Yes, in case you are wondering, I am still here. "Here," at the moment, is New York. My hometown. To be more specific, currently in my childhood room.

I must admit it is the strangest thing to be in my old room. It, of course, is completely different from when I lived here. No posters on the wall, or collages containing pictures of my friends and our various antics. The closet is not full of my - I thought at the time - "cool" outfits. It houses a full-size bed and my mother's computer. (My mother and "computer" in the same sentence is rather strange, too.) But, the rest of the house remains eerily the same. Some furniture may change over the years, but not much else.

I don't exactly know what I'm trying to say. Just that it's different, but it's not.

This is a real quick trip. And for no special reason, other than I finally realized it's been almost a YEAR since I've been back here. No lie -- October, 2006, for a quick weekend trip.

My flight was scheduled to depart at 6:15pm last night. I arrived at the gate around 5 and learned the flight was delayed until 6:40pm because our plane was delayed coming in. Then we got delayed until 7:05pm. Our plane arrived but was grounded on the tarmac because, by now, a horrendous storm rolled in. They eventually closed the airport due to lightening and real heavy rain. Now no flights were coming in or going out.

Ironically, my husband was due in from Aruba at 7:40pm. (Are you catching all this?) Yes, he was returning from a business in - you heard me - Aruba. But the point is... I didn't know whether his arriving flight would be diverted to another airport or they would circle our airport.

Finally, around 9:00, the storm subsided enough and we boarded the plane. Only to sit for an hour until it was our turn to take off. You see, all the departing planes were backed up.

We landed in NY at 11:15pm, but didn't taxi and deplane until 11:30pm. I called my mother who was shocked to learn I was at the airport. When she called the airline to check on my flight (after three updates I finally told her to just check with the airport and they'll tell her when I'm scheduled to land based on the time we finally departed). (Are you still with me?) The airline told her I wasn't due in until 12:30am, so I waited an hour for my brother to show up.

We were up early this morning and my brother and I were out all day. I'll post about doing what later (hope my pics come out --- I used up the last of the film on the disposable camera from my trip to Charleston --- remember those pictures I owe you?).

I'm exhausted. Not so much from my long day out in the heat and humidity, but from typing all of this :o)

By the way, I fly out tomorrow at 7pm. I sure hope it's uneventful. I have to get up and be at work Monday a.m.!!

P.S. I learned when I was finally able to reach my husband at 11:30pm that he was only delayed. They circled until they could land in Atlanta. So, he didn't have as nearly a harrowing night as I. Hey, I'm not complaining. I haven't had a really bad flight experience in a long time.