Day 14 3/4: Homecoming

Schipol airport is great for shopping, so we did more of it. James got cheese, sausage and chocolate, and I got some chocolate. And a T-shirt for Corey. Then we went through our gate, and spent a healthy 15 minutes watching the sexy window washer at work. Tall, dark and handsome. His biceps bulged out of his short sleeves, and you could see the outline of a six pack. Glistening with just the right amount of sweat, too. Sinful.

Two gate changes and a long marathon across the airport later, we are just about ready to board the jumbo jet that will fly us home. Her majesty the flight attendant, queen of the known universe, has different ideas and tells everyone off, including me. Seems I'd put a toe out of line before she'd given permission to board the plane. Alrighty, then. Her Royal Highness declared all needing assistance should board the plane first - fair enough - and an elderly couple came forward for that privilege.

They were roughly in their seventies, and walked at a snail's pace. He had a cane, she held to the railing for support. Ten minutes later they'd barely turned the corner, when queen stewardess let *everyone* on board at the same time.

Until my dying day, I'll never forget the look on that man's face when he turned around and saw hundreds of people rushing towards the plane hatch, ready to mow him down. He abandoned his wife, who yelled out for his help, and did this wobble-run towards the door. He made it in okay, but was plenty grumpy. I know the wife wasn't trampled, I didn't hear any screaming, so I'll just assume she made it onboard in one piece.

The flight back was positively fabulous, especially because we had emergency row seating. All the leg room in the world, more than enough to stretch out. The food was even terrific, some kind of curried chicken and rice dish, and the boy sitting next to James was positively divine. Beautiful, gorgeous man who probably thought I was married, just like everyone else did, so nothing came of it. James and I played Scrabble again, and I completely slaughtered him. Vindication!

There was a bit of admitting, too. At one point James turned to me and said, "You know, I thought we'd be at each others' throats for two weeks."

Maybe if this had come from anyone else I would have been surprised or insulted, but in this case I wasn't at all. Whenever Raj talks to me about James it's usually after they've had a fight, so I get to hear about a lot of his faults. Magnified in the most dramatic of ways. Knowing Raj, I can only assume James has been hearing about me on the same levels. So I did a little admitting of my own: "Me too."

Plane landed, out to customs where I always manage to sweat buckets from pure fear, waited a whole hour for all our luggage to come out in one piece, and then out into the terminal where Oli was waiting for us. She hugged James first and then came over to me, and did a small double take. "Well, look at you!"

"Look at me what?"

Oli threw off her little half-smile, which is always there when she's doing the observing and thinking thing. "You're... radiating."

"But I haven't been swimming in toxic waste."

"Oh shut up. You know I hate the word 'glowing', and I don't know what else to use. You're radiating."

Oli kills me. "Darling sister, what the heck am I radiating?"

"Happiness. Goodness. Lots of stuff. Had an amazing time, huh?"

I didn't give her a half smile, I gave her a huge grin. "Incredible time. I'll tell you all about it later."

And that, in an elephant's nutshell, was my trip.