Flight Home

In the morning, it starts to come back to me. Two glasses of champagne before dinner. White wine and red wine with dinner, probably another two glasses each. At least three vodka shots. Navy Boy buying me a glass of wine. Probably a few other people did too. Wine at the club afterwards. Oh my gosh, what a fun night, but why did it never occur to me to drink water at any point in the evening?

All things considered, it could have been much worse, so I guzzled water, got myself up and showered (I hadn't even taken out my hair pins the night before), and tried to get some food in to settle my stomach. Thank goodness I had come home alone, there is no way I could have dealt with anyone else this morning. Did some work, packed my bags, and was even semi-coherent on my conference call with my boss. She didn't even know I'd been out the night before, and didn't comment on it, so perhaps I got away with it all!

I'd been intending to leave for the airport early so that I might have more of a chance to hang out in the airport lounge, get fed and just enjoy some downtime before my flight. As it was however, I was lucky to leave my flat at 4 PM, just before the 4:15 PM cut-off when I had to go anyway.

I got to the airport, checked in smoothly and breezed through security. I took a bit of time to do some shopping (must have something under the tree for Mom and Dad), and then settled myself in the Admiral's Lounge at Heathrow Airport. I'm so going to miss when I no longer have Platinum Status, as hanging out in the lounge is so much fun!

I was absolutely starving at this point, so grabbed a dish of some potato gnocchi (really quite good!) and some ginger ale (my poor stomach!) and just ate and did some work until I started to feel normal again. Too soon it was time to board my flight, so I headed out, and didn't have long to wait before they were filling the plane.

I boarded, snapped a photo of the plane to send to the folks at home, and then settled in for the flight. I didn't get a seatmate, which I was actually rather thankful for.

I was so exhausted, but yet didn't manage to sleep during the flight. So instead I watched "Moneyball", "What's Your Number" (terrible movie but good soundtrack), and a few episodes of random television.

Finally the plane landed, I got off pretty quickly, breezed through customs, and then right before I exited to arrivals, put a sign I'd made around my neck as a joke to my parents, reading "To: Mom and Dad From: Santa", complete with a bow. As they'd said that the only present they needed this year for Christmas was me, so here I was, their present! God, I am such a super-dork.

Yet I know my parents well, as they absolutely loved it, and insisted on having a random person at the airport take our picture with their "present". At least they raised me, so they've come to expect slightly nerdy stuff from me like that by now.

We drove home, as I struggled to stay awake telling stories on the journey, until finally we were back at the house I grew up in, I was back in my childhood bedroom, and quickly I was fast asleep in my own bed.