To the homeland

(Speaking of...I didn't watch Sunday's Homeland until Tuesday, so I felt incredibly out of the loop for a couple of days there. Did you watch?)

I returned to home to Pennsylvania on Saturday for my grandmother's funeral.  I came back to Missouri on Monday night.  It was a sad occasion and since I don't really fancy myself the type to write about such things, this is what you get instead:

Some thoughts I had while making my way home...

I hadn't been to the St. Louis airport in four years.  The last time was in July 2009. I remember shamelessly bawling my eyes out at security. I was flying back to PA for 2 months while Scott finished his course at Ft. Leonard-Wood.  I'm not sure what the reasoning there was.  It's not like he was going off to war.  That happened unexpectedly a few months later.

4 years seems like a lifetime ago.

When I handed them my AK driver's license with my boarding pass, I thought of how I missed "my" airport (much in the same way I miss my Target).  I sort of hated the Anchorage International Airport.  To me, it symbolized "expensive" and "exhaustion". But it was nice, clean, and easy to navigate.

When one boarding pass printed out at the check-in, I was confused.  I'm used to keeping track of three for all the connecting flights.

It was very strange to be traveling at breakfast time and knowing I'd be at my destination by lunch.  I'm used to The Long Haul.  Packing snacks, chargers, pillows, DVDs, and laptops....traveling out of Alaska was serious business. It didn't matter how nice I looked and felt when I left Anchorage.  I'd be a miserable, grouchy mess by the time I got wherever I was headed.

This was also the first time I traveled alone since December 2011.  I don't like it at all, but then I'm not afflicting others (Scott) with my bad-traveler-syndrome.

Anyway.  

The only way to travel is in shorts. In September that's still okay.  Except, obviously, when you're supposed to be wearing a skirt.

Fall/winter necessities.  I got rid of all slippers/flannel pants/etc when we moved here.  I was breaking up with winter for good.  Now it appears it will come again...even if it is still in the 80s here.
That candle is  Wood Wick Toasted Marshmallow and you can smell it across the room when it's not lit.  We can call that "heaven".

Good news:  I found 2 Trader Joe's in St. Louis the other day.  I think I'll make the 2 hour trip for groceries some weekend soon.

I watched some American Horror Story (finished season 1!) in the Pittsburgh airport: the only airport I know of at this point where wi-fi is still free.

And my carry-on bag included a magazine from 1923 (I'm going to make a Christmas decoration out of it) and a new pair of too-expensive black flats from the Nine West store at the airport.  Oh well.

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Hope your week is going well...I'm s.l.o.w.l.y. trying to get back into the busyness of school after missing Monday.