It's Good to Set Goals

The couch at my cousin Alicia's house wrapped me up in comfy warm goodness and (along with the help of two Tylenol PM) I slept through that first night on the opposite side of the world with zero problems. I wasn't even too groggy when I awoke. My one goal for that day was to stay awake as much as possible in order to get over the jet lag fast. I had read that exercise helps so I enlisted Alicia to take a walk with me in the morning. Alicia just so happens to live two blocks from one of my childhood homes, so it was a trip around the neighborhood filled with nostalgia. (She just so happens to live in the cul-de-sac that always gave out full-sized candy bars on Halloween.) I really appreciated the one-on-one time with her (especially since I missed her wedding).

The next trick up my jet-lag-reducing sleeve was a sufficient amount of caffeine. On the way to my uncle and aunt's house in Lynnwood, we stopped at an AM/PM gas station for some Diet Dr. Pepper. I grabbed the largest cup I could find, and began to fill up all 64 ounces, with just a few cubes of ice. At the cash register, the newbie cashier fumbled through some barcodes on a ring and asked if I was getting the gallon size. My eyes lit up "I didn't know that was an option!" I replied, but decided that 64 ounces was probably more than enough. At this point in the blog I would post the totally awesome picture of me enjoying my beverage, but I lost it. Maybe it is in my other computer...

At my uncle and aunt's house my mom got to work on a big family meal for the following day, but took a break when my uncle offered to take us to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. ("Us" included my mom, grandma, sister, and of course myself.) Dubai doesn't have too many Mexican restaurants, so getting food wrapped up in a tortilla was high on my vacation to-do list. I had a basic huge bean burrito, and although I am not certain I finished it all, it was certainly tasty. Thanks, Uncle Bruce!

My mum, ever the caretaker, decided to extend her cooking break by taking me clothes shopping. She had obviously read a previous post about my shabby attire and didn't want her daughter being looked down upon by foreigners, so off we went to Alderwood Mall. It wasn't too successful. While I am sure the mall's patrons have no problems with the stores (thus the reason they are still there), I didn't find anything that fit my style. I am neither a teen or a middle-aged woman, so I was kind of at a loss. Plus the mall has no Anthropologie or J.Crew. (Neither store is exactly bakery-friendly, but the clothes are pretty!) My mom found a nice top at Macy's for herself, though.

The afternoon progressed, and even though I started to feel fatigued I didn't take a nap. The Dr. Pepper was doing it's job. I think Grandma napped, however.

That evening I was treated to a Mariner's baseball game with my dad, sister, uncle, Alicia, her two stepsons, and a family friend. It was chilly, but I had a blast. We snacked on peanuts and arabic sweets, you know, all the traditional baseball fare. I sat next to Aidan, the youngest stepson, and I must say he was pretty charming, except when he tried to get me to drink out of the bottle of water that he backwashed into. The Mariner's played the Texas Rangers, who took an early lead, but the Mariners were able to catch up...at least until they gave up a nice handful of runs in the last inning. I was certain that the M's were aware that I was in town, so they were supposed to win. I guess the Ranger's didn't get the memo. Here, I would post some of the pictures I took of the game. Yep, they're lost as well. Awesome.

My eyelids were especially heavy on the ride back to Alicia's after the game. And with the aid of my favorite jet-lag-bedtime snack (erm, Tylenol PM), I slept soundly once again.

Why Does It Always Happen to Me?

Let this be a warning to you: don't ever travel with me via aircraft.

If you have ever heard me talk about my airplane experiences, you would know that I seem to be cursed be severe travel bad luck: luggage that takes its own vacations, pilots who don't show up to work, missing ID, etc. Every once in a while I get pretty lucky where the only thing that goes wrong is that my computer falls to the ground at the security checkpoint.

The first leg of my journey went so flawlessly that I was optimistic that the whole trip would continue that way. I made it to the airport well in-time for my flight, and my luggage was even underweight. (I think that was a first!) I did have to go through a security check three times, for some reason. The seven-and-a-half hour flight to London didn't even feel that long, and I only snoozed for about a half hour. I did, however, learn that The Thomas Crown Affair was not an even remotely interesting movie, despite starring Steve McQueen.

After a three hour layover at Heathrow Airport a huge crowd gathered at gate B32 to board the 747 bound for Seattle. I took my seat next to a nice older couple that were very friendly and pleased that I was not traveling with a baby. The passengers sat and mingled, I took a brief nap and read a magazine, yet we were still on the ground. The pilot finally announced that there was a leak while trying to fuel the jumbo jet. For about two and a half hours they fixed the problem and then ran diagnostics in order to see if the leak had indeed been fixed.

When they were finally satisfied, we slowly rolled down the tarmac. While moving my fellow passengers and I heard a lot of commotion coming from the very back of the plane. We stalled at the runway until we were greeted with another announcement stating that the passengers in the back of the plane noticed that not only we were still leaking fuel, there also appeared to be some smoke spewing out of one of the engines. He continued to let us know that we would have to de-board and wait for a new plane to take us to Seattle. What he courteously did not tell us that it was either that or crash somewhere over Manchester.

The initial estimation for our delay was about six hours. We were handed food vouchers (that worked out quite nicely at Pret a Manger), and then we waited. I wandered around the large terminal 5, pondered buying a considerable amount of Cadbury, and wondered how my family would find out about the delay. I had zero access to phone numbers and email, so I hoped they wouldn't have to wait too long at SeaTac before figuring it out. Every once in a while I would meet up with my fellow passengers and we would chat. One nice lady assured me that if I fell asleep she would be sure to awake me once our gate was announced.

Around 9pm (6 hours after we were supposed to take off), were called to a brand new gate and we all hurriedly gathered to wait some more. While we did have a more spry 747 to take us over the pole, we didn't have a crew or (and now this is the kicker) a turnover agent. You know--the person who calls the rows to board the aircraft. Apparently not just anyone can do this job--even though I was more than willing to take a crack at it. It was rather frustrating waiting for that person while hearing flights around you get called into order, especially when they couldn't just hop over to our gate when they finished up. You know, six hours is plenty of time to find someone, one would think, but we still had to wait another 4 hours for ours.

So if you are doing any sort of tallying, that would be a whopping 10 hour delay. Pretty much we left Heathrow when we should have been arriving in Seattle. It was like taking two long flights...or rather three considering the first long flight from that morning.

I was tired when we finally touched down in Seattle--I had been awake for 31 hours with maybe a total of 4 hours of napping--but, oh, so happy to finally be in Seattle.

And, you know, not cindered somewhere over the English countryside.

I'm Back

I just returned from a very fabulous vacation that took me to Seattle, Spokane, Phoenix, back to Spokane, back to Seattle, and finally to London.

My goal is to blog all about it in fun chapters that will highlight each city by the end of the week. However you need to be warned that I am very I am busy at work and shooting myself for getting on that plane back to Dubai.

Five more months...