There are reasons to be a homebody

Okay, just to reassure anyone who might have been worried, I did in fact arrive safely at Joe and Lisa’s place last night a little before 10:00PM. And then was in bed by 10:30. Joe and Lisa were pretty tired, and yesterday was just a little frigging insane for me too.

In fact, let me tell you about yesterday. Yes, I know you might not care because you’re really interested in the babies and where the hell are the pictures of the babies??? But I haven’t even removed my camera from its case yet because I’m not a member of the paparazzi. So travel story it is.

The plan had been for my roommate to care for my two cats while I was away. (I always write “TWO cats” because I want to make it clear that I am not some crazy cat lady who has 16 or so cats.) However, Farzanah had been in Nairobi visiting her parents and missed her flight back due to some illness, so while I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough, I couldn’t be sure, and 5 days is far too long to leave these cats with just a pop-in visit two times a day from a kind neighbour. So my parents came to the rescue … they drove two hours to meet me yesterday somewhere between their place and Toronto to take the cats home, which I appreciate more than words can say.

The stressful part was actually anticipating catching them to get them in the pet carrier. I hate chasing them down when they don’t want to be caught (e.g., when I have to take them to the vet’s). Sometimes I’m good at tricking them, but other times their Spidey-sense kicks in and I’m chasing them around and around the couch and ohmygod what if I can’t actually catch them both and lock them up and drive them to the meeting place in time for me to make my flight???? S-T-R-E-S-S.

This time, however, it wasn’t too bad. Shortly before I was ready to cage them up, they both wanted to go out onto the balcony. Hahahaha suckers! Cornered! From there it was pretty easy, although they figured out what was going on as soon as I moved the pet carriers closer to the sliding doors, and were none too happy about the situation.

The drive to the meeting place, just outside Guelph, was uneventful, and I actually arrived on schedule! A quick exchange of cats, food, cat toys, and written instructions (“Cleo somehow keeps track of how much she’s been fed and will complain loudly if you don’t give her a full 1.5 large scoops [of dry food] in a day”) was made, and then I was on my way to the airport.

I would have been about 4 hours ahead of schedule, but for three things:

1. Dixon and Dixie Roads. Both around the airport. This needs to be fixed for morons like me.
2. Entering the wrong line-up at the airline counter twice. Lady, if you’re going to huff and puff that someone yet again has entered the wrong line-up, perhaps there’s a problem with your signage? Just a suggestion.
3. HUGE lineups at the customs inspection. You may not know this, particularly if you’re an American reader, but hub Canadian airports like Toronto have American customs inspections. I guess there are fewer Canadian airports than American destinations … Anyway, the lineup was in this large warehouse-like room where you walked along a long, snake-like queue on one half of the room, and then you crossed the room for another long, snake-like queue.

Interestingly, yesterday was the first time EVER that I received a stamp in my passport from an American customs agent. She questioned me about the last trip I made to visit my brother (regarding when I had gone there and how long I’d stayed) and then boom boom boom! Stamps on all my documentation, including my passport. Not sure what that means – am I on some watchlist now that I’ve gone to the U.S. three times in as many months?

The flight was interesting too. I’ll try to keep this short:

1. Chatty, childlike-aged middle guy in the next seat. I was tired and kind of cranky, and totally not in the mood for the non-stop chat this guy had in mind. I was resting with my eyes closed and he was trying to ask me questions about whether I’d ever been to Seattle before, etc. It was just friendly, but I was somewhat sleep-deprived and stressed, and all I wanted was a quiet flight with a nap and my book. I managed to discourage him without being too rude in the process.
2. Older lady in the aisle seat across from and one row ahead of mine. A lovely senior citizen who read a newsletter from MSF (Doctors Without Borders), but still managed to annoy my grumpy self by talking way too loud and then picking her nose and flicking her boogers into the aisle when she thought no one was looking.
3. Cute 18-month-old who was fussy throughout the flight. This alone is not a problem for me, as I can tolerate when kids cry – that’s what they do sometimes, right? Except kids around that age, for some mysterious reason, have this tendency to integrate incredibly high-pitched ear-splitting dentist-drill-like screams. Note to self: buy earplugs for the flight home, just in case.
4. The guy in the seat behind mine was pretty short. Yet, based on the constant bumping and jostling that I felt through the seat, he had a hard time getting comfortable.
5. We met up with some bad turbulence right as we were coming in for landing. I’m not a nervous flyer or anything, but I remember thinking, “Well at least if I die, my cats will be looked after.”

Anyway, so it’s been a good day here in the Seattle area with lots of quality time with Lisa, Lorelai, and Reece while Joe’s been at work. But I think I'm still pretty worn out from the last few days, so all those details will likely have to wait until tomorrow. :)