The Eagle Has Landed

Although it has taken me a while to get Internet access so that I can post this, uh, post, I am figuring that no one who will be reading this blog site will know about it by the time I am posting. So for those of you who have noticed that I am posting for previous events, you'll just have to get over it. I am trying to catch up while I have a little free time, which means there are going to be a few posts today, but I want to post updates on the past few days separately so (hopefully) those of you reading can follow my thought process. (Good luck!!!)

Checking into the airport was no big deal. I still have no clue why I had to get there 2 hours early, since I was flying through San Francisco. But no matter - we just got to hang out in the airport for a bit and wait. But just my luck, Hughlene was upgraded to first class for the flight from Charlotte to San Francisco. I, of course, was number one on the upgrade list. Which is where I remained through the duration of the flight to SFO. So the rest of my flight was relatively uneventful, but I did learn some new things along the way. Just thought I'd share some:
1. People watching at the airport is freaking awesome. You really cannot do much better. I saw everything from bratty little kids to men wearing shorts, sandals (with socks, of course), and blazers. I still haven't figured that one out.
2. Men, this one is for you: No matter how hip, trendy, metrosexual, whatever you might think you are, having the ringer on your cell phone set to the theme from "Sex In The City" still does not make you cool. Trust me.
3. So I got carded on the flight. Sort of. I ordered some Jack to go with my pre-nap drink, and the flight attendant said, "How old are you?" Come on! So I replied, "30." His response? "Really?" Then he handed me my drink. I guess people don't lie about being 30? If only I had known that little trick in college!
4. iPods rock! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Sally who gave me an iPod as an early birthday present. (Yes, I realize I am way behind the trend here.) It helped to drown out the noise from the lady next to me and her kid. Both only had one level of conversational voice inflection - LOUD. So the iPod kept being bumped up to drown them out while I was trying to sleep.
5. Tylenol PM - does not work. Maybe it did, but I couldn't tell. But since I woke up about 5 hours after I took it and was wide awake, I am going to bet on "no" here.
6. People cheering on a plane - WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT? I mean, I am glad we landed safely and all, but if you had that much doubt as to whether the plane was going to land properly or not, perhaps you should re-think flying! Besides, isn't taking off and landing what the pilot gets paid to do? I appreciate his dedication to his task and all, but I am not sure we need to cheer and applaud when he does his job properly. Or maybe I'm just missing out here. Charlotte work folks, here's the deal: I want us to be applauded for doing our standard, mundane jobs when I get back. We are going to start randomly cheering every time someone signs off on a work paper. And yes, I fully expect everyone to want to beat me down within a week's time. But I'm just trying to prove a point here...
7. Visas are a hoax. I had my paperwork all printed out from the visa that took me 2-3 months to get approved. I go up to customs and say, "Do you need to see this paperwork?" "No, I see it here in the computer." So I notice that the paperwork I have says that I have to have the visa documented within 30 days or something like that, so I ask the customs lady, "Do I need to do anything else with this?" "With what?" "Um, the visa paperwork." "Well, you probably could just hang onto it. It might be useful to have." All that work for a lousy 2 minutes of time. Brilliant.

The plane landed, we picked up our luggage and made it through security just fine. We walked out, and there was a man in a suit with my name on a board - picked up with style! So we climbed into a nice car, and were driven to the apartment where I will be living for the next 3 months. The only thing that rubbed me wrong was that I had no contact with the Australian folks, so I had no clue about anything - no contact, nothing. I did get a nice little tote bag from them with some snack food in it, but that's it. No notes on how to get to the office, nothing about where I was or how to get around, and nothing about what time I needed to report to the office on Monday. At least I can't be blamed if I am late!

I think I am out of items of note for now, so I will sign off this post by letting you know there is more to come. I'll describe the apartment in my next post!