Nov 07 2013
Whew
A lot has happened since I last checked in with you from the 27th floor of my Atlanta hotel.
I woke up before the alarm (and wake up call) at 6:15 am. Despite utter lack of use, my ability to cope with time zone changes and lack of sleep while traveling has not atrophied. The secret is to forget about what time it is at home and just be on local time.
I had cleverly pre-ordered breakfast the night before, and it, especially the coffee, arrived none too soon. I watched the sun come up over the city as I ate:
I wish I’d had more time to explore Atlanta. Everyone was so nice to me there. Even the airport processing was as polite as possible.
The longer flight home – it’s always longer flying west – was worse than the overnight one, since sleep was not an option. There was wifi on the plane, but no outlets to plug in your laptop, and no room to use it in if you did. I am pretty sure that planes are more crowded than they used to be, jamming more seats and people in than ever before. I don’t think I could handle the 12 hour non stop flights I used to do once or twice a year to visit Dad in London under current conditions.
I was glad to be back in San Francisco, though pretty tired. I don’t recommend traveling almost 6,000 miles in two/three days (depending on how you calculate the overnight flight). I was also glad that I opted to stay overnight before facing the drive home. Enough already!
I am back home and I don’t know who is happier about that, Me or the cats. Or maybe Megan, who has had to cat sit the unruly bunch (Audrey, I’m looking at you) far too often lately.
Bags are unpacked, laundry is hanging out in the sunshine, and all is right with the world.