I'm so geeked - and my bumpy trip

So is it sad that I am totally geeked about the new self-checkouts at my local Sainsbury's? They must have put them in while I was away.

I am back in London. I have to make this short b/c technically I should be working on my essays that are due tomorrow at 4:00 and which I still have about 3,000 words to compose. Oh, the life of Helen.

Okay, so flight to Chicago not so good. Flight more than an hour late in getting in b/c of snow. I am totally unawares of this b/c I don't have a watch. Mine broke a while ago and laziness dictated that it won't be fixed. So I'm swanning about Chicago airport, walking to the tram to get to terminal five, not realizing that my plane is about to leave in 30 minutes. I get to the ba office, there are two girls behind the desk talking, some construction men taking down a very large Christmas wreath, and I tell them I need my boarding pass. The woman starts talking about putting me on standby; I explain that I already have a ticket, that I just need to pick it up. They understand, print it out, and tell me to run b/c they are going to close the gates. This would be no problem if it were not that I have yet to go through security. I have to show my passport, the guy mutters something in his walkie-talkie. I think, oh shit, they think I'm some terrorist and the guy's just called for back-up. After taking off my shoes, my jacket, my coat, taking my laptop out of my laptop bag, placing it by itself in a basket, and go through the metal detector, and run to my terminal with my big man snow shoes back on untied, and find out that the guy at security was letting them know that I was coming and to keep the door open. I get on the plane, everyone is buckled and ready to go, and the flight attendants immediately start the safety instructions and they start de-iceing the plane.

I have a headache. Ask for some paracetamol. I have to fill out this form to make sure that I'm not going to die from taking them (do you have any allergies -- have you taken anything since four hours ago) and if I do die, who can they contact.

My flight into London seven hours later was really turbulent, so much so that the attendants had to make sure everyone was in their seats and if they had their buckles on. Usually the sign goes on, but never have I seen the attendants running down the aisles to make sure everyone was buckled in. They even tightened some of the belts. The guy next to me, snoring, had his seat belt put on him by one of the attendants. Then just as I was worrying that the compartment where my laptop was stowed above me would open (as mine did when I landed in Chicago from London several weeks ago) it did, and a ladies coat fell out. I took off my belt and leapt up, afraid, as I was bopping around and everything else was, that my laptop would fall out.

Landing was horrid too. London had very low visibility which was probably why it was so turbulent. Also, I couldn't see the run way until we actually got on it. Perhaps the captain was still flying when he should have already touched down, because usually you fly over the runway a few feet above it, and then land softly with the wheels barely and then completely touching it, but jesus chris one minute we were in the air, the next we literally banged into the runway. You could feel that the wheels (which were right under where I sat ideally enough) were hit hard by the pavement, that the underbelly of the plane itself could have got a beating itself. And we stopped completely much sooner than you usually do.

Scary, but a bit fun I must admit.

Got home and was hit so fast with sleepiness that I could barely eat before I went to bed at 3:30 pm. Woke at 10:00 pm from one of those deep sleeps where you don't know who you are or where you are and then woke again at 6:00 am when my alarm went off. I thought 15 hours would be sufficient, but was still so groggy that I slept another 6 hours until 12:00 pm. Woke up, determined to finish papers, but still too tired. Slept for another 4 hours and now here I am, one diet coke later (I'm starting my diet coke, uh, diet, after these papers are due), and I'm ready to go -- but for some reason I'm writing this blog.

Okay, now done.