So it actually all started on Sunday night when my official Five Corners Wrap party happened. We showed up at RM’s house to be simultaneously assulted by her dogs (they’re sweet and enthusiastic, but not notably bright most of the time) and large volumes of alcohol. For all that I kept telling people that we had to get up at 0500 the next morning to get to the airport, I had a continuous procession of bottles of beer, glasses of wine, shots of tequila, and this weird Chinese liquor that smelled like little other than fermented miso broth (I steadfastly refused to drink that one however) trotted out to me.

They’re good people, they’re excellent medical staff, they’re good friends. In these last few weeks when I’ve been working full time at Spring Glen and part time at Five Corners while using up my vacation and sick time I really have realized what a blessing it is to have a staff who knows how you work and whose skills you know and trust. I’m not going to say that I’ll never have that again, but if I manage to find that sort of synergy wherever I end up working for the rest of my career, I know that it’s going to take a hellova lot of time to build up. I’ll say it again. I’d have been happy to work at Five Corners for the rest of my working life. The current success of that practice was built largely with my (not mine alone, but mine nonetheless) effort and I resent the hell out of essentially being forced out because the company for whom I work was so damn inflexible. There are a number of people for whom this following curse will be relevant, they know who they are, but my friends let us all make the correct hand motions and do the correct dance steps while chanting: “MAY THE BIRD OF PARADISE HATCH A VULTURE IN YOUR NAVEL!”

Thank you.

I’m going to miss all of my peeps (they know who they are too) a whole lot.

Only slightly pickled (that last shot of tequila was a doozy) we managed to get home and in bed by (shudder) midnight much to the disapproval of the cat whose republican notions about bedtime have only become more solidified now that he gets to sleep with us.
Regardless of the time of year 0500 is really a miserable hour, but we did want to get to the airport early so we could hopefully change out our (presumably) miserable seat assignments.

Let me take this chance to rant a minor rant about Travelocity. I have come to the conclusion that Travelocity sucks balls. You can’t escape their e-mails, their prices (at least for the last two trips that I’ve scheduled through them) aren’t any better than those that I would get through the airlines’ websites, and they didn’t give us any seat assignments for our Seattle to Philly flight. When (three weeks after the tickets were purchased) I noticed the lack, the only seats that were left together were a middle and a window seat.
We tried consistently for about a month to change our seats, to upgrade our seats, or to….I don’t know, invoke some sort of deity to have them magically transmogrified into two bulkhead/exit row seats or at least two aisle seats, but nothing worked. Last ditch attempt was check in at the airport.
Which of course did not work. The flight was very full, there were no first class seats left and while we could have gotten two aisle seats one of them would have been in row 12 and the other in row 27. SIGH.

As it turned out though it was a remarkably comfortable flight. I don’t know what specific Airbus jet US Airways flies on their cross country trips, but they’ve got more front to back room and wider seats than any coach flight I’ve taken in a long time. It also helped that the woman in the aisle seat was a wee tiny little grandmotherly type that can’t have weighed more than 75 pounds soaking wet.
There was a small child in the row across from us, but remarkably the only time he squalled was when we hit the ground in Philly and we had to wait half an hour or so to deboard because we were right at the very back of the plane.
The flight left on time, it arrived on time, it was a damn smooth landing, and even though our suitcase was overweight they didn’t charge us for it because (and I quote the desk agent in Seattle) “I’d usually charge you for it, but we’re so busy right now that I won’t.”
The most unpleasant part of it was the hideous jerky like feeling of my nasal passages and eyeballs courtesy of my scopolamine motion sickness patch. Fortunately once we hit the ground in Philly the wonderful wonderful humidity set in and I soaked up ambient moisture like a bloody sponge.

We got in at about 1630 and managed to (finally) get off the plane and get our suitcase by about 1700. The Hawaiian delegation was scheduled to hit the ground at 1700 and the plan was that we would meet them, Uncle Jeff, and Aunt Joan at the baggage claim for their flight. And oddly, that is, oddly for this group that is made up of strong willed individualists each with their own idea of how best to proceed with plans, that’s how it worked. Joan, Tony, Libby, Vinny, and the nieces all came down from their arrival gate looking like they’d been squashed. They’d left Honolulu at 2200 Sunday evening and were arriving in Philly at 1700 Monday afternoon which is about as much time on a plane and as many time zones as I’d ever care to experience thank you very much. We got all the bags, we didn’t lose any carry ons, any stuffed animals, hats, books, glasses, sunglasses, or members of our party. There was enough space in the two cars that no one had to sit in the middle and all the luggage fit without anyone having to keep anything on their lap. It was remarkable.

We got back to Jeff & Joan’s (there are two Joans involved here, it does get a little confusing) and had some dinner while Jeff took another pilgramage back to the airport to pick up Ray Ann who is…… lessee, how is she related….. She is Jeff and Joan (Lenzer’s) cousin which means that she was Gramma Kay’s niece. I think. Anyway, Jeff went to pick up Ray Ann and when they got back we all piled back into the van to check in at the hotel.
Nice hotel. Free breakfast, free internet, game and exercise room in the basement, swimming pool, and these lovely horizontal flat things with blankets and pillows where you can collapse and snore for hours on end. Also the air conditioning, unlike that of our hotel in London last spring, WORKS.

Yesterday was Lucy’s (the youngest niece) birthday. We had planned to pack everyone up and take a trip to the Camden Aquarium, but there were traffic advisories so we quite sensibly did not. One group went shopping (with Joan, Aunt Joan, and Libby around you can’t not go shopping at least once), and the rest of us (Andrew, Jeff, and I) went to Best Buy to find some (what else) computer parts and then to the Brandywine River Museum to wander along their hiking trail.
It is a lovely museum, it is a lovely hiking trail but I swear the last time we were here we were on a different trail because what we found was a remarkably short hike. This was not a bad thing as it turns out. The trail we were on was nettle choked, I hadn’t gotten nettle stung in years, moderately overgrown with other vegetation (a tick risk), and the weather has been (remember my comment about the air conditioning?) HOT! We saw some nice birds and got some great shots of dragonflies, but with temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s and 95% humidity it is not ideal weather for doing stuff outside.
Fortunately Jeff and Aunt Joan’s house is well ventilated and well air conditioned and Aunt Joan makes a mean pot of iced tea. There’s been a lot of sitting around talking story and drinking iced tea.
I spent a good deal of yesterday evening in front of the computer with Jeff showing off our pictures from the Jersey Zoo, the London Zoo, and Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. After viewing the show, Jeff (as Aunt Joan had predicted) wandered over to where she was sitting and informed her that they were going to have to get to Jersey so he could go to the zoo. I believe Aunt Joan’s exact words were: “Thank God we’ve already gotten our tickets for this summer or we’d be going to Jersey!” It was very cute.

Anyway, I’ promised Andrew that I’d leave today’s entry for him so you all will have to wait for the next installment until I can get him out from behind his book.