Half Way...

My friend Julie said to me just yesterday, "Jen I love you and I hate you all at once!"  You might hate me too, when I tell you we are off on another vacation.  We hope it will be fabulous...we are half way to Aruba right now with our friends the Van Wagenens, and thus far we are feeling more like homeless refugees than friends setting off on a grand vacation.  We left Fresno at 7:30 last night and flew to Las Vegas.  Our 3 hour (we always round up) layover there, had us traipsing all over the airport in search of somewhere to eat.  The city that never sleeps shuts down all the restaurants at their airport at just 8:30 pm.  We wandered from terminal A to B to C and back again. With our rounding up, it could have been a 2 mile trek.  I'm totally crossing my fingers that all that walking while lugging our carry ons, took care of the calories I consumed in the tastiest brownie, at the little cafe we ended up at.
Our trek was followed by a 4 hour flight into Charlotte North Carolina.  The flight left Vegas at 11pm.  All the lights on the plane were out.  I didn't even see any one's reading light on overhead.  The whole plane was sleeping.  Well that is except for the large man from North Carolina sitting directly behind me.  His normal talking voice makes my yelling voice sound like a little church mouse.  He and the woman next to him talked, no bellowed, to each other the entire four hours.  Thirty minutes into the flight, after I had learned where his is from, the fact that he is on his second marriage and why, and all about the bicycle rides he takes all over Iraq, I hear him say,"Oh by the way my name is Max" HELLO!!!!!! They were total strangers and were telling all their intimate details to each other, and inadvertently, the rest of the plane!!! Max and the woman who I learned was called Cheryl, said with the CH not an SH, discussed hunting to great extent and philosophised on why Max was unable to hunt since he was just 9 years old, how hard it was to get used to eating so much rice while living in the Philippines, and just what was the right number of pets to have.  At this point Jeff and Shelley who were both putting in a valiant attempt at sleep, lift their eye masks and give each other looks of astonishment.  Why could these two not have had just a tad bit of manners and  SHUT UP?!  Jeff very loudly says to Shelley in a rough around the edges southern drawl,"Hey Shelley wanna hear a real boring story, nope? Well too bad cause I'm gonna tell you anyways!"  The two seated behind me still didn't get a clue... and I didn't sleep a wink. When the flight was over I stood and turned around to face Max and Cheryl. None of us had ever laid eyes on each other, but I put on a cheery smile and said,"Well Max and Cheryl it sure was nice sharing the flight with you enjoy the rest of your ten day vacation back in the states."  Their eyes were as big as saucers and the looks on their faces were completely shocked.  Did they really not know that the whole back half of the plane knew EVERYTHING about them?
Lucky for us, our flight got in early, and added 20 minutes on to our 5 hour layover in Charlotte.  It was now almost 3 am but 6 am Charlotte time, and we were deliriously tired.  We have now been hunkered down on the floor behind a couple of large potted plants for a few hours. We are curled up in fetal position, and sprawled along the wall with all of our electronics surrounding us.  We have been going between attempts at sleep, reading books, eating, and trying again to sleep.  We are wearing yesterday's clothes wrinkled from yesterday's flight.  We are matted and worn, and desperately in need of a shower.  Our limbs are numb from our creative positions we've tried to cozy up in.  Shelley just asked me,"Are we having fun yet?"

Julie you can hate me for my fun vacation tomorrow, but today just love me, cause today just ain't lookin' too pretty.