga for a free-will donation.  We plotted how she could get back to where she needed to be without walking past him again (elevator), and hugged one more time.  And I didn't cry.  Aren't you so proud of me?  I was sure that I would be a hot mess, making the mascara decision even more questionable, but somehow I kept it together.

My plan had been to sleep as little as possible on Saturday night (check), so I that I would sleep on the plane Sunday night (no check).  I don't think I slept at all.  I even laid down across the three middle seats across from us with 4 pillows and didn't get a wink.  (no worries... there was no one in the seats, so I didn't have to lay my head in anyone's lap or anything awkward like that).

As we were approaching Heathrow at 4 am and looking out over the city, I could have sworn I saw the Night Bus, and I had a brief glimmer of hope that maybe I'm not a muggle after all.  Time will tell, I guess.  We landed, customs were fine, and got our luggage.  Then we had to drag our luggage through 3 turnstiles, down a flight of stairs, and up two flights of stairs as we found our way to the bus.  I was dubious about luggage on a bus, but it's do-able.  Not easy, but doable.

I think now is the best time to mention that one of Tim's coworkers that is staying as long as we are checked 3 bags and carried on two.  And they were not small bags!  He took a taxi, because the bus was just not really going to be a possibility for him.  He brought 5 bags, and I brought 3 (despite the 4 colors of nail polish).  Girl bringing less luggage than a guy?  I think this qualifies me as freaking fabulous.  Allegedly, he brought stuff like a computer monitor that added to the bulk, but still...

The bus stop is right by our hotel, so that's convenient.  We checked in around 6:30 am, showered, and went to bed.  Tim had to meet up with his coworkers at 10 am, and I stayed in bed, dead to the world, until 2 pm.  I was in the middle of making the difficult decision of what to wear, when Tim came back. They had worked a short day, since their shipment had not been delivered yet.  After watching a lot of women's curling, we went to the grocery store, then dinner with the guys, then Asda to get some basic household type stuff.

I had a decent sleep last night, and am starting to feel a little more like myself. 

I think that's enough brain-barf for one blog post.  I will leave you with this view from our hotel room.  (Sorry about the blinds, but they aren't movable):