Home Sweet Home

The flight from SKB was delayed about 35 minutes… I heard that American Airlines leaving on Saturdays is infamous for being delayed. For some reason it took FOREVER to pack luggage into the plane so we didn’t actually take off until close to 5, I think it may have been even later. It’s about a 2.5 hour flight and once we landed in MIA, it was madness. I don’t think I’ve been in a bigger airport and of course we come in on one end of it and have to make a mad dash to what seemed like the other end of it to get to customs. It sounds like a bunch of people missed their connecting flights because of the delays… mine would have worked out so perfectly where my almost 3 hour lay over was only 30 minutes long, if that. But NOoo… things don’t always work out as planned, especially at airports it seems. I finally get my bags, go through customs, re-check my bags then find my gate which is in another direction that takes forever to find! I check all the monitors and they all say “On time” so I do all the appropriate texting and such and get ready to board just to be told that the plane hasn’t left yet for MIA and won’t be arriving until 11 PM…

AHH!!! I just wanted to go home so badly — my flight was supposed to ARRIVE in Charlotte, NC at 11:35 PM so that was really bad news to me. Got comfortable with some food and a drink, started a movie on my iPod Touch and got ready for some waiting. Word of advice… if you’re laying over in MIA — dress warmly, I thought I was going to freeze to death and everyone took all the blankets! Anyway, the plane got delayed again and I finally made it to Charlotte at 2 AM. Got in the car and drove 3 hours to B’burg by 5 AM-ish.

Oh, and one of my bags didn’t make it. I’m waiting for it now… that whole experience makes me not want to go back/forth over breaks.

BUT, I’m sitting here, flanked by my crazy dogs on the couch, and I will keep coming back because I really needed this. Being on an island is a cool experience but it’s not home for me and I was so excited when I felt the cold brisk morning air, I was even OK with the rain! I’ve already made myself sick eating Sonic and chinese food… I have a complete menu of death-by-fast-food that I’m still waiting to fulfill. Besides the food though, I really needed this because I like how it reminds me of why I’m doing all of this. I don’t want to make a silly metaphor but being over there for school for me is like being on another planet. Especially the first semester — being in the dorms with no pets, I literally felt like I had a little hole that I lived in and sometimes you start to lose purpose and feel like you’re just surrounded by ridiculousness. Coming home being with all my crazy beasts, I remember why I’m doing all this. It’s not a vacation… it’s almost like a forced suffering. Thankfully, I’m not a huge beach person so studying while the ocean view is staring at me while I’m studying for finals isn’t as miserable as to some people, but it definitely doesn’t help things. It’s also hard because I decided to not take the dogs and I really wish I was but I’m sure I’m making the right decision in not. I saw people taking animals back on our flights and taking big dogs in big crates was not an ideal situation, especially for my spoiled ones here.

I had a silly fear that Doobie wouldn’t remember me when he saw me again and was going to bark and go nuts when he saw me come home which would have been completely heartbreaking, but he’s still the same crazy dog as when I left him and he definitely still remembers me. I just felt like the time I was gone was so long but it really was only 4 months…

I do look at the animals a little differently now. Most recently, I caught myself petting Tessa and thinking “oh, this is her greater tubercle.” LOL.

I’m afraid something’s going to have to physically shove me back on that plane to go back on May 2nd… not that I hate it there, I just didn’t realize how much I loved being here.