let the reunions begin . . .

The flight from Fiji was a breeze. The Fijian man next to me kept trying to talk to me, but once I focused on my movie he finally stopped. The only downside was that the movies were just playing continuously so you couldn’t pause or start a movie; you just had to jump in. After watching Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (which was hilarious) I popped a prescription sleeping pill and slept for a good 5 hours. By the time I woke up, we were practically to California.

Once we landed I turned on my cell phone, which I haven’t done in 5 months. Thanks to all my loving friends I had ONE voicemail. Yes, one. In their defense I did say in my voicemail message that I was out of the country. I got to call my sister right when we touched down and it was so fun to finally be able to call people on my cell phone and hear their voices! Customs in LA was a joke and they didn’t even look at our bags. We got to our hotel easily (and for free!) and relaxed for a few hours in the hotel. Unlike our Fijian hotel, these beds were heavenly. After a shower I passed out for two hours and recharged my batteries.

We have family here in California through my sister’s husband. We don’t get to see each other often because we live on opposite coasts so they drove up from Newport Beach to take us to dinner. They decided to take us to Beverly Hills, woot woot! We went to a restaurant called The Ivy, which is very famous and adorable. We had so much to catch up on and were at the table for about 1.5 hours laughing and telling stories. On the way back to our hotel, they drove us through Beverly Hills, down Rodeo Drive and by all the fancy shops. It was fabulous reunion and something we wish could happen more often. In January they move into their new house so we’ll plan a trip to visit again soon.

Back at the hotel mom and I rented Paranormal Activity. It was the stupidest movie ever and really not even scary. Dad was mad that we wasted $13. Although the beds were comfy, I had a restless night stressing about everything I have to get done when I get home. Between finding a job, reunions, holiday parties, storage units, doctors appointments and finding a place to live, I’m gonna have a busy December. Mom and dad had no problem sleeping and dad even slept in until 7am. We organized our luggage, weighed it for the last time, had a quick breakfast and then we were off for the airport again.

Here is my vent about American airports. As Americans, our airlines are screwing us. On Australian and New Zealand airlines such as Qantas and Air New Zealand, you are not charged for bags. On the flight, you are offered fabulous food and a drink of your choice (including alcohol aka wine, champagne, liquor, beer) FOR FREE. Then, they come through again on the flight and offer you ANOTHER free drink. The seats are more spacious and the atmosphere is much more friendly. Now, to America. Our original flight from Nadi, Fiji to LA was canceled so we had to spend another night in Fiji, courtesy of our airline there. Because of that, we had to push our flight from LA another day which was a $150 charge per ticket which supposedly US Air is going to comp. Today is the last leg of our international flights, on which you are allowed two 50 pound bags each. Because we stayed the night in LA, they now consider our flight home as domestic and charged each of us $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. BUT WAIT. My reservation was done a few days later than my parents, in which time they changed their fees so for me it was $20 for the first bag and $30 for my second. Grand total $130 for luggage. After weighing each of our bags, we then had to carry them to another area to load them on the extra machine. That lady was a peach, but with her job I can’t really blame her. We had no glitches in security, but considering you strip down and can’t even take a bottle of toothpaste, we were ready for American security. With mom’s knee replacement, she’s getting used to getting frisked at airports every time she sets the machine off.

When I got off the airplane in Charlotte, a huge smile crossed my face. Just to my left was one of the places I’ve missed most: Bojangles. I went straight for a chicken supreme dinner with sweet tea and it was everything I’d imagined it’d be. We had a short layover in Charlotte and then boarded the plane to New Bern, NC. It was a small plane and extremely loud, but it got us there in one piece, which is all that mattered. New Bern airport is adorable. There were rocking chairs to sit in and a huge wooden statue of a bear. There was only one belt for luggage. Mom and I got the bags while dad went to pull the car around. When he paid the parking bill ($138 for 3 weeks) the lady gasped because she’d never seen a parking bill that high.

Unfortunately for us, my mom had left some milk in a cup in the car . . . for three weeks. So as we loaded into the car, I had to hang my head out the window because it smelled so rancid. Driving with the windows down eventually helped and we sang Christmas carols all the way home.

Seven loads of laundry later, I finally have all clean clothes. Tiger was ridiculously excited to see me and hasn’t left my side yet. Lucky and Bear keep following me too. I missed having animals!! Jet lag hasn’t been so bad and we were even up a little late last night having drinks and dinner with my parent’s friends. I’ve repacked and I’m ready for all my travels upcoming. Between visiting friends, job hunting and dealing with everything I left behind 5 months ago, its going to be a long month.

I’m off to Greensboro today to see my lovely sister and her family. Then it’s reunion time with my loves!!!