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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I'm Back!!

Well, all in all, it was a good vacation. I'm glad I went, and I had a good time with my family. It was one of those always on the go vacations though (not any down time).

The flight(s) back were bizarre, in that my first flight had 3 (count 'em - 3!!) stops. When I booked it, it looked like a direct flight. Same deal for 3 other women sitting in my row that were on that flight from Buffalo to Denver (stopping in Chicago, then Dallas, then Denver). They said they actually called the airline and were told that when the flight number doesn't change, it can appear to be a direct flight. Have you ever heard of such a thing? So, I ended up taking 5 mini flights of approximately 2 hours each. And I hope never to have to do it again... The landings in Dallas and Denver were killers. Turbulent and anxiety provoking. I felt sick on both (not bad enough to puke or anything, but landing in Denver I was this close to fainting...one of my usual panic reactions - NOT FUN!).

On the last leg of my marathon trip home, I witnessed a nice random act of kindness. I was sitting in the exit row at the entrance to the plane, next to a couple heading home from Mexico. Our seats were the ones directly across from the flight attendents' seats. The flight attendants were mentioning (to each other) that there were a bunch of seats empty in first class. The guy in my row asks her about it, and I totally thought that he was trying to get himself and his wife bumped up there. Nope - he'd noticed a guy in a khaki jumpsuit talking to someone else while entering the plane (we had front row seats) about how he was back from duty in Iraq. So, he asked the flight attendant if she could move the soldier to first class. She said she didn't have the authority, but he asked her to ask the pilot or someone. She did, and the purser okayed it. Of course by then we were ready to take off...But, they did go back and move the guy into first class after we leveled off. Turns out he was on a 2 week leave visiting his family, and would be heading back afterwards. But, I thought that was pretty cool of the guy in my row to even think of it. Kudos to him!

And thankfully, the landing in Sacramento was as smooth as silk, I got home around 8:45pm, and the cat was happy to see me. She must have been, because for the first time ever, she actually slept next to me up by my shoulder. Normally she's on the corner of the other side of the bed, at the bottom, and I can't tell she's there. Last night she had me pinned into the narrowest portion of my bed...and I didn't have the heart to push her away.

And now I'm watching My Date with Drew on UPN. It's really cute - I'd recommend it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awwww. I almost teared up reading your comment about the military guy moving up to first class! :) Total kudos to that guy that recommended the move. With Jim having been in the Navy, I have a lot of respect and pride for the guys in the military.
Glad you made it safely home. It was nice to have your loud mouthed, smiling self at work. Hee Hee! :) We missed ya!!

Anonymous said...

Welcome home!

May I ask why you decided to fly out of Sacramento? SMF is closest to my parents' house, but I usually fly into San Francisco or San Jose because I usually get cheaper flights that way.

SP

Tami said...

SP - I lived in Sacramento for over 10 years, and it's the airport that I'm most comfortable with. And in this case, the prices were better (I usually check all three airports in my vicinity). It only takes me an hour to drive there.

Anonymous said...

Yah, we had a bunch of thunderstorms and a tornado watch out that way yesterday. That would explain your turbulance.

Glad to hear you made it home ok.

Loved the story about the fella from Iraq. Good for the airline!!

Dagny said...

*sniff* I would have thought that your post was sweet if I wasn't such a cold hearted b****. You've gotta love the random acts of kindness. And kitty snugglies? Well, you just took it over the edge there.

lomester said...

Glad you had a nice vacataion! Sometimes even though they are "on-the go" vacations, the break from the daily stuff is so nice!

Tami said...

And Paloma, getting back into the swing of the daily things is no picnic...hard to re-acclimate to working a full 8 hours a day (as you can tell...what with me commenting on my own blog in the middle of the day).

Anonymous said...

Yo Tam.
That's all I have to say today. :))))
Fantasic about the solider.