on arriving in israel

Well, my second day back a family lunch was planned for me.  i woke up fine in the morning, and mostly worked on my blog in the morning.  we were planning on heading over around 1:30.  we went to pick up noa’s sister, and then headed out.

ever since new years I’ve been pretty much sick.  my last week at work was miserable, but i had to go in to train some people and take care of loose ends before i left.  i was pretty much better before i left for toronto, but then i was hit by sniffles or something.  i was still sniffling when i got here, and so have been feeling pretty lousy all around, but i guess i got used to it.

anyways, so we were in the car heading to noa’s parents, and i started feeling really nauseous.  i wasn’t sure if it was jut hunger, or what, but my stomach was a mess.   i don’t know if its the water, or if i ate something bad the previous day, or a combination, but im pretty certain i got food poisoning.  it was rough all around.

and here was this lovely lunch just for me, and with my stomach contents emptied, all i could muster down was a little bit of rice.  i spent the rest of the evening sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around me.  i went to bed beset upon with shivers.

this morning i got up and was feeling quite a lot better.  as I’m writing this now, i think I’m finally feeling hungry again.  hurray.

the plan today is to get a juice (yay), look at the beach, and fix my cell phone number.  theres a laundry list of tasks that need to be done now that I’m here, but we haven’t taken stock of what needs to be done when yet.

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I would say getting to the beach was a success.

new bloghost

I switched to a new blog host.  laughing squid is now live.

Traveling

Don’t we just love traveling?

The adventure, the new sights. The excitement of going to a new location. I do love traveling. But sometimes, airports just annoy the hell out of me.

Today I’m flying from Vancouver to Phoenix to spend the holidays with my parents. The day started like any other day. I decided that I would leave early for the airport, since I did not have much else going on. So I took the sky train almost three hours before I was scheduled to leave.

I get to the airport, and try to check in with west jet, who code shares with delta now apparently. The kiosk wouldn’t take my information . And once I got to the person to check me in, she had no idea how to a, print my second leg boarding pass, and b, deal with the fact that I should not have to pay for the bag that I am checking.

Next, being the frequent traveler that I used to be, I was hoping to jump past the line waiting for security. Ohh, it’s a short line, so we don’t have a nexus line today I’m casually informed. Okie dokie, I’m not sure what you don’t consider a line. There goes another 20 min. FINE! My nexus will at least get me thru customs! The passport guy hmmms, and haaas. You’ve been randomly selected for further processing! Yay!

This time I don’t wait. I stand around as I’m asked all sorts of questions. I finally find out, someone with the last name leon and my birthday has been causing some trouble, and somehow I got flagged because I have the same aforementioned birthday, and our names are similar? I casually ask why, if I have gone through a thorough background check with nexus, am I being further questioned at all. Ohh, it shouldn’t of happened! And don’t worry, it won’t happen next time you fly. Possibly.

Great. I wonder who’s going to show up early agin next time…..

So, I pass all the gauntlets. I get inside, grab seem food, and get over to my gate so I can quickly FaceTime with Noa before I head out. While I’m doing so, a west jet employee decides to serenade us with some of her flute playing! Lovely.

Luckily, the flight left on time, and was uneventful. I land in LAX, and learn, I need to change terminals. sigh. I hike across, I learned this on a previous adventure in lax. Don’t take the bus. It takes longer to wait for it than to walk to your terminal. I go and find the delta check in. Print my boarding pass. And go wait in another security line up.

Finally thru, I scavenge for a carne asada. There are none, drats. I do find some healthy salads and some short ribs though, not bad for an evening snack.

There has been a silver lining though. As I finish writing this, I’m sitting on my delta flight, with a gin and tonic in hand, having been upgraded to first class. Uhh, and its a strong one,

It’s crazy what we put up with when we travel. Taken out of our routine, thrust into awkward and uncomfortable situations, crammed into tin cans. But I suppose we don’t have an alternative. Ultimately I suppose it’s our joi de vivre that makes us able to cope. I know once I land in Phoenix, it’s onto my ritual of Mexican food, drinking hoppy beers, and spending time with my family.

52 min till touch down the pilot informs me. May the holidays begin.