finally went home!

last thursday i packed a bag, left work early, and made my way to the airport! i was finally going home to see my parents and new nephew.

after the fiasco of trying to get home during the holidays, i must say i wasn't very confident that i was going to get a on a flight. but as more and more people boarded, it looked like i was going to get on the plane! and then i did!

since i'm now not very fond of checking bags, and i was only going for a weekend, i didn't check a bag. i thought. they ran out of space on the plane, so they made me check my bag at the plane. that made me even more nervous! were they sure it was going to get on the plane with me? so i checked my bag and got back in line to get in my seat in the very back of the plane. we were all in line waiting to find our seats when this lady in the back who had TWO suitcases, decides she needs to check her bags. so a line the entire length of the plane had to back out because she couldn't get by. oh how i love people...

the flight was ok, but when i did get to my seat, there were two guys in my row who decided that they didn't want to sit next to each other, even though my seat assignment was for the aisle seat. when i got back there, one of them said "oh good, you're in the middle, we've been waiting for you!" so i just pretended i didn't realize that i was supposed to sit on the aisle. again, i love people...

instead of waiting for me outside, my parents actually parked and came in. so while i was walking around the baggage claim looking for the right carousel, my mom snuck up behind me and scared me! i was so happy to see my parents! it's so weird not seeing people for along time. we talked about random things the whole way home.

overall, the trip was great. i met my nephew caleb, who is so cute! i got to hold him and feed him and i'm sad that i won't be there all the time now. nick flew in on friday night and he came over to my parents' on saturday morning. and he actually held caleb! it was amazing! we got to eat sweet tomatoes, with nick's parent's, his papa, and dave and heather. it was more crowded than i would have liked. and the time with them was very short. we met up with some friends afterward and saw a bluegrass band. really fun!

that night we found out that they were calling for snow the next day. weird. ok, so we got up on sunday planning on flying out earlier so we would be sure to get on a plane. wrong. all flights cancelled! what?! needless to say, we just about cried. i had an interview scheduled for monday, and even though i didn't have to work, nick did. and i was worried that the cats were going to drink all of their water and start destroying the apartment.

so after realizing that all of the carry-over from sundays cancellations were going to make it very hard to fly out on monday as well, we did the unthinkable. we booked tickets on amtrak. i was scared.

my parents took us to the train station in buckhead on monday night. our tickets were for the 8:20 train. it was probably the weirdest thing ever. we heard others discussing that their flights had been cancelled, and some said that they weren't able to make it to the train station the day before. so it was a little busier than normal. when they called us to board, we walked down the platform beside the train. it was totally surreal! i never expected i would board a train for a 14 hr trip. ever. we got our seats in the last car and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that holy cow train seats are big and have tons of leg room! also, they recline a little and then they have a footrest that comes out at the bottom. we were worried about sitting next to annoying people or crying babies, but neither happened really. we hadn't had dinner, so we went to the cafe car and i got a hotdog (pretty good!) and nick had a small pizza. before we went to get food, we had been working on a crossword puzzle that was in a train magazine. we both started feeling a little sick. i've never really gotten motion sickness and neither has nick, but the ride was pretty bumpy and we were concentrating pretty hard. so after we ate, we just kind of dozed off.

we woke up about midnight and started playing a card game we had bought. we couldn't go to sleep because some people who got on in south carolina were talking a LOT. so we played for a while then decided to sleep. it was tough. it seemed like everyone around us was sleeping really well and not having to move around a lot. we turned over a lot then took turns sleeping on each other and leaning up against each other. it was a pretty long night. we woke up for the morning at about 7, but i kept going back to sleep. it was pretty cool to see all the snow though as we went up the east coast. i was sooooo happy when i woke up and we were in manassas. cause i knew there was only alexandria left before the dc stop. when we got to union station, we got off and everything was all snowy and icy. it didn't feel like that's were we lived. then we went downstairs and got on the subway. yay!

well, the cats didn't tear up the apartment. they were out of water, but not food. that was surprising. they were so happy to see us! i missed them so much!

apparently we can never take a trip and have it go as planned, but we had a great time. can't wait til next time! i also can't wait til someone comes to see US instead.