I'm home...

...but it wasn't easy. The trip out was fairly uneventful, despite the warnings of severe turbulence on the way to Chicago (which never materialized, thankfully - I hate minor turbulence!) and despite the woman sitting across the aisle from me between Chicago and San Fran - the one who looked like death warmed over - who clutched the airsick bag the entire trip. I had movies on my iPod and I was fine.

The trip back was a little different.

I decided to take the redeye back last night. I'm not a fan of redeyes, but since it was the only way to experience the entire conference and still get home for trick-or-treat, it served the purpose. I went to an early dinner at a fabulous restaurant near the hotel with some of my friends from work (The Grand Cafe) and then ducked out around 8 to go back to the hotel and grab a cab to the airport. I made it there in good time, hopped on the plane and spent the next few hours snoozing on and off. Not too bad.

I landed in D.C. around 6 AM (ahead of schedule!) and had about a 2.5 hour layover to get my connecting flight home. No problem - I grabbed some tea for my sore throat and read a magazine. But the flight kept getting delayed - first to 9:15, then 9:30, then 10, 10:30. The plane was being repaired. Apparently, it took a hit from a bird and some unit had to be replaced. The unit was swapped out but the mechanics couldn't seem to get the bolts in alignment, which is just a teeny little problem.

At 10:45, they FINALLY decided to put us on another plane. Which they had to pull out of the hangar and "dust off". Which they then discovered had had some maintenance the day before. Which had never been signed off on. So they couldn't let us board. Until they found the head mechanic. Who had to come over and RETEST the whole plane. And then he signed off. So they let us board. Board a plane that had no fuel in it. So they called the fuel truck. Which took a while. They couldn't close the door until refueling was complete. Which made people testy. Especially the guy in the bulkhead row who wasn't allowed to keep his laptop bag on the floor. So he slammed the overhead bin shut. He should have been removed from the plane.

I was starting to panic that I wasn't going to be home for trick or treat after all. We finally took off about four hours later than planned and I made it home with 2.5 hours to spare. But this time there was a guy across the aisle from me who used his airsick bag. For a smooth flight! About halfway through the flight, his wife asked the flight attendant for a plastic bag because "he always gets sick during the landing". And he did! Oh joy.