Changing homes, shopping for fridges

I have now been back home for 18 days, and I must say, I've been quite happy. I guess I had better rewind to some of the highlights, fill you in on what's been happening, although I imagine my audience may have changed at this point from the people back home to all the people I've left behind. So I guess there still might be some purpose for me to continue keeping up my blog.

My flights from Lugano to Zurich, Zurich to New York, New York to Seattle were all pretty all right. Although maybe my flight from New York to Seattle was rather miserable... My two seatmates included a hypochondriac and a very old Russian woman. The former was rather young and within the first couple minutes of her landing, I knew that she had married a military man who was now stationed in Frankfurt, she'd never been away from her mom/home/seven pets for more than seven weeks, and she had recently had a breast reduction by some genius German surgeons? She also couldn't speak a lick of German, but she nevertheless translated for the old woman who could speak only Russian. It was a long seven hours--especially since we spent two hours on the tarmac for no apparent reason; the pilots couldn't even quite figure out the delay, they just knew we weren't ready to go.

Now I arrived back home at the same time that over a million Washington residents were without power, and I had assumed that I too would be without power (I mean, we live in the Boonies). Even the Customs officials in New York were asking me about the power back home. Let's put that aside for the moment, however. Did I mention that Alyssa (my Barcelona buddy) was on the plane from NY to SeaTac with me? We arrived back at SeaTac at some unreasonable hour and shot down the escalators to the trains that take you to baggage claim. Just our luck--the power to the trains was out, and it had been for a solid 20-30 minutes prior to our arrival. So we were stuck for quite some time before we heard news that they would be busing us, then as soon as the buses were ready the power came back on, and we were able to catch the first train back to baggage claim. And there I was met by my own sweet, dear family--Mom, Mo, Soraya--and David. Well, actually, David was the first person I saw as he had been stationed with my suitcases (the baggage had come through although the passengers had not), and my Mom and Soraya had positioned themselves one level above with a very large Welcome Home Ari banner. It was quite adorable. And Mo had gone to get our escape vehicle. Then, this is the best part, miracle of miracles, the power turned back on at our dear house just twenty minutes or so before we arrived back there! What a delightful way to come home! To think, if my plane had gotten in on time, I would've been coming home to a dark, chilly house. I forgive you Delta.

And things have been a whirl since then. I went up to Seattle for some Christmas shopping and to see Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the 5th Avenue with my Mom and Soraya for two days and one night. Then I came back, saw some friends that night, saw my dad and Angi the next day after they arrived back from their cruise, saw Mehran and his roomie Eli. Had multiple Christmases with multiple branches of the family. Then went to California for six days with my dad, Angi, and Soraya. We got back into SeaTac on New Year's Eve and from there I went to Erin's house to see friends. Mehran is in India now. And then I've been to the Honda dealership twice between yesterday and today to choose and then to pick up my new Element, which happens to be a delightful Kiwi green. And now I'm preparing for a party at my Mom's house tomorrow night, and dozens of other things, including starting work at the dealership on Monday. It's good to be busy again.

Oh! And I have a roommate, so I'm looking forward to meeting her too. It seems a little amazing to me that I'll be starting at UPS in just ten days. What a big change from Switzerland. It all seems a little surreal now. Ah, and hopefully Alyssa will be attending my party tomorrow night--I wouldn't mind a mini-Franklin reunion. :-) Ari (More soon, I promise I'll be better now that I'm getting more settled in.)