On the first day of Ohio (Dec 5)

Written on the 7th day. I think this isn't going to go very well!

I boarded the plane in Brisbane - no- wait - the story begins earlier.

At 8:30 PM I called Yellow Taxi to arrange for my pick up for the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave about noon, so I figured (reckoned, in Australian) if I left at 9:15 for a 20 to 30 min drive, I should be right. "No," says the agent on the phone. "That is right at the end of rush hour. We cannot guarantee that our driver will arrive on time and get you to the airport for your flight. 9:00."

"OK," I agree. "Nine o'clock."

"No. Not nine. Eight-thirty."

Reluctantly, I agreed. So much for having "lots" of time in the morning.

As I was washing up the breakfast dishes the next morning I heard this loud engine. Naturally, I thought, "The garbage truck is late. It is 8:10 already."

I should have been thinking, "It is ONLY 8:10." It was my taxi.

"So, the traffic isn't bad," I said to my driver midway. "Is this unusual?"

"No. Not for a Friday morning. There really isn't much of a rush on Friday mornings - people taking 'sickees', long weekends."

It took us 20 minutes to get to the airport. So, I had 3 1/2 hours to spend and Kevin had the dishes to finish.

I got to check in right away (yay) and got an aisle seat (yay, again! I don't have to ask anyone to move to use the toilet.) I was able to complete some of my Christmas shopping at the airport and look at the prices of cameras at the duty free shop. Of course, I haven't done any research to know what I want. But, I scribbled prices down on one of the "dockets" from one of my earlier purchases. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

I had just found my seat when the steward stopped me from getting comfortable telling me that they might need to move me - move the entire row. That was OK. What difference did it make to me if I was in row 41 or 50? Then, the man in the aisle seat leans over and tells me it is his fault. That he needs to be near an electric outlet.

"I need to be hooked up to a breathing machine. I stop breathing when I sleep."

"I don't want to see that!" As Kevin will confirm, it is always about me.

And, so we were moved and it was no big deal. At least not until his machine required additional water in the middle of the "night" and for some reason the way that filling needed to occur was over my sleeping body. Unfortunately, the water didn't all fall into the cup. Some of it fell down my neck.

I screamed.

They gave me a set of QANTAS PJ's.