Of Snow and Pets.
My trip home was somewhat eventful. TheBoy and I drove to his mom's and stayed there for the night as planned (her house is only 45 minutes from the airport as opposed to 2.5 hours). We awoke at 4am on the 22nd in order to be ready and get to the airport by 6.40am, two hours before my flight took off. Shortly after 5 I began to fret because the weather in the midwest was terrible and I was due to connect in Chicago. So TheBoy went and checked my flight status online only to find out that US Airways had already cancelled my flight. So I called their 800 number and after holding for 10 minutes was told that since the flight was booked through them, but actually a United flight, I'd have to call United. Keep in mind that this is 5.30am and I've only had 4 hours of sleep because Lou, the pug, came down to wake us up in the middle of the night. So, I call United who apologize and tells me that, unfortunately, they didn't issue the ticket so there's nothing they can do and I need to call US Airways again. The customer service rep also said that I was the second person from my flight that he'd talked to that morning and that the other person had been told the same thing. Feh! At any rate, the second person I talked to at US Airways was lovely and helpful and spent a great deal of time trying to get me seats on another flight. However, the first flight that had any seats open was at 7.15pm, nearly 12 hours later that I was scheduled to leave. The customer service rep then said to me, "if its any consolation, the only seat we could get for you was in first class". And so it was. I flew first class from Portland, OR to San Francisco and then from San Francisco to Philadelphia. I would have to say that I hate the Philadelphia airport. It is very poorly laid out, and when I flew back through it on Wednesday, I had to leave one secured place and go back through security for two different flights operated by the same airline. That, my friends, is dumb. I understand space issues and such, but when they built that place the architect obviously wasn't thinking about passanger ease.
At any rate, I got home in one piece to my lovely mom and younger sister. There will be no photos of my mom here because she hates having her photo taken. I got to pick up my diplomas at home, and they are living safely in the diploma holder I was given at graduation. At any rate, over lunch in Bangor, Maine my sister tells me that we need to go shopping. I hate shopping very close to Christmas. Hate it. And I was exhausted. We then drive home to wee Belfast, and Sarah and I pack up and head out to buy things for my Mom's stocking. I was on a search and gather mission and in total I think it only took us two stores and a little less than an hour to complete. I managed to stay awake through dinner, and then until everyone left me alone in the living room at 7.30pm with the TV going. At that point I passed out from exhaustion and was awakened by mom at 8pm, very disoriented. So I dragged myself upstairs to my bed, and fell asleep, being awoken at 5.30am by my sister's cat, Boxer. Christmas Eve was lovely, celebrated with my mom, then spent Christmas and the 26th with my dad which was, again, lovely. I spent Monday and Tuesday just relaxing and flew back with little event on Wednesday.
The only thing that I forgot to take a photo of was my sister's tattoo which it may be remembered that I designed it for her. It is gorgeous. It runs vertically up the center of her lower back and is about 5 inches long. The colors are exactly as I rendered them and the detail looks like it would have had I drawn it on my sister. I was in awe of its beauty and couldn't believe that it came from my art. At any rate, I'm sad that I didn't get a photo. But, here's several of my trip. As always, click to biggerize. l-r Lou, Boxer, my mom's house, Sarah and I with our goonie grins on.
Again, L-R my dad with chocolate covered cherry horns, a detail from the house my mom lives in, and two different images from the now defunct sauna in my mom's backyard. Actually, I guess I don't know if it is defunct, but I don't think any of us has ever even gone into it. Note that we got glorious, lovely snow while I was still at home. Click for bigger.
Winter Wonderland.
Just figured I'd drop a quick note this morning to let everyone know that I am still alive. My first flight got cancelled last Wednesday and I didn't get out of Portland until 7.30 at night, 11 hours behind schedule. Because everything was booked solid, I got bumped to first class in my new flights from Portland to San Francisco and then from SF to Philadelphia. Man, that's the life! At any rate, Christmas with both my mom and dad have been great. I got lots of knitting things. Right now it is snowing here, seems like it must have been all night. Since this will likely be my only snow this year I am ecstatic. Or at least as ecstatic as one can be at 9.30am. I fly back on Wednesday, given good weather and no delays/cancellations and I'll have pictures then.
Holiday Spirit.
Everyone else in BlogLand is showing off their Christmas trees, so here's my wee little tree with it's wee little gifts underneath it. The gifts under the tree are gifts from me to TheBoy's family which will be given on New Year's Day at Christmas2. There are 2 more presents to be added, after I finish knitting them.
The Case of the Missing Gifts.
No, I have not lost my Christmas Presents. There have been a lot of them in this apartment, being as that TheBoy and I have created or bought small gifts for a total of a dozen folks, numbering to about 40 presents or so. (Like I said, many small things, like handmade magnets and beaded snowflakes). At any rate Wendy mentioned that she had presents stashed every which place and would have to spend some time remembering where it all was. This reminded me of my mom, who seems to misplace gifts in their hidey-holes every year. One year we were done unwrapping and my older sister had a much smaller pile of things than the rest of us. Turns out my mom had forgotten a bag of wrapped gifts in the back of her closet. She oftens loses little gifts, sometimes recovering them in mid-summer with great glee. Its very cute and extremely funny and I love that about her.
Got Claw?
I've spent the past 4 hours sitting at the computer working in CAD. I have mouse claw. I hate CAD. In fact, since it was never required of me, I never used it during undergrad, until my thesis project. I'm much more adept with it now, although I doubt that I'll ever enjoy working in it. At any rate, I'm done for today, and that means that although I still have things to do on this project, it won't get finished until after I return from Maine.