Year two

Today marks the second anniversary of LG. And I'm glad to be home.

These facts are completely unrelated.

Originally my two-year post was going to be all introspective and here's where I was and here's where I am, etc etc. But one can do that at any point. I'll always have been where I was and I'll always be where I am.

If you know what I mean and that's not too Alice.

So.

I missed the blogging while I was gone, I have to say. I missed the writing, the thinking of how to craft a story, the quiet mental time. And I missed all of you.

It was a long and varied haul home.

Driving to the airport in a taxi yesterday morning, we nearly collided with another car on the highway, because he was driving the wrong way down it, to take a shortcut from his side to an exit on the other. Imagine deciding to cut across 66 and drive a quarter-mile down the wrong side to get to an earlier exit. That's what it would be like. Not as big as the 5 in California, but still, a two or three lane highway each way.

We arrived the requisite two hours early. Way too long.

Security at the Istanbul airport is rather casual, and so the process didn't take long, and we had plenty of time before the flight. However, we only had an hour to transfer in Frankfurt. (And Nina, if you're reading this - we went through Munich on the way, which I forgot to tell you before, so we never looked any further into the restaurant.)

We arrived on time, but sat on the runway waiting for a parking space, which took about 15 minutes. Which meant we were unloading as they were boarding our next flight, but we (really just Nick) thought we could make it.

They then announced we'd all be going through passport control. And then unloaded the entire plane into a long, sectioned bus. This took another 15 minutes.

Up to this point I'd been all, "Fuck! We're never going to make it!"

And Nick had been all, "Don't worry sweetie, we'll make it."

And then the bus and the passport control were the end of his optimism.

We all poured out at the other end, and we rushed to a monitor, hoping for a delay. No delay. Fuck.

And suddenly, this stark contrast between the chaos of Turkey and the phenomenal organization of Germany appeared like a rainbow.

We looked up, and Nick spotted a man with a sign: United 933 to Washington, DC. We followed him at an impressive clip, avoided passport control and some countless number of corridors, and arrived just in time to make our flight.

Seriously, I could have kissed him. With tongue. Except that you're not supposed to do that once you're married. In fact, you're probably not supposed to do that to airport officials at all. Nick got in big trouble for trying to remove his belt before it had crossed the red line exiting from the X-ray machine at the gate.

Verboten. It has to cross the line.

Being Nick, he taunted the guy a little by re-reaching for it as it was still partway on the line. And was re-chastised.

"Sir! It has not yet crossed the red line!"

Wile it's hard to understand why it really fucking matters whether the items is on the line or past it, if we'd been in the US, I know we'd have missed our flight. I've never, ever had an airport official in the US be remotely helpful about getting through security faster to make a connection.

I told the guy who was waiting for us that we were sure we'd miss our flight, and he said "We were worried about the same thing. That's why I'm here."

Wouldn't that make you want to grab his young little freshly-scrubbed face and plant a big smooch on it?

And then we got on the plane, had a number of $6 drinks (free on Lufthansa flights on the way - another yay! for the Deutsch), sat for what felt like the next 25 hours, but was really only 8 or so, met some cool seat-mates, and finally, finally arrived at Dulles.

My dad very kindly collected us, and took us to their house, where my car was parked. And Betty fed us tea and they both oohed and aahed over the carpets Nick got.

And last night we slept in our own bed, and drank water from the tap! when we woke up thirsty, and went for a nice run this morning, and are having a Sunday of living happily ever after.

Or something like that.

I hope this finds you all well. I'm happy to be home.