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I couldn't come up with a title for this post, I have yet to find a word that describes this past weekend. Last week was my trip home for January. I had my flight scheduled to leave Fayetteville at 6:05 am on Wednesday morning. I had been watching the news and following the weather, because this is what was happening in Seattle last week:

Snow. And lots of it. Well, at least for the Seattle area. The flight left Fayetteville on time, but then we got delayed in Atlanta. Not because of snow. Because of a broken toilet. Delta knew it was broken, and knew it was going to take at least 30 minutes to fix it. Yet they loaded us into the plane anyway. Then we sat there and waited. Stupid. Anyway, once we finally took off, the pilot informed us that because of the western storms, the headwinds were very bad. So what is normally not quite a 5 hour flight was going to take a little over 6 hours. Plus the 45 minutes sitting in the plane waiting for the toilet repair, and that was not my idea of fun.

Anyway, as we were coming into Seattle, we could see from the air that the roads were not even close to being cleaned up. So I was really starting to think I would be stuck in Seattle. The problem with Seattle when it snows is you combine stupid drivers in any weather, rain that freezes to snow/ice, that thaws in the day and re-freezes at night, before finally turning completely to rain and flooding the area, and you get not fun driving conditions. My friend had been tracking my travel and probably rivaled Mom in her concern for me getting into Seattle. When I was finally able to turn on my phone, there was a text from her saying I could stay at her place if need be. So I called my neighbor Keith, and before I could even get a word out, he said "don't drive over here, the roads are horrible!" So, Seattle it was.

I made my way to my friend's house, they live about 20 minutes from the airport. I got settled in, and we just relaxed that night. The problem was I had been up since 1:15 in the morning Seattle time, so I was beyond tired. I hadn't seen them for a month though, so I sucked it up so we could catch up. The next morning, I didn't even get a chance to check the roads. My neighbor Keith called me and said the roads were still bad, wait till later, or don't come home that day at all. So I waited till noon, then decided to leave. I had a good half inch of solid ice over the entire car, which took some time to remove. Once I did, I got in, threw it into drive, and .... spun the wheels. I was stuck. The road was ice. I didn't want to play around with it too much, it was parked on a hill, and I have a fear of out of controls vehicles. Been there, done that. Don't care to again. So I put it in park and spent another day and night in Seattle. We again had a fun evening, watched some basketball and a movie, had pizza, and visited.

Friday morning I got up at 7:00 am because I had a meeting at Fort Lewis at 9:00. The temps had risen enough that the roads were finally driveable. After leaving I called just to make sure my meeting was still on, and was told it wasn't. Thanks for letting me know...

So I was finally heading home!! And this is what I found:

My car is stuck in there behind the trees, I couldn't get up my driveway. It took some shoveling, but I eventually got it up to the garage. And here's the view on my street:

Fortunately, my house was holding up fine. So I finally got to relax and settle into my house, 3 days later. It was so nice. There's something to be said about being home, and being able to relax in your own place. I chilled the rest of Friday, and finally got to sleep in my own bed. Saturday I was able to do some things around the house, relax a little, then head back to Seattle.

Before the storm and being stuck there, a group of friends had planned to do dinner. So Saturday night, we all got together for a good evening of fun. By the time I left, it was nearly midnight. An hour and a half later, I was home. Sunday morning I got up and headed back to Seattle to the airport at 9:00 am.

My flight left Seattle on time, but my next "can this trip get any more weird/ridiculous" moment was on the plane. The Patriots were playing for a trip to the Super Bowl, and it was right in the middle of my flight time. So I was REALLY hoping they had tv's in the seats so I could watch. Well, they did. They just didn't function. So I was going bonkers not being able to see it, and the pilot giving us periodic updates, and it was a close game! They won, which took the burn out. But still, I wanted to watch that. Stupid tv's. Then in Atlanta, we had an hour delay because of fog. Ugh. By the time I got home last night/this morning, it was 1:00 am.

I set my alarm for 5:45 am, then turned it off when it went off. And went back to sleep. And didn't wake up till 11:15 when the phone rang. Apparently the two 3-hour time changes in five days, not getting much sleep while home, traveling, and craziness had caught up to me. The guys at work were cool with me missing half the day, which I really appreciated. But I know if I hadn't done that, chances were good I would be sick in no time. I was seriously tired. I don't feel like I even went home, the trip went that fast. The travel part was obnoxious, and I don't care to do that again. But the rest of the trip was loads of fun, and I'm glad I was able to have a few days this month to enjoy life.