Home again

"Attention, this is a public safety announcement: There are heart defibrillators at regular intervals in the airport in case of emergency. Please make note of the green and red signs"

That is just one of the announcements I heard about 50 times while in Logan Airport in Boston. I sure had an interesting time getting home! I remember Anna saying just before I left that she hoped my journey wouldn't turn into a Trains, Planes and Automobiles journey, how ironic! :)

About 15 minutes after I'd cleared security in the Newcastle Airport my mobile phone started to ring and I answered to hear "Jennifer Mosher? This is Air France, have you already checked in?....Oh well have you already been through security?...Hmmmm well I'm afraid to tell you that your plane from Paris to Boston has been delayed so you're going to miss your connection to Ottawa. We'll do our best to get you the next flight home, just check in with the transfer desk when you get to Paris." I knew right then this was going to be an interesting journey. In fact I began to get a bit scared because I was afraid that something like this was going to happen on my way home. I'm a pretty seasoned traveler but I've never done such a round-a-bout journey on my own before. Usually I've had direct flights when on my own and my flights this time were Newcastle - Paris - Boston - Ottawa. So as soon as I received this call my heart kind of took a dive and my palms started sweating. It was actually very trying. When I got to Paris and was standing in the line at the transfer desk, surrounded by very grumpy impatient people, I started to feel a bit of panic rising up in me but I suddenly remembered a verse of scripture, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight" Proverbs 3:5,6 and I knew that I could trust God to make this very crooked journey end up straight and to get home safe. I had to remind myself of that promise more than once though!

When I finally arrived in Boston I had to wait in another endless line of tired, grumpy people to get through customs and then another at the Air France transfer desk at that airport. I thought it was so funny they were playing these cheerful, upbeat Christmas songs when really I'm sure everyone was thinking "JUST SHUT-UP ALREADY!!"

I think something that really helped calm me down was the situation another girl I met was during the flight. She was trying to get to Florida for Christmas to see her parents and had missed her connecting flight because of the same delay. In Paris I ended up chatting with her while we were waiting at our gate. She was 19 and had been living in Scotland studying. In a way having her upset beside me when we got to Boston helped me to keep calm and very positive. Comforting her and telling her that it would all work out very much helped me to keep things in perspective for myself. She was very frustrated and very vocal about it so it would have been easy to join in and gripe myself but that would have totally defeated the point of relying on the promise God had reminded me of in Paris.

Anyway to finish this story of endless traveling I ended up staying overnight at the Hilton in the Boston Airport. It was soooooooooooooo nice! Honestly I don't think I've ever stayed in a nicer hotel room. I was a bit disappointed that I only had one night there and I only had 5 hours to sleep in the bed at that - I had to be up to catch another flight fairly early. Honestly the bed was the biggest bed I've ever slept in. I tried to stretch out as far as I could and see if I could reach the ends but I couldn't. It was so comfortable as well. But even though it was really nice, I'm still a lot happier to be home in my own bed....well Phil's bed anyway, mine doesn't exist anymore.

The next morning (yesterday) I got up and took a shuttle to my terminal, checked in and then went through security to find I'd been selected for a random security check. I had to take my shoes off and stand to one side. Then the security guard took me to one side so he could check through my bags. I think he thought I was a bit nervous because he was explaining everything that he was doing but telling me jokes as well. He was really sweet and so I was just chatting back to him. Then he said I could go and as I was putting on my sweater and coat another of the guards came over and gave me a side hug and said " I gotta tell you that you are just adorable!" I kinda laughed and said thanks. It took me by surprise. When I told my brother and Dad and they both asked "How old was he???" He was about 40 or so, so I don't think it was that weird, he wasn't creepy or anything like that so I wasn't too worried.

The rest of the trip went fine, I had an added stop in Newark, New Jersey but I arrived in Ottawa on time according to my flights. I was the first one off the plane, the first one through customs and my bag was the first one off the ramp! Woo Hoo!!! I was in airport within 5 minutes of getting off the plane. How wicked is that?

Oh I almost forgot the other added bonus. Although my family weren't there right away to greet me at the airport I did bump into none other than Don Cherry and Ron McClean!! Who'd have guessed? What a very patriotic welcome back to the Nations Captial. (By the way they the official hockey sportscast moguls for Canada, very well known over here, the equivalent of a famous English football/sports broadcaster.)

All in all it was probably one of the most memorable journeys I've ever had to make but at least I now know that I can do it again if I have to! I'm really glad to be home for Christmas with my family and it'll be nice to have Steve and Heather join us in a few days as well. The squished crickets from the summer have been removed from the basement so they won't be scarred by them.

Merry Christmas to everyone!