I'm back!

Oh it is good to be home, even if it means that I'm just hiding out in my room tonight. I'll try not to think about work tomorow. I just need to decompress and writing always helps. Let's start with the ridiculous trip back home because I'm still frazzled from it. The rest of the trip went almost too smoothly, so I guess it's only fair that we ended with a major hitch. It didn't ruin the trip, of course, but it put me in a relatively bad mood. I'll get to the fun Japan stuff when I'm feeling better.

So, the looong flight from Tokyo to Chicago went well, but it was all downhill after that. The 5:55pm flight from Chicago to St. Louis was canceled because of the weather along with many other flights, and because there were no open rental cars or train/bus seats, we were stranded in Chicago overnight (at a hotel, at least). Our rescheduled flight was supposed to take us to St. Louis via Des Moines for some reason, but as soon as we landed in Des Moines, they told us that St. Louis flight was canceled, too! I got off the plane, went to the bathroom, and got back on the same plane to go directly back to Chicago. Thankfully, we landed just in time to make the 6:30 flight to St. Louis, but it was unnecessarily stressful. Meanwhile, the other half of the group (whose names come sooner in the alphabet) managed to get the direct flight (standby) from Chicago to St. Louis around 1:30pm. They needed to get back more than I did (because of important meetings or kids) and I'm glad they didn't have to wait with us, but I sure wish we could have joined them.

The highlight of the day was a McDonald's quarter pounder from a generous stranger. The man sitting next to me on the Des Moines-St. Louis flight started talking to me and asking me questions, and I politely went along with it, even though I was really not in the mood to talk at that point. Out of the blue he said something like "For some reason I really want McDonalds" and I replied "Yeah, I have never wanted a cheeseburger more in my life," which was 100% true after 2 weeks of Japanese food. Well, while I was running off to the next flight, he bought me that cheeseburger and asked another taiko member (running later than I was) to give it to me. I swear it was the best cheeseburger of my life--onions, pickles, mustard, and all (I usually leave those off)--and as ridiculous as it may sound, it was sort of an emotional moment. You have no idea how much I wanted to be on that flight back to St. Louis, especially after a 25 hour delay...and how much I wanted that cheeseburger. I got both at the same time.