Back to NY. 6.30a flight. Can only speak monosyllables. Wait, word "monosyllable" not monosyllabic, therefor must be able to speak polysyllables. Just don't want to.

Lucy, in an heroic proof of friendship, rose at 5a to take me to the airport. Fortunately, said airport is moments from her house. Which is why we could get up at 5a and roll out of the house at 5.15a and still get there on time. Which is an hour early, because if anyone had had the temerity to try to convince me that I would need to get there two hours early for an early morning flight, I would have popped them one.

The plane was half-empty, which was great because I had a whole row, but that was not to last. I had thought that it was a direct flight, and it was a direct flight for me, it just stopped in Salt Lake and crammed on a bunch more people. At least for half the flight I was comfortable.

I had thought that my camera battery was dead again (and yes, I know that usually it lasts weeks, but you saw how many pictures I was taking!), but when I saw that gorgeous sunrise out the window, I had to see if I could squeeze out a few more shots, and I could!

And then, after a sumptuous Delta breakfast:

...we came down over Salt Lake, possibly the most beautiful flyover I have ever seen. You come in through the mountains, which are lovely, but once you are flying over what I assumed to be salt marshes...well frankly, I've never seen anything like that on earth. It's like an alien landscape.

I got off at the airport in Salt Lake to stretch my legs and get some breakfast, which, due to a lack of choice, ended up being a small pepperoni pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. I have never tried their pizza before, and the crust is so delicious, like it's made out of biscuit dough. It was possibly the best pizza I had ever eaten, and I live in New York!

The plane was so much more crowded on the way back, completely full, and with those narrow aisles it meant that the queue for the bathroom was constantly running up and down the length of the plane, getting out of the way of the food and drinks cart, which is exactly aisle-wide. They should have handholds coming out of the ceiling so that people could just pull themselves up out of the way.

It was fairly tiresome, but at least I wasn't trapped by the window like on the flight over, and the movie was Men in Black II, which they did not charge for. Mr. Deeds is worth $5 but they don't think they can get a penny for Men in Black II? Peculiar reasoning, but I didn't argue. I didn't much mind seeing it again, though they did cut out Lara Flynn Boyle licking Tommy Lee, which is almost the whole reason for watching it in the first place.

Anyway, when we got back to Newark I left my book in the seat pocket, so I certainly hope whomever finds it is interested in travel books about Northern Ireland.

The bus ride that goes right by my house on its way into the city left me really wishing that I could just jump off, I was so tired, but I soldiered on. We hit some traffic going into the city, but my fears about hitting it again coming back out were unwarranted and I got hoe at something like 4.30p.

Weirdly, nobody was home, which surprised me but didn't throw me too much, but around 5.30p Molly came into the backyard and called to me through my window, "Kymmie, we're been trying to get into the house for hours!!" so I let her and her friend from next door inside.

Molly is such an hysteric, such a dramatic child that the fact that she was all, "O my God, we haven't been able to get into the house!" didn't strike me as much of an emergency. "Well, you're inside now." I called Cynthia's cell, but she was on set and not answering, and then Molly asked if she could go back next door and I said okay. I didn't even think about where Bonnie was.

Hours later, around 8p, it was the girls' bed time,and I went back upstairs and it was still dark and no-one was home, and I said, out loud, "Where the fuck is everybody?" and at that moment, Fran opened the door. I told him that Molly was next door,and then he found a note on the door that said that both girls were next door, that the bus had dropped them off and nobody was home so they went over there.

Now first of all, the bus is not supposed to let any child off the bus without there being someone to physically take them off--last year Cynthia was having a problem with the bus peeling away if someone didn't fling themselves out of the house the second it pulled up, and this year, apparently, the problem is that the driver will kick tiny children out into the middle of the street not caring whether their house is shuttered and dark or not.

Apparently, there had been a mixup with the sitter, who had not gotten the message, and nobody knew that there would be nobody there until the kids were standing on the doorstep.

It was a weird homecoming, and I was so overtired that it felt almost dreamlike. Back to work today. I need a vacation from my vacation.

Today's horoscope:
Your mind is very active and restless, but you expect a lot from yourself. Remember that no one has all the answers.

One year ago today:
It's like that, it's unavoidable, and you don't want to avoid it, it's like the air. I breathe all the time, in-out-in-out, and I don't write about it, because it's so primal and central to being.

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Last Updated Sat 19 October 13:05:09 2002