Well, it took a little longer than expected (curses upon Air Canada!) but Eva and I arrived back to Victoria in time for sushi lunch the other day.
Okay, I know that nothing is more boring than recounting airport travails — except perhaps undergoing an airport travail in the first place. But I have to pause a moment to capture the 100-odd furious passengers (our flight was cancelled 20 minutes before take-off), the one exhausted Air Canada employee sent to rebook said 100-odd furious passengers, and the Newark Airport baggage guy who kept repeating, “me personally, I would never, ever fly Air Canada.”
Eventually Eva and I found our way to an airport hotel. She was fabulous the entire time–far, far more mature and well-behaved than I was. When forced to wait an hour on a mammoth line she ran circles round the floor; when forced to wait an hour in an unheated luggage-claim hall she wrapped herself in a blanket and giggled from underneath its folds. She then fell asleep en-route to the JFK airport hotel (don’t even ask how much a taxi between Newark and JFK costs) and stayed asleep until I woke her at 4am the next morning. Had I been alone in the Howard Johnson Airport Express I probably would have done something ridiculous like burst into tears–is there anything lonelier than an unexpected stay in a rundown airport hotel?– but instead I got to snuggle up beside the reassuring warmth of a snoring four-year-old.
Tillie, on the other hand, made me pay for my absence by ignoring me for my first three hours home. “No,” she’d say, looking at my outstretched hand, “Da-da’s hand! Da-da’s hand!” She wouldn’t even let me walk next to her on the way to the grocery store. It was horrid. Thank goodness I’m back in her good graces again. The wrath of Tillie is hard to bear.
So….back home and back to clinic, although I’m still squeezing in any publicity I can muster. Today I had three radio spots, including a fabulous interview on the Louie B. Free Show during which Louie left a message on my parents’ answering machine.
I am really glad to be home. At the same time, the trip was fabulous and definitely exciting – not least for getting to see some old friends and new babies (Noa!) along the way. The final reading at Freebird was especially lovely– we packed the place, and it felt right to end in Brooklyn, where it all began.
And now…time to shred some cheddar for mac n’cheese….
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Let me guess… the taxi from Newark to JFK was between $90-$100? Last year I took a cab from Newark Airport all the way back to Midwood and it cost $90… extortionists…