Home Sweet Home

I'm glad to be home. I really do not like traveling. I get cranky because I can't sleep well, then I get overtired, and then everything annoys the heck out of me. Okay, things always annoy the heck out of me, but I get even more irritable than usual.

The conference itself was fine. I probably should have registered for the other track, but I got a bit of new information. I just really wish I could have sat in a few of the other classes.

The hotel room sucked. It got a 4 star rating on Expedia. Maybe because it got a 4 star rating was why I got my hopes up. It was SMALL! As in our master bedroom (minus the closet and bathroom) is about 30 square feet bigger than the whole hotel room. It looked out to the Greyhound station, so you heard the rumble of the bus engines and the beep beep beep of the buses backing up all night. I'm not much of a TV watcher, so it took me til 2 days into the visit to realize that the TV didn't work. It was plugged in, but it wouldn't turn on if you pushed the power button on the TV or the remote. Then there was the noise issue. Ugh! Rambunctious 'intimate relations' on Sunday night from one side of the wall. Then last night the other side of the wall had a party. I finally got to sleep around midnight, but at 1am I was wakened by 'intimate relations' after the party. Not as rambunctious as Sunday night, but still... I have come to the conclusion that a lot of 'intimate relations' is to be had in hotel rooms.

Then there was the flights. Going down to Orange County was an awful flight. There were so many babies and little kids going to Disneyland. It was loud. Coming back there were less kids, but I was stuck next to a woman with her two kids. She was one of those that makes life so very difficult for the flight attendants. She made last minute reservations, so her and her two kids got middle seats not next to each other (9E, 11E, 13E). She boarded late, and they had 6 carryons among them so storing was a problem. The flight attendants had to find her space. Then she wanted the flight attendants to move people around so that she could sit with her youngest (who looked to be about 5 years old), but remember they had boarded late and everyone was already situated. The older one looked to be about 9-10 years old. She held up the plane from backing out between her bag situation and the seating arrangements. This woman had incredible ADD. She was constantly going into her bag, bringing out her laptop (7 times during the flight), putting back her laptop, bringing out her phone, digging out books, bring the tray down/then up on repeat. I was so relieved when she took her son to the bathroom, but they were the quickest bathroom users ever & they were back in a flash. The 5 year old was so LOUD. I felt bad once I learned that they were flying from San Diego to Seattle to Vancouver to Heathrow to Nice. She trying to keep two kids in line for that long of a trip has got to suck. Still, it was impossible to even take a short nap with the ruckus next door to me.

Anyway, I'm so very happy to be home. I'm very spoiled with my spacious house. I felt so very claustrophobic between the tiny hotel room, the absence of space on the airplane, and sitting in small rooms during the conference. I loved my walks to and from the conference because there was actual space around me.

Tomorrow the agenda is to catch up on sleep and clean before the relatives get here. On the bright side, June is more than halfway over!!!!