I am home again, home again. Back to Vermont, back to the snow, and back to my family. After staying up much too late at a cast party the night before (and getting home to the realization that I had not packed at all yet), I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 am. I used to have to get up at 6-ish for school back in the day; it was ungodly then, and it is ungodly now.
I did manage to get everything packed and to the airport on time, but my traveling stress levels did not go down, because I discovered that the huge storm that had hit us in Florida the day before was steadily moving its way north, and flights were already starting to be canceled. When I checked in at the Tampa airport, all the evening flights had already been preemptively canceled. Yikes.
Luckily I managed to get out ok, and landed in New York around noon. Two hours to wait and pray that my flight would leave. All other flights to Vermont after my flight had been canceled or delayed, and as I sat there, I heard the intercom lady announce more and more cancellations. Every ten or fifteen minutes I would hear her again, listing more flights that would not be taking off. Fortunately they all seemed to be headed south, so there was still a chance for me.
We boarded on time and headed out to the runway amidst swirling flurries of snow and icy winds. It looked like we were going to take off, but then the report came in that we needed to be de-iced. Another thirty minutes on the plane felt like an eternity, and the de-icing smell coming in through the vents did not help. Miraculously, we were able to take off before the major part of the storm hit and I somehow made it to Burlington exactly on time. My family picked me up, and there was much rejoicing (yaaaaaay!).
Now I’m home and trying to prepare for a funeral in two days and a move to a new house in nine. If you need me, I’ll be home with Ruby and Edward, packing up the house.