journal-12/31/00

12/31/00

here i am, finally back in good old boston.

it was quite a trip... believe me... on the way there, i got to the airport an hour and 1/2 early... only to arrive at the ticket counter that had-- literally-- a line through the corridor of another terminal about a 1/2 mile long. no lie. (after talking to some of the agents at delta, security people, and other holiday travelers-- nobody had ever seen anything like this before. it was nuts!)

we (cici and i) left the house at 2pm, got in line at the airport by 3:30pm (a couple of quick stops along the way). my flight left at 4:55pm... or should i say, it was supposed to leave at 4:55pm.

i received my first christmas present when i stood in line in front of the ticket agent... i wrote out the check for $75 to take cici in the passenger cabin with me, and there's some big procedure they have to go through for people who write checks-- because so many of them bounce. the agents scrambled for a few long seconds, while the ticket agent deliberated on what to do with my check. then, when people weren't looking, he quietly slid the check back to me and said, "merry christmas. don't tell anyone." i wanted to hug him right there...

i cut through the lines of security (which was about 250 people long, 3 people wide), cutting around one of the corners, claiming that my flight was leaving right away (which it was supposed to). and get this-- at logan airport... thank you boston... you have to take your animal out of the carry case to go through security, since it obviously can't go onto the conveyor belt to go through the x-ray machine. they won't "wand" the carrier-- you have to take the animal out! how ridiculous is this?! so of course, i start freaking out, and cici starts freaking out b/c why am i opening her carrier amongst these hundreds of people all mobbed together, and after all, mommy was upset and she sensed it... oh boy that made me angry.

i went to the gate, got on the airplane, and then had the luxury of sitting on the airplane, which stayed at the gate, for the next 2 1/2 hours. the plane had too much cargo on it-- it was too heavy to take off. so they had to find some cargo to remove. why this took 2 hours, nobody knows. but anyway...

then we had to wait in line to take off...

the moral of the story-- ended up getting to my parents' house around midnight, which was about 3 hours later than i should have been.

cici was glad to be out of the carrier... but where was she? she'd never been there before... but she figured it must have been ok since mommy was there...

cici and cricket (the queen b of the house, the matron, the old bitty, she's about 15 years old, albino siamese, loudmouth... but a sweet kitty in her own right) have spent the last 10 days testing each other's boundaries. at first cici was very timid (very unusual for her!) but as the days progressed... she's gotten more aggressive. and today, for the first time ever-- cricket chased cici around the house! we all just sat there dumbfounded looking at each other like idiots... we hadn't seen cricket move that fast for anything in years.

cici also spent the first couple of days at my parents' house throwing up in various locations... cricket's food made her sick, but i also think it could have been altitude sickness, because she didn't throw up again after the third day. she has a very tender stomach... just like her mum.

she's been testing out the new digs... sleeping on every piece of furniture in the house to see which ones she likes best.

ahh, the life of a cat.

my niece and nephew stayed with us for..... a long time. i think it ended up being 4 days and 3 nights. that sounds about right. we had freezing rain which made the roads really fun, especially since texas is royally unprepared for such weather.

at the christmas eve service, which is a candlelight vigil filled with singing hymns (as typical presbyterians do) and reading scripture and listening to the minister's homily, we took the kids (and my sister stayed at her home to do what? clean? or something?).

i realized... this service doesn't mean anything to me anymore. i used to enjoy it... but i think that was wrapped up in tradition of our family always going, another thing we did with my grandmother, a time to visit with friends, a time to enjoy the candles and singing... and i just don't get it anymore. it just doesn't do anything for me anymore.

so... i guess my religious convictions are becoming a little more concrete now.

i wasn't sad or upset that being there at that christmas eve service didn't mean anything deep inside of me. it was just a fact that came into clear, simple view. it's like the fact was buried in the sand, and someone came along and brushed it off. i blew the remaining grains of sand off the fact... and there it was.

i no longer resist what i do and do not believe. it's just there.

over all, i had a great time at home... although i really didn't have time to myself. my parents have their computer in "my" room, so they're always in there doing something (usually playing computer games). i've had to chase them out of there when i wanted to go to bed. fortunately, they're moving it to the front room... so i won't have to worry about that anymore.

ah yes-- i got a cell phone. about time, i know... (it has a tip calculator on it! and a game! and ... ok well nevermind).

cici was agitated this morning (as my mom puts it, she was "full of the bees") when i was finishing packing up my stuff. she knew i was leaving. she's seen me pack that bag before, and the result has been me gone for days at a time.

i was supposed to be back here yesterday, but the flight was cancelled (weather in boston). then, they rebooked me on another flight today which apparently got cancelled, but nobody bothered to call and tell me that.. so when i called this morning to confirm that the flight was running on time, they told me that not only had it cancelled, but the flight they had again rebooked me on had already left earlier that morning, and i was listed as a "no show." which generally means the ticket is cancelled out and no longer valid. dad yelled at them... thought he was going to jump through the phone.... got a supervisor at the dallas ticket counter on it, and got me rebooked (overbooked the flight...) on the 1:10 nonstop today (which was the same flight i was supposed to be on yesterday... is this still making sense? don't worry i'll stop soon). the 1:10pm flight ended up leaving 3 hours late (does this sound familiar?)... again we sat at the gate for a couple of hours, but they had a ground stop at the dallas airport, which means no planes could take off or land, until they could clear the runways of snow (yes, snow! in dallas!). yada yada yada... we went to the de-icing area and they sprayed a pink chemical on the airplane (which changed to green, i noticed on other airplanes that had been sprayed moments earlier), and we took off (finally!)... landing *only* 3 1/2 hours late. yay.

so, at 10:30pm on new year's eve, here i am. hating being back in boston. i don't want to be here anymore, dammit... i want to be in texas.

and in 2 weeks..... that's where i'm going.

but first... friday i'm going to miami for council travel's national meeting. yay. i can hardly wait... i hate miami but hoping this will be fun anyway. hoping i won't be sick for it... i just have a really stuffed-up nose at the moment... ick.

oh yeah-- i did have an "interview" with the dallas council travel office. it was more like a chat session... and i was there over 2 1/2 hours. it was great-- i know i'm going to fit in there just fine, and with me there, it'll be a full staff of 4 (3 worker bees, 1 manager). it's something nice to look forward to... the only thing that makes me a little uneasy is that nothing can be final with my transfer until i have my 6 month review at the reservation center and sign paperwork with my new manager. so yeah, the logistics are going to take some ironing out. i already know what my weaknesses are as a phone agent-- weaknesses which will work towards my benefit as an in-person agent.... but they may still negatively affect my raise percentage. i'm a bit worried about this... but hey-- life goes on.

so, what else. oh yes, today i read half of a rather long book (this is *truly* amazing for me... me who starts books and never seems to get around to finishing them, me who is a very very very slow reader, me who never seems to find time to read even when i want to and know i should, so i can be a better writer....). the story swallowed me up... it's a book i started reading 2 years ago, sadly enough.. but just haven't finished (story of my life, i think i've got about 15 books "started," sitting on my shelf). on a whim i threw this one into the suitcase and ended up reading half of it today. it's just really good.

i just love the type of books that immediately scoop you up into the story with the first sentence and they don't drop you back onto the ground until the last sentence... and even then, a part of you is still floating... (the first sentence of this book is "A plane crashed." it's called The Light of Falling Stars by j. robert lennon.... read it!)

all in all, it's been a good year. what am i saying? this has been a crazy and very difficult year. but i choose to think of only the good part, which is... i've learned more about myself in this year than i have in the last several years combined. i've grown a lot this year... learned some of my limits... explored some of my boundaries... ventured into new territory many times this year. and i am a better me for it...

and i s'pose that's really all i can ask, isn't it?

so......... happy 2001, now that it really is the new millennium.