Question: First of all, welcome home! It sounds like you had quite the adventure coming home. What happened?
Answer: Well as you know, Qantas canceled the return leg of our flight. Not the entire flight, mind you, just the leg from LAX to JFK. So instead of staying with Qantas the whole time, we had to transfer to American for the final leg, which is the worst possible way to chase a transpacific flight.
Q: Ha, I know! But you did make it back in one piece, right?
A: Kinda. Jeff learned a small but important lesson: do not joke with baggage handlers. They will smile, they will laugh, but they have no sense of humor. They will send your bags back on a different carrier, and you won’t see them again for two days.
Q: Yeesh, what a nightmare! So tell us, how does it feel to be back?
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Coming back (I hesitate to say “home”) is tougher than I imagined, and I may end up using this space to vent. Or not. You know how blogs go…
I’m starting to have nightmares again. This much was expected, and happened before I left. Back then, I worried about losing touch with everyone back home. I should have realized it much sooner, but it wasn’t until long after “whoa, New Zealand!” evolved from a whimsical fantasy plan to a concrete itinerary-based trip that I accepted how massive a change this was, and how extraordinary the emotional cost would be. Sadness was built into the equation, all the more if the trip succeeded. And now, the final installment payment is due.
My calendar starts the new week on Saturday. I’m tempted to switch it to Monday, just to savor an extra few hours before staring down the final week.
Grrrr….
