After waking up at 3:55 AM to send an e-mail at 9 AM UK time (don't ask, but sometimes I really hate time zones), I got up at the more normal hour of 7 AM to start work. Of course, when I woke up that early, still expecting to get a jump on my colleagues in Chicago, I discovered that my boss' boss had already e-mailed me. At 6 AM. Yeesh!!
I spent the morning with my cousin's three-legged rescue dog, Davey. Davey is a wonderfully sweet golden retriever, although he does have the darndest sense of timing. After spending the entire morning sleeping peacefully on the sofa in the living room, as soon as I was presenting on web-cam conference calls, he decided that it was the perfect time to stick his head under my arm and demand to be petted!
Of course, as though that wasn't a good enough distraction during my conference call, I hadn't realised that my cousin's flatmate was still at home and getting a late start, and I think it must have been surprising to many people on my web conference to see a man walk to the bathroom wrapped in a towel in the background on my web cam. Ooops! Should have warned him that I was doing a web cam call!!
Finally I survived the end of the work day, and it was time to head home. I made my way to the local subway station, and then struggled with my umbrella (of course it was raining), handbag, suitcase, and everything else while I dug out my Charlie Card to add more money to it. (Yes, I still keep a plastic Charlie Card even though I don't live in Boston anymore!)
And as I was standing in front of the machine digging around looking for correct change in US currency, this random woman exiting the subway came up to me and just handed me a ticket. I looked at her totally perplexed, as she said, "Why don't you just take mine?" As I looked at it, I could see that it was a 7-day ticket that was apparently going to expire at the end of the day. I looked at her quite perplexed and asked, "Are you sure?"
She nodded, and so I said the only think I could think of in my absolutely flabbergasted state, which was, "Thank you!" I mean, how awesomely amazingly wonderfully nice was that? Just a total random act of kindness that completely made my day.
The flight was uneventful, so I didn't watch the movie, just read books, wrote some Christmas cards, and actually slept quite a bit. The touchdown was surprisingly smooth, I flew through immigration by walking through the IRIS scanner. Admittedly, the woman immediately ahead of me in line had obviously never used the IRIS scanner before, as she kept looking into the wrong camera, and we probably would have been there for hours, except that finally one of the immigration officers walked up to the scanner and knocked on the glass to catch her attention and show her that she was doing it wrong. Thank goodness, or that woman would have been stuck in there for hours!
I bought a bottle of Hendrick's in the "Last Chance Duty-Free", only to discover a few days later that it was actually a pound cheaper to buy it at Waitrose. Last time I ever believe the signs in Duty Free saying that things are cheaper!
Still, with no checked luggage, I raced through the airport, and was on the Tube on my way home in no time. I checked my voicemail on the Tube, and laughed at a message from my parents calling me on Wednesday night, obviously entirely clueless when they left the message that I was already on my way to the US to surprise them!
I nearly missed my stop at Hammersmith due to not paying attention, but luckily managed to grab my bags and leap off the train just in time. I'd stopped there so I could stop by the Tesco in the station to pick up some groceries (amazing to think that I would ever need to eat again after this past week, but hunger does strike), and still arrived home in time to catch up with my flatmate before she left for work.
I actually survived most of the workday, with only a three-hour nap in the middle of the day. I thought about going out to my running club that evening, but I'd already told people that I might not make it, so I decided to enjoy the night off and just went to bed early. Because boy, was I tired!!
Nearly missed Hammersmith stop. Went grocery shopping. Came home in time to see Emily.
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