I'm wrecked. I thought taking a red-eye back from the west coast would be fine. After all, I've never had much trouble falling asleep on planes, and in all honesty, I slept a good 2 hours on the plane last night, but people... 2 hours does not a good night's sleep make.

The whole of the visit was really good. I got to see my in-laws (fun and hectic as ever), some friends who graciously met me for coffee at a place I missed, and had fun catching up with coworkers and meeting the new hires who's voices I'd heard but faces I'd not seen. The only weirdness was the IT guy calling me the day before I arrived instructing me to bring my office phone and my mac mini with me so he could upgrade them. Now that's all well and good, but as I had planned on not checking any baggage, I was sure I'd be stopped and searched at security for carrying these odd items, but on my way there, amazingly, I wasn't.

The lesson is this: if by some god forsaken chance you get to an airport in the United States only to realize, for whatever reason, you no longer have in your possession your wallet (i.e., any form of identification, picture or otherwise), you can still travel. This very scenario happened to me last night, and after a panicky 25 minutes, complete with frantic phone calls trying to track down my wallet (it was in a coworker's car), I finally just went up to the United counter and explained my predicament. I was so sure they would say I was sol unless I had my ID that my jaw actually dropped open when my boarding passes were printed and I was pointed in the direction of the security check.

Turns out I and my stuff needed to go through a thorough screening, but quite frankly, it wasn't bad. Because I was a "special case" (i.e., "a complete idiot"), I went into my own special area and didn't have to wait in the decades long line like everyone else. I actually got through and out to my gate way before the people behind me at the counter got through. However, because I had no wallet, I also had no money, so the leisurely hour and a half I'd planned to spend having a nice dinner and perusing a newly-purchased magazine turned into sitting impatiently at the gate waiting to get on and be offered the impossibly small bag of minature pretzels as sustenance.

Once I arrived in Phoenix where I was not only to change planes, but to change airlines entirely (thanks Travelocity), I had to go through the entire security rigamorole again. This time, however, it was after 10 pm, and there was not one other passenger at the security check when I approached. The workers actually looked grateful that I gave them something to do for 10 minutes, and they were amazingly sweet and good tempered. Again with the waiting at the gate, this time the flight was not even half full, so I got a whole row to myself, layed down after take off and awoke to the captain saying we were making our approach to Charlotte. Poor Non had to get up early and pick me up at 5:30 am (I had originally planned on taking a shuttle home, but again, no money), but he was incredibly sweet about it. When he showed up outside baggage claim I saw he'd brought our dog with him who was almost as excited to see me as I was to see her. Now, back at home Wednesday early afternoon, I'm starting to feel normal again. I slept for a few more hours once I got here, and after having some trouble reconnecting my phone and mini, I've been successfully avoiding working for the past 30 minutes or so. Not to worry, no one really works at our office the day after a big meeting. They're too busy chatting about the previous day and discussing how relevant they thought it was and how odd it was that for lunch they only provided salads and no other dishes.

And there you have it - very few people commented that I looked like I've lost weight, but I was grateful to them because I have, and all in all, it was a lovely time, but I won't be ready to do it again for 6 months when the next meeting occurs.