i’m here in charlotte safe and sound after quite the airline ordeal. becca was nice enough to drive me to the airport at the crack of dawn (she picked me up at 5:30 a.m.), but i ended up sitting for a while. my flight from houston to atlanta left half an hour late because the crew got in to houston late last night and had to get their required downtime before flying again. no biggie, as i had a three hour layover in atlanta scheduled.
then, after boarding the plane to charlotte in atlanta, they found that the wingtip light was burned out or broken or something, so we sat in the plane on the ground for an hour and a half. i was reading for a while, and then fell asleep. when i woke up and realized we were still on the ground in atlanta, i turned on my phone and saw that it was 2:00! well, at 2:00 i was originally supposed to be in charlotte, so i called my dad and caught him and katie who were almost at the airport. they turned around and went back home, and dad came back later to get me once my plane actually left atlanta.
anyway. i really wasn’t bothered because i wasn’t in any hurry. i had a lovely lunch at houlihan’s in the atlanta airport with carter, who met me there. i like that i have friends i can not see for a long time, and yet when we get together i forget that we’ve ever been apart. while talking to carter over lunch, i was thoroughly convinced that i still see him every day, even though it’s been four months. it was a surprise to remember that i had to go catch my connecting flight, and that being able to have lunch with him was something unusual.
i am really lucky that way.
it is great to see my family. i’ve seen everyone except david, who’s working late. this afternoon i went on a walk and then out to dinner with my mom, and when katie got home from work the three of us went to willie simpson’s and bought the christmas tree. it’s not as good a tree as in years past…it’s sort of sparse at the bottom. but it was the best they had left. most of their trees were too short, so our selection was quite limited.
katie heard an ad on the radio yesterday about the reindeer romp 5k here. it was postponed two weeks ago in the big ice storm, so it’s being held tomorrow. fun! i actually went online a while back searching for a race to run while i’m home but had no success, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear about this one. it starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow so katie and i are gonna go register and run. that will make 14 races in 2002 for me, and that makes me smile. if you’d told me in january that i would run 14 races this year, i never would have believed it.
