Home Sweet Home

On the way to New Jersey, I watched Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, (slept from 7:30 – 9:20) Up in the Air, Young Victoria, When in Rome and Slumdog Millionaire – missing the last 5 minutes because we landed.

Immigration line:  Another entry stamp in the passport book.

Baggage claim: Grudgingly paid $5 to the vending machine for a luggage cart because I knew my luggage was going to be very heavy.  There were fellow passengers new to America simply disgusted they’d have to pay for a luggage cart, normally free nearly every other country but America.  My large duffle’s top zipper was gaping open.  I checked the contents to be sure nothing fell out.  I could only find two of the three boxes of teas.  I spent more time than I should have trying to locate that missing box.  I pulled a wire twist tie from my earphones to hold the two top zipper pulls together, so they wouldn’t open during the flight to SFO.

Customs:  Handed my customs claim form to a guy sitting at a table just taking them and tossing them onto a messy pile in front of him.

Rechecked my bags:  The porter saw from my luggage tag that I was supposed to be on the next plane to SFO, which was leaving in less than 30 minutes.  He advised me to hurry: “Take the Airtrain to Terminal A.”  Good advice, if I knew where to catch the Airtrain.  “Up the stairs and to the left!”

Airtrain:  Up the stairs and to the left, just where the porter instructed, I boarded the Airtrain to Terminal A, running to the gate for my flight, which was scheduled to leave in 15 minutes.

Security line to gates:  Another?!  Seriously?!  I told the girl in front of me, “My plane leaves in 15 minutes.”  She replied, “No one would mind if you go ahead.”  I flagged down a line monitor and told her my situation.  She let me into the First/Business Class line.  My impatient fidgeting caught the eye of another line monitor, who led me to the x-ray conveyor belt after I told him that my connection from India had just come in after 5 pm, and needed to catch my 6:20 pm flight to SFO.  He said that there were some other people from my flight who just passed through, so the airline would probably hold the flight until I got there, but I’d have to hurry.  After my purse and carry on passed through the x-ray, I was stopped because I still had half a bottle of water from my last flight in my purse.  I told him, “I’m sorry, that was from my last flight.  No worries if you want to throw it away.”  He asked, “From where?”  “Delhi” “How was it” “Hot!  It was 48C, I was told that’s about 130F!” (I looked it up later, Gauri was wrong:  48C is only 118.4F.)

Approaching Gate 14 in a run, I saw no one in line — just two gate crew members standing idly.  I asked, “Am I too late?”  “No, go on through.”  Relieved and elated I didn’t miss my flight, I ran through the gangway to the plane, thinking, “Okay, after all the security check points, I’m obviously a safe passenger, but what if I were a terrorist, running out from some side door and you’re not going to check my boarding pass to make sure I belong on this flight?!”

6:15 AM:  Boarded my flight with room for my carry on in the overhead storage – though it took some searching for storage space.  There were a few more passengers to board after me, so I didn’t get dirty looks for making the flight leave late.  So glad I had an aisle seat. I shared the space with a young couple travelling with their approximately 9 month old son.  The son slept for the first few hours, but was quite active and whiney during the remainder of the flight.  I managed to watch Valentine’s Day and Alice in Wonderland in between getting up to let the tag-team parents take their kid up and down the aisle.  The dad was quite apologetic and offered to give me the window seat so I wouldn’t be bothered by them.  I replied that I didn’t mind getting up and I preferred the aisle seat.

9:41 AM Arrived at SFO followed by long taxiing on the tarmac before docking at a gate.  Doug was waiting for me by the baggage claim waiting area with a cup of caramel Peet’s coffee for me.  Oh yeah, it’s morning – breakfast time for California (10:15 PM late dinner time in India).  I purchased a luggage cart from the vending machine, much to Doug’s surprise.  He had no idea how heavy my luggage would be – until the duffle bag arrived.

While I used the ladies room, all the luggage had arrive – of course, sans my blue check-in bag.  When I returned to the baggage carousel, I couldn’t find Doug.  My phone rang.  Doug’s calling.  He was in the line for lost luggage claims and needed me to bring my baggage claim tag.  I handed my baggage claim tag to the crew member with whom Doug was conversing.  She scanned the barcode while we resumed our place in line.  Good news:  My baggage was found, Bad news:  It was on a different flight, scheduled to arrive approximately 11 am.  By this time, we were up to the claim counter, when the crew member delivered the news.  The clerk behind the desk handed me a form to fill out to describe the baggage and my address of where it should be delivered.

As soon as we arrived back in Doug’s place in Berkeley, I requested the use of his shower, having gone from the India tour in nearly 120F heat to the airport, travelling another 30 hours home.  After a refreshing shower and a change into clean clothes, we lunched at Roux in Berkeley, sitting outside in the sunshine splitting our orders of a ½ pound burger and skirt steak, fries and plenty of cool bottled water.

My car, thankfully, fired up, after sitting idle for so long.  I drove home – 55 miles to San Jose.

Upon entering the house, I was greeted by Marie and Anthony with hugs and kisses.  Michelle was at the local ballet studio assisting with creating the program for the studio’s upcoming showcase.

I assembled the marble table, while telling Marie and Anthony the story of how I came to purchase this piece of furniture.  I’m convinced the table legs and table ring were randomly picked out from a mass-produced lot, because the drilled holes for the screws between the legs and ring did not match up evenly.

As I unpacked and began laundry loads, Michelle came home.  She gave me a hug.  We went upstairs to my room so she can tell me the events of the last few weeks, while I continued to unpack.

Michelle had a Japanese class that night.  She should be home about 8:30 pm.  I offered that when she returned, we’d go to a nice restaurant to celebrate our being all together after so long.   I took a nap while she was gone.

The kids let me sleep a little longer, but when they woke me up, it was too late to go to any nice restaurants, so I went downstairs to make dinner.  It was so nice for us all to be seated at the dining table.  Marie made a lemon meringue pie for dessert in celebration of my homecoming.

10:25 PM:  The doorbell rang.  United Airlines delivered my luggage.

I distributed the souvenirs to the kids, telling them the story of the negotiations of the purses, dolls, Anthony’s shirt and cap riding on Lesley’s negotiations for 18 tees and the aprons.

Marie suggested we watch some comedy stand-up recordings because I missed some good episodes while I was away.  I fell asleep on the couch not long after the program began.

I went to bed, but had a new focus of downloading/copying photos from my camera’s xD card to my USB.  Having completed that, I began to organize the photos with the goal of printing the photos tomorrow.