Movies, Violence, and Clean Socks

Writing this morning from Greg's home. Kevin is at Mike's playing a war game. Zelda is frolicking with her new friend(s) at the Pines. I am waiting around hoping to see our suitcases on the front porch. Could be any moment now. That's been the thought for the last 36 hours....

It has not been the boring experience one hopes for in a trans-continental flight. Our flight was modestly delayed in Brisbane as the crew tried to repair the "on-flight entertainment system". Kevin was pleased to wait for THAT to be fixed. This was going to be his first flight on Qantas with their new "videos-on-demand". The system was stocked with all the academy award nominees as well as several good older films he hasn't seen and Australian films. (I was particularly keen on him watching "Kenny" and "Last Train to Freo"- both of which were well considered- in fact, many, many Australians wax lyrically on the outrageous humo(u)r of Kenny. I watched both films on the plane when I went home for the holidays. I watched both films for about 25 minutes- then I just had to stop. Was the problem me? I wanted to Kevin to let me know. So, as we outlined our movie experience, our flight crew interrupted to let us know that some of the seats would NOT be having the entire catalog. Just a few. They were in contact with Sydney and were going to try something else to restore the system. Restore it, they did! Soon, we all had 3 channels and could watch endlessly "Open Season", "A Good Year", or "Little Miss Sunshine". I continue to enjoy "Little Miss Sunshine"- though I wasn't overwhelmed by it this time. The soundtrack is magical- at once whimsical and melancholic. "Amelie"- also affects me like this...though it is also a visual feast. What colour! So, we watched "LMS"- in full or part at least 3 times. Kevin tried the cartoon. I quit on the Russel Crowe film...also, beautiful, but really, really stupid and poorly acted. Thank god for Rick James.

The customs and immigration officer in LA asked us to step behind his desk and wait. We waited. Kevin often has problems in airports as there is SOME Kevin O'Brien who is on a "no fly" list in the US. We're getting (sort of) used to this. Finally an agent came by- "Do you know a S.H.? She has a filed a protection order against you." No. Never been to Racine. Living in Australia. No, never met the woman. No. When the agent finally dismissed us, I swear she said something to the original passport stamping man something about the wanted Kevin O'Brien being 5 foot 6 inches. Good thing she hadn't noticed the leg transplant!

We found a very helpful agent at United, and thereby made our flight to Chicago. Our final leg- to Columbus- was canceled, however. Kevin was able to get us onto a flight to Cleveland that was scheduled to depart within the hour. Not enough time to reroute our bags.

As of last night (Sunday), they were still in Columbus. "You want them in Cleveland?" I guess the paper we filed wasn't clear on that. This morning's call suggests that they were supposed to be on a flight to Cleveland at 6:10 AM... but now (11:20 AM) they don't know where they are. We leave Cleveland tomorrow. I sure hope we have them before we relocate to Columbus!