North Carolina: Returning Home

I headed back to California from North Carolina on St. Patrick's Day. My flight, SWA #482 left just after noon. I would have a three hour layover in Phoenix before continuing on to Oakland on flight #282 arriving 7:20 PM. Add the three hour time difference and it would be a long ten+ hour day. There were other flight alternatives through Chicago and Denver with about an hour between connections, but I had scheduled my flights when the weather through the US was horrible with snow storms and blizzards. I told Frank I would rather spend three hours in the Phoenix airport than three days in a Chicago or Denver airport. Besides, traveling alone, especially if you go minimal with your carry-ons, can be relatively low stress with lots of time to read, do puzzles, people watch, get lost in your thoughts, or sleep.

The RDU airport had some new terminals that were really quite refreshing and comfortable. I was there early enough that I walked the length of the terminal and back. The walls were decorated with images of greatly enlarged "postcards" that I thought were clever and amusing. Here are a couple examples. My nephew lives on Applecross Drive so the address on the second card bemused me as quasi-co-incidental.

I wore a green shirt the day of my travels, of course. I was actually a bit surprised by how few people did wear green. Per my HGTV Magazine subscription's monthly feature how bad is it... , it is kinda bad! not to wear green on March 17th. I must have been invisible to the leprechauns because I did not get pinched even once the entire day. I guess I can smugly conclude that I am also "with it" per the indisputable reference book How to Be Socially Savvy in All Situations.

While waiting in the Raleigh and Phoenix terminals for my flights and while in the air flying westward, I continued reading my book Life Animated, by Ron Suskind. It is a fascinating true story about how a communication bridge was formed between an autistic boy and his family using the dialogue of Disney movies. On my flight east I had been reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I guess I have very eclectic taste in books. I will give my impression of each in a separate book review post. Both were good, which is fortunate since I was a captive audience.

The landing was early and smooth at the Oakland airport. My suitcase came out quickly and intact, and Frank was curbside right on time to pick me up. As soon as we were home I emptied my suitcase and threw in a quick load of laundry. Other than my dad's mementos from the previous post, I had only a few purchased items to bring back with me - mostly fabric of course -  a couple half-yard cuts of flannel for burp cloths, a bit of solid pink with some squiggles, some orange and white striped fat quarters, and a pink dahlia print that I plan to sew up into an apron and send back to my sister. This small 9" square owl pillow was on clearance and it called to me so I caved. Isn't he cute?

It looks like I am not completely over owls from my college days and onward. At least my reputation for a penchant for them still lingers. Maxine had bought me these ceramic beads a while back to take back with me and make into a necklace.

She'd also bought me this pan to bake owl cakelets.

It was not until I unpacked the pan and slid the label off that I noticed it was from Oakland CA. Ironically it had traveled full circle just like me – go figure!