Curses

Someone recently asked Dan if he was cursed. There are the obvious recent events. Then, there's getting home from Grenada. The earliest ticket we had found was December 19, a full week after classes ended. There is only one American Airlines flight out of Grenada per day, so not a whole lot of weather flexibility. Of course, it was that day the meteorologists predicted the arrival of what they liked to call a blizzard. We kept Dan posted about various timing updates and kept our fingers crossed. He dashed through the Miami airport as quick as humanly possible to see if he could squeeze onto an earlier flight to anywhere in NYC to try to beat the snow here. He called to tell us which flight he was on just as the snow began to fall here. He arrived before the highest snowfall rate, but there was still a bit more than an inch already on the ground. Once back on Staten Island, he got to drive the remainder of the way home, despite it being quite some time since he's driven on snow. By morning, there were 10 in of blowing, yet heavy snow to shovel out of the walk and driveway. His luggage would arrive three days later.

In the grand scheme, I'm thinking no curse present here. It has been a rough November, but things should get smoother from here on. His travel wasn't necessarily fun, but he actually made it home in time for a late dinner. Penny was so excited she couldn't go to sleep until really late. She's been having a blast and a half with Daddy throughout this little respite. The time without Dan's luggage wasn't a big loss because he knew it was a risk and packed accordingly. What's he going to do with shorts and t-shirts anyway? Holidays are a little cramped here since we have a lot of stuff in storage, so having time to sort through and make room for suitcases was helpful. His time in Grenada has taught him that he really doesn't enjoy hot weather all the time, so the white Christmas action was actually pretty welcome.

In my book, the biggest advantage of all the time apart is that the talk of any additional time apart has been nixed entirely. Apparently, Penny is just too cute to be apart from for any length of time. We'll see how bad a commute Dan's clinical assignment will be. He's got a tentative assignment that sounds pretty good so far, but that won't be firmed up until May or June. So keep your prayers going for a good assignment there (and the good test score for Dan to qualify for good assignments).

Penny and I will be headed back to Ohio for a couple of weeks in January before returning to NYC for the remainder of the pregnancy. I'm looking forward to not having to deal with airport security for a little while, especially when there are dumb people out there increasing the security measures by pulling stupid terrorist stuff. Those TSA people may qualify as cursed because of all the crazy things they have to watch out for. For those of you who haven't flown recently, read all the crazy regulations, it's good for a laugh (or cry).

Hope you have a wonderful new year and safe travels in it!