Houston

I love going to Houston. I've gone every fall for the past four years. This year I didn't really want to go since it was a whirlwind overnight trip. And I was going to be there on election night. But it ended up being a decent trip.

The first sign of good things to come was the flight out. We flew Southwest, now my most favorite airline. I was number A42 in their goofy line system. I boarded, sat in the aisle while my co-worker took the window. I sat down, buckled up and looked at the front of the plane. The door was closed and we were preparing for take off. There were 50 people on the plane, including crew and pilot. Amazing. The flight attendants roamed the cabin with huge boxes of snack and urged us to take as many as we wanted. We got full cans of drinks, and even a second beverage a couple of hours later. They kept asking if we needed anything. I felt as if we were in first class.

We landed, grabbed our gear and headed into the city to our hotel. It was a beautiful, small, old hotel. There was free internet (hence yesterday's post) and actual keys. Seriously, not a key card, real jangling keys. The rooms were small, but comfortable. My only complaint is the TV remote didn't work. And it wasn't me screwing things up. My co-worker couldn't get his to work either and he's mechanically inclined.

The next morning we started out in the 83 degree weather and walked the three blocks to work. We passed the hurricane damaged buildings on the way. It was hard to contain our excitement about the election, but we couldn't really celebrate because people were a bit somber. I got through five presentations and only started to lose my voice in the last session. I have 4 more to do this week and I think 6 more next week. Ugh! I need lots of tea with honey.

Coming home was another better than first class experience. I took an entire row. I almost always choose the seat over the wing. For some reason, flying where the noise is the loudest is strangely comforting. I flew first class once and it was so quiet, I was scared we lost an engine. Overall, it was a good flight. Between the two flights I finished both library books I brought. At one point, the weather got bad and we started bouncing around. I looked out the window and saw the hideous yellow bridge in slower, lower DE. I believe the official name is the Senator Roth Bridge (this guy was a genius and gave us the wonderful Roth IRAs). Even in the miserable weather, I was able to track where we were.

The weather was pretty miserable for landing. It was the kind of descent that had me calculating my chances of survival if we just dropped out of the sky. And then the pilot did the wing thing that always gets me sick. You know, when he rocks the plane from side to side to drop faster so he can stick the landing? By the time we were on the ground, I was sick. Then we spent about 15 minutes taxiing to an elusive gate.

I was thrilled to on the ground, and even happier to be home. I went into each child's room and kissed them and snuggled them. Neither woke up, but it was nice to see them again! I love going away, but coming home is always the best part of any trip.