so, a long one

Well I'll give a quick summation of my trip. It might not actually be quick, because you know I can go on & on forever, especially when things actually happen.

Flight out
Never fly US Airways. Never fly out of Newark. Never fly around xmas.

We left our house at 6:30 am Friday morning. We thought that because it was $200 cheaper, we would fly out of Newark instead of trusty old JFK. We didn't count on it costing $110 for car fare (+ tolls and tip). However, now I have to stop saying that I've never been to NJ. That's not something to brag about. From what I saw of the state, it's just one giant strip mall. But my beef is not with the state.

Though the airport wasn't that crowded (and I have lost all clue of what it means to be crowded anymore), everyone who worked there was a major grumpy crank. From what I saw, most people didn't need to be. They seemed to be pre-reacting (preacting?) to what they expected - grumpy cranky customers trying to fly around the holidays. They shouldn't have preacted, because it just made the customers scared. The worst was The Queen of the Grumps, who we watched for a time as she chewed out some kid for not having his ID (it was on the counter in front of her) and not checking in on time (he had been in line this whole time), so really for no reason at all. I felt really sorry for the kid.

US Airways is something else you should avoid. It might be tempting because it's cheaper, but it's 10 times the headache. The plane was very cramped. I got claustrophobic just walking down the aisle (which was narrower than the seats) to go to the tiny tiny bathroom. The pull down tray had an ad for some crappy show about hot female racecar drivers. The ad itself was annoying, but the main characters' names were Courtney, Britney, and some other equally annoying name that I can't remember right now. Nobody has those names. All 3, as sisters. As racecar drivers. I got very angry every time I pulled down the tray, to set the $5 "meal" upon. If you shell out the dough, you can get a plastic container full of apples, grapes, cheese, and a very flavorless strawberry. There was too much jalapeno jack, because who eats that by itself? Anyway, the "meal" was thoroughly unsatisfactory.

The original plan was to fly from Newark to Phoenix, switch planes to fly to San Francisco, then switch planes again to fly to Eureka, which only allows 16 people to enter by air at a time. So I knew about the switch at SF - that's unavoidable. The real problem was Phoenix. It was raining a teency eency bit, even for the desert, and every single flight was delayed. Or moved to a different gate. Most likely, it was both. So our flight (the plane was coming from Albequerque - I don't know how to spell that, but I also don't care) was an hour & a half late even arriving. That's fine. Oh except we missed our connection in SF. Instead of leaving at 4:50, we were put on priority standby for the next flight out at 10 something. Which we probably wouldn't get on because it was completely booked. So was the next one at 6am. So we had the option of taking up residence in the San Francisco airport for godknowshowlong, or freaking out (which we did a little bit) or renting a car and driving for 5-6 hours. My dad said he would reimburse us for the car, so we hopped in. Oh by the way, my checked bag (the one with all the gifts and toiletries in it) made the connection no problem. But my bag didn't have to run across the entire SFO to get to another airline to get our boarding passes that they wouldn't give us in Newark (I'm not sure if that's Newark's fault or US Airways' fault, so I blame both) then go back through security to board the plane. We were supposed to have almost 2 hours to do that, but instead we had negative 10 minutes.

The rental car place was fine. The girl at the desk was a chatter, and it kind of messed up her job. Everyone wanted an SUV or a 4 wheel drive, for some reason, but we wanted the cheapest thing that would get us to Eureka. She gave us a free upgrade, so we would have had satellite radio in the car, which would be extremely useful while driving up highway 101 in the redwoods. But like I said, she was a chatter. She wrote down the wrong parking slot, so when we went to pick up the car, it was not at all what we were supposed to be getting. (She even remarked "that's funny, all these slots are supposed to be luxury cars" and didn't think to check as to why we would magically have the one non-luxury car in the area.) So we had to go tell another desk guy, because for some reason they won't let you leave with a car that doesn't match your ticket. Instead of finding our original car, he assigned us a whole new car that wasn't a free upgrade and thus did not have the satellite radio.

So we set out. My parents knew how long the drive would take so they went to bed. We did get to stop at In-n-Out, which was a nice little treat. I even remembered how to order for the Boyfriend & I: "2 grilled cheese animal style with nothing but the cheese & onions, 2 grilled cheese animal style with ketchup & mustard instead of the spread, and a fry well done." Beautiful. So after eating we arrived at my dad's house at 11:30 pm. For those of you keeping track, that's 20 hours from door to door.

the visit
My parents got a new kitten. This is evidenced by the scratches all over my hands, feet, legs, and one on my eyelid. She's very cute, but she's also a little mean and a compulsive toe-biter. My introduction to her was a white streak darting out and attacking my feet. But she did like me, because I could hold her and she would only nibble or lick my finger. Before she bit hard and I dropped her.

The next day was spent between visiting my dad at work, perusing the mall (for about 5 minutes) and visiting my mom. We went to some of the cooler stores around, half looking for a gift for the Mother in Law, when we encountered the Coolest Toy Store Ever. I've already known about Gepettos, and I go there when I can, but now they have a new, bigger branch in Arcata. I found a child-size rain hat that is shaped like a monster. You know I bought it because it fits my tiny tiny head and I did need a monster shaped rain hat. (Pictures to come later.) I also found some other really awesome things because you have to, in the Awesomest Store Ever.

We got to visit my brother. This is a privelage because my brother is a petty thug and is currently in Juvenile Hall. For an hour a day, we could buzz the holding facility, go through security (leave all purses, keys, wallets, jackets in the anteroom) and see all the petty thugs. I'm very glad that my brother is not the worst kid in there - one girl cut off her own toe while incarcerated, and she has a baby at home waiting for her to get out. I didn't hear her whole story, but I know my brother has not self-mutilated nor had children. The facility only allows 2 visitors per thug at once, so my mom & the Boyfriend had to trade out.

Xmas eve was a thinly veiled birth control method. My 2 nephews, 1 niece, stepbrother, stepsister, stepbrother in law, me & the Boyfriend, my dad & stepmom all crowded into the house while the kids opened presents. It was loud and hyper and insane. As the boys ran around shooting each other with their new nerf guns (never mind that my dad - "grandpa" - told them not to), I got asked by every single parent there some form of "Doesn't this make you want to have children?" And I answered "not boys between 7 & 13 years old that get super hyper on xmas." Also there were no akward moments because nobody bought us gifts that we didn't reciprocate. They all just assumed we wouldn't have anything for them. But we did have that travel adventure, so can you blame us for wanting to minimize breaking / losing gifts?

Xmas morning, we did our presents (my stepmom, dad, Boyfriend, and I) and it was a much calmer affair. Not to mention that we all had less presents than the kids too. I got the DVD of Fear & Loathing, which I've been needing to replace because my old copy is VHS and in Fresno. My parents remarked on how expensive it was, and I told them that's why I didn't have it yet. I also got rainbow striped toe socks. I love rainbow stripes, but I can't do toe socks. One of my "things" is that I can't stand things between my toes. I'm sure gloves for your feet are very warm, but I will freak out if I try to wear them. I felt bad because my stepmom loves toe socks and thus assumes everyone does. So now I have these toe socks that I don't know what to do with. I got other stuff too, but those were the highlights.

Xmas day, we went to see my brother again. My mom had suddenly gotten very very sick, so she was at home. The Boyfriend & I brought my brother's unwrapped gifts to him, passed them through security (a beanie and a hardbound comic book - they're ok) and let the boy have them before they would be taken away for a few more months. We (I, mainly) tried not to lecture the boy, but instead give him encouragement on what to do with his life so that he doesn't stay in "facilities." He realizes that next year when he turns 18, things will be different. He has some plans about moving out of Eureka with his girlfriend (who I know is going to be called his "baby's momma" at some point) and getting jobs and leading a clean life, so I really hope he follows through. I have my doubts though.

Even though my mom was sicker than a dog, we had to stop by & give her her present, and say goodbye. We wouldn't get a chance before leaving the next day. We stayed at her house about 15 seconds. I feel bad, but she couldn't do anything except throw up. So that was that.

My sister called to wish everyone merry xmas. Her & her boyfriend decided to not buy anyone gifts, and use the money they saved to go to Reno and snowboard and gamble. A little selfish, but I can see the logic in it. They had zero stress because they didn't go shopping. Of course I reminded her that we took a trip and went shopping, but she reminded me of the "no stress" thing again. Poo for her.

trip home
The boyfriend doesn't have to be at work like I do, so he was continuing his fun by going to see his fam in Fresno. His bus left at 6:30 am the day after xmas. It was windy and raining and all around sucky weather. But my stepmom & I saw him off, then returned home where she got ready for work and I lounged around until my flight.

My flight was supposed to leave at 11:49 am. Do the hop to SF, then a direct flight (thank god) to Newark. Then that whole expensive car thing home. But guess what? My flight was delayed an hour 42 minutes. But because this was United and not Crappy US Airways, they were able to rechedule me a flight home, since again I would be missing my connection. The next available flight to Newark from SF left at 10 something that night. Argggggg! I don't want to stay in the SF airport for 8 hours. Don't they have anything sooner? What about to JFK or LaGuardia? Oh well there's a flight leaving SFO at 4pm and arriving in JFK at 12am. Get me on that plane. *type type type* Ok, you're all set.

I love you United. That was so easy. Not like Crappy US Airways.

So my dad & I hit up the airport restaurant. (The Eureka airport has 2 airlines, 1 security gate, 1 arrival gate, 2 rental car places, a gift shop, and a restaurant. We went to the restaurant.) We had a semi-leisurely meal and waited for my plane. When it arrived, I said my goodbyes and trudged out through the still crappy weather onto the tiny tiny plane. Our stewardess (there was only 1) was equally tiny, a cute little thing with a Georgian accent. The little planes (puddle jumpers) are fun, but avoid them if you don't like flying to begin with. You feel the air more than in a big jet, and turbulance is more severe. But I think they feel like a roller coaster, and they don't fly as high (20,000 feet instead of 32,000 feet) so you can see the ground below you.

When I got to SFO, I had almost 2 hours to kill before my next flight. Since I didn't have to do the mad rush, changing airlines, reticketing thing again, I wandered around the airport. I went into a bath & body shop & bought some lotion. I found a Ghiradelli store and bought some yummy yummy chocolate. I refilled my water bottle and made sure to use the bathroom before having to get on the plane. Then I read my book.

When my plane came, I enjoyed the non-crampedness that United offers. I sat down in my window seat and after a few minutes was amazed to see that the middle seat was empty. The end guy & I put our jackets on the seat and shared the use of the pull down tray (which didn't have any annoying ads!). The headphones were free, so though I didn't feel like watching "Invincible," I could listen to the XM "sampling" while I read my book and did a crossword puzzle in the United Magazine. I found out that the sampling was really just an hour-loop, so I did watch "the Office" while it was on. United too had the $5 meals, but these were actual meals. You got chips, other snacks, desserts, real food. I didn't get one, but I considered it.

After about 5 hours, I heard the very sweet words "Welcome to NY. The local time is 12:12 am." I decided to just take the train home because even though a taxi would be faster, I didn't have a map with me. Taxi drivers like taking me all the way through Queens before taking me to Brooklyn, charging me a lot more, so if I have a map they can't do that. And I wasn't so tired. So I took the train, read my book, and got home a little before 1am.

The cat was excited to see me. He's a lot bigger than the little kitten I had gotten used to over the past few days, but he's also less bitey. Even trade. He does meow a lot when I'm trying to sleep, but he gets over it in the morning. And, I am home today because I didn't want to go to work. Luckily I had a viable excuse. So I slept til noon, caught up (somewhat) on my blogs & emails, and will soon do the dishes I didn't do before I left. Then do a few things around the house, shower, go to the doctor (which should definitely be better than last time!), and meet Suzanne for her bday fondue! Sure, I have to go to work again tomorrow, but I'm still countin' down the days.

Sorry for the long post (but I'm not really sorry) but I didn't get on the i-net at all whilst visiting the fam because they have this awful thing called "dial up" that I try to avoid.