Getting carried away

Now that I find myself with access to the internet for more than a few moments at a time, I can finally update all my adoring fans on what has transpired in the last week and a half.  (And by "adoring fans," I mean the two people I assume will be reading this.  Hi Mom!  Hi Lindsey!)  I'll try to lay things out chronologically, which means you will probably wind up reading it backwards.  Ah, technology.  Here goes:  *deep breath*

After some hasty final packing, it was time for the long drive to the airport.  I hugged my dad goodbye in the car to avoid parking fees, and then checked in and said a tearful goodbye to the rest of the family.  After that, the MSP airport is mostly a blur in my memory.  I made it to my flight without incident, save having to pay outrageously for my second bag and walk to the very farthest away gate.  My plane was a tiny affair, with 2X2 seating and only 20-some rows.  I had a very pleasant chat with my seatmate, a nurse from the Houston, TX area who had been visiting family scattered all over the country.

The layover at Houston was stressful to the max.  I think whoever designed that airport should be condemned to wander for all eternity through its seemingly-nonsensical arrangement of gates scattered across various terminal buildings connected by various means of transport ("take the bus to terminal D, then the tram to terminal A2, from which you can reach A1 by skyway...you *might* be able to check in there.")  Here begins my reliance on random folks more well-equipped than I to deal with whatever situation I found myself in; after asking directions what seemed like a thousand times, and walking up and down a few terminals, I finally found the counter I was looking for and found that, to my great relief, I could indeed check in there.  By this point, boarding was scheduled to start in less than 15 minutes.  I was surprised and thrilled to learn that there were still window seats available, so I wouldn't have to sit crammed between two strangers for the nearly 12-hour duration of the flight.

There was one last bit of excitement/potential scariness as I was boarding the plane.  Police officers made us leave our bags on one side of the corridor and stand along the opposite wall as they brought a dog past to sniff everyone's luggage.  The dog seemed very interested in one Asian fellow's bag, and he and his luggage were taken aside to be further searched.  I wish there was some way to find out what happened to him; did he have something prohibited, or was it a fluke?  The flight's final destination was Singapore after a refueling stop in Moscow, and my mom pointed out that if he was smuggling drugs he is quite lucky to have been caught in the US as opposed to in Singapore, where such actions carry the death penalty.

Once I was on the plane, it was all excitement of another variety.  It turned out that my window seat had two (2!) windows, and that the plane was so sparsely populated that I had an entire bank of 3 seats to myself!  The entire experience was delightfully luxurious.  If you ever have the chance to fly with Singapore Air, do it!  The hot towels they brought around before takeoff were only the first of many amenities throughout the flight.  The individual entertainment screens provided access to a huge variety of new-release and classic movies, tv shows, video games, and music choices.  The food was not only edible but actually featured dishes that I would be happy to receive in a restaurant.  I was almost sorry to see the flight end.

But end it did...