mostly here

Great flight from Dubai to New York. I got a middle seat, but it was fine because I got the first row of coach by the bulkhead, which meant I had about 3 feet of legroom. I used the magazine rack on the bulkhead as a footrest, put my seat back, and actually got about six-seven hours of sleep on the flight, which was great. Sat next to a young woman who had been taking Arabic in Beiruit as part of a foreign language program, which was discontinued when the Israelis attacked the airport. She had family in the middle east, so she decided to take a scenic route evacuating- the first refugee tourist I've met.

Good food as usual, I watched V for Vendetta and the Pink Panther on the way back. Pink Panther was pretty dumb but there were a few absolutely hysterical scenes. We waited on the ground for about half an hour in New York, which did not do good things for my timetable. When I deplaned, I had less than 90 minutes before my flight to Phoenix left. They called my name on the plane overhead and had a Emirates rep escort me to the front of the immigration line, then he waited as I got my luggage and took it through customs. Finally he took my bags and put them back on the conveyer belt for me, although it would have saved me some hassle later to have hauled them to the other terminal myself.

I made it to the ticket counter for AmericaWest which was severely understaffed. Maybe its just New York, but when one of the other passengers on that Dubai flight going to Phoenix tried to explain that the plane had been late coming in and more people were coming, the agent's response had been "well, they need to be here", totally unsympathetic and uncaring. Luckly security line was short. I walked to my gate and they had already begun boarding, so as mom predicted, I had just enough time to make my connection.

Emirates Airlines has ruined me for domestic air travel. Looking at the patchwork of smaller plane company logos detailed on my USAirways (but an AmWest flight) I began to wonder if the plane was a patchwork too. My seat was way in the back against the window, and had much less legroom. While the plane staff were much more colloquial and informal than the Emirates, I still passed on thier $5 sandwich cart. The movie on the flight was something I didnt want to see, played on a cieling mounted screen smaller than my seatback screen on Emirates, and they charged $5 for headphones. So I read my book instead. Even though it was only a 5 hour flight, it still felt longer than the transatlantic flight.

Landed in Phoenix a little earlier than expected. My luggage didn't. I waited at the carosel until all the bags were out then went to the baggage office and filed the report with those guys. I knew exactly how this dance worked, having watched Dad do it many times before.

Sally, Jonathan, and the whole family met me at the airport and took me back to their place where they are putting me up for the few days I'm back here. Jet lag not too bad. I did pass out around three or four oclock for a few hours, but that may have been just operational fatigue. Stayed up till about 10 last night and woke up at a reasonable time. Strange dreams involving travel. Today its time to get started. Long list of things to take care of. I just called the luggage people, and they've found my bag. They said to call back in a few hours to get the rest of the info on it.

The weather down here is unsually nice. Only 90 degrees for a high yesterday, with relatively low humidity and lots of cloud cover. It's a welcome respite from the misery of Abu Dhabi.