MAR 24

2024

Sunday: this morning, we got up at 6 AM to get dressed and down to the dining room by 630 with all our stuff. One last breakfast, so I had blueberry pancakes with syrup and whipped cream, a fruit plate (gonna miss such ready supply of pineapple prepared for me), and a hash brown. Since we already had our carryons, we went back up to 5 as this was the gathering spot for departure group 10, and we were summarily shepherded off the ship. The walk down the ramp into the customs and luggage area was fine, but the luggage sorting process was pretty chaotic. I did not envy the workers whose job was to remind people not to go through customs until they had picked up all their luggage, and that they do not need their passport out thanks to facial recognition, and to instead go the other way if they're using birth certificates. Very repetitive announcements through their headset microphones. We had to wait maybe fifteen minutes for group 10 luggage to be laid out on its shelves, but we were eventually able to get out to the bus parking area. We were able to board immediately, but we made the mistake of leaving our jackets in one of the bags we'll be carrying on the plane which is currently stored in the bus side compartment; it's cold in here. Our plane doesn't take off until like 4, so we've got a wait on our hands.

2028 - Jose Miguel's Uber: we got to the airport, but it was too early to check in. We'd have to wait until 1:04 to do so. We found a seat and a half just in front of security where we could wait, and I kind of dozed with my head on the luggage. After an hour or two, Julie sent me to find the food court, and we elected to have Panda Express, where I had broccoli beef and black pepper chicken and not enough fried rice. Getting a table had been a frustrating process, but we eventually relinquished it to try to check in again. We were still too early, so we plugged into an outlet next to the check-in machine to recharge our phones for the next 30 minutes. It wasn't a long wait, though admittedly the line for security was enormous. Since they had a dog checking scents, we didn't have to remove shoes or jackets, and it was the easiest security pass we've had in a while. The wait near the gate was another few hours since our flight had been related to 445, but we eventually boarded and dealt with a number of seating issues until we could take off, at which point I fell asleep. I did manage to reread a little bit of Ryan's annotations for A Rope of Chalk before we landed again, then grabbed our luggage and took this uber home. (Now that we're home, we've been locating all the cats from their various hiding places since they mostly don't like coming out for sitters. Julie made eggs, and now I'm posting this update! Back to work in the morning!

2023

Friday: Julie made that spicy ziti dinner and we played a bit of Civ VI, but she got tired faster than she expected, so we didn't keep the game going. After she crashed, my laptop started making a troubling rattle, which I thought might just be a bit of dirt on the fan. While I've tried to clean it out with canned air, the sound recurs with some frequency, so I just went to bed.