Back to the Mainland

First off, I'M HOME!! Safe, sound, and with all my luggage.

The long flight from Honolulu to Chicago was approximately 7 hours and 20 minutes. This time around, I was seated next to a 3rd grader who was travelling alone en route to Minneapolis. From the moment I sat down we were chatting, whether I wanted to or not. He was a cute kid, very talkative and personable. Pretty much anything you wanted to know--and some things perhaps I didn't, he talked about. I wonder if he was lonely, travelling all by himself clutching his stuffed monkey and puppy. It was obvious he was very excited about the inflight movie: Spiderman. He kept asking me when the movie was coming on. When the plane took off, he said "Yeah the movie's going to come on now right!?" When they gave us our dry meager pretzels and complimentary drinks, he said "Do you think they'lll start the movie now?" He asked again after they wheeled our dinners out to us. And finally, and thank goodness, the movie came on, and he had to go to the bathroom.

When the movie came on, I thought I would have some peace, but alas this was not true. "LOOK THAT'S THE GREEN GOBLIN AND SPIDERMAN KILLS HIM!" he shouted in the opening scene with the evil businessman. At one point the lady in front me of turned around, smiled, and asked "do you have any benadryl?" No, there would be no drugging of my small friend this trip. After the movie finished, he drifted off to sleep and I found a head resting on my side. I guess this was my chance to give back, after having my own surrogate parents on the flight over to hawaii.

The rest of the flight went well, although I couldn't really sleep, my clock was one hour fast and when I arrived at Chicago I thought I had missed my flight for a little while, and the flight attendant on the flight to Pittsburg was extremely cranky sounding and had bad english that I couldn't understand extremely well.

Grandpa Garvin was waiting for me at baggage claim, and he drove me back home. He also made me breakfast, and remind me never to ask for my eggs runny again. . . the whites were not even completely cooked and that was pretty scary. But then I realized he eats his eggs this way every day, and it hasn't done him in yet . . .

West Virginia is very dry, but definitely so beautiful to come home to. I missed the smell of drying leaves and mowed lawns and the moonflowers opening at night. Liz has grown up so much, it's almost scary, but actually it's really nice. We can actually relate, and giggle, and chat together. And she baked banana bread. This could be good! We dressed up in hawaiian dresses and waited for mom and dad to get home. And when they did, we turned up the hawaiian music, and greeted them as they came in the house. Liz pretended to strum the ukelele I bought dad, and I gave them the lei's I had bought them, and all was happy.

I've spent the evening walking around the property with mom, and sitting on the porch to watch a gigantic orb weaver spin an even bigger web, and listening to dad play "Smoke on the Water" on his new ukelele. So life in West Virginia is good. I miss Oahu, yes, but it's just so good to be home.