UMTravels

Up at 5am — and you know how that makes me feel. That makes Paul a saint for making the early morning airport run.

Routine check-in, flights on time or early, which continues my record this year of not having an itinerary fucked up by cancelled flights, missed connections or airline bankruptcy. My rules?

• try and get two hours between flights
• fly at off-peak times, like Saturday
• scam your way into first class so if there are problems, you’ll be the first to be dealt with
• have energy bars in your carry on because that connection may be so close (even with two hours) that there won’t be the chance for food
• assume that your flights will be late.

Arrived close to on time, but waited forever for luggage, reclaimed the car from MasterPark and figured that I actually had time to swing by the house to pick up food for dinner. Guess I should have saved the $$$ and taken the bus to/from, but I didn’t know how late the flight would be be (see above).

I made the 3:30pm ferry which put me on island at about 4:30pm — just in time for cocktails.

MaryBeth was there with her two kids (Thomas and Melissa), and Thomas’ friend Alex (who had such long dark hair that he reminded me of my dead brother). As it turns out, Alex’s nickname is IRF, which stands for Invisible Rabbit Friend. For a couple of 15-year-olds (the boys) and a 12-year-old (Melissa), these are highly socialized children, and good fun to be around.

As host, it was salad, high-heat-roasted Albino Asparagus(TM), bread, and a stack of huge Safeway Organic Steaks (thanks to the 30% off bin). There were four steaks for five people — would have brought another had I known about Alex, but no one starved and there was no food left.

The movie of the night, Nashville (chosen by MaryBeth, but my mother’s favorite) wasn’t that bid a hit with the kids, and even I lost patience — but there was fresh made popcorn.

It was basically a giant slumber party with all the men crashing in the living room and the women crashing on the bed in the kitchen.

[227.5 — but that was a noon after flying — I blame water weight gain]