Laugh at me all you like - it takes real character to be able to laugh at yourself and your own foibles. Today offered many opportunities to laugh at ourselves.
But I should start at the beginning.
I have to say that 4 am has never been my finest hour. With only one hour's sleep - it's been a doozy of a day. My IQ drops 77 points for every hour I go without sleep. (I believe I may have mentioned my dislike of ultra early risings on previous travelogues - don't know why I keep scheduling them on our trips.)
The Continental desk opens at 4am and folks were told to use the self check in machines. We've used these in the past with great success, but on our last trip it kicked us out and said Darren had to see a staff person to verify his green card. Last night when I tried checking in online, it kicked me out, too. So I tried to explain to the nice man that we were pretty sure it wouldn't work for us (in a clear and intelligent, maybe even witty, fashion), but all that came out was, "He's English". What can I say-it was 4 am!
The nice man took pity on us and ran our information through the machine. I'm afraid my tech skills had degenerated to 1920s standards. Turned out he did need to verify Darren.
We got a snack and a drink. As I’ve given up tea (again), I had juice. It had been cold in the terminal and I couldn't seem to get warm. I traded my window seat for the opportunity to hold Darren’s hot cup of coffee as a hand warmer.
My first post was riddled with errors and I forgot bits. For example: I meant to say we we're not celebrating the new adventure by cheering on the Metro because we were in a sleepy stupor.
As soon as possible, I pulled out my iPod and gaudy teal blue eye mask and proceeded to drool all over Darren as I tried to catch up on sleep. Surprisingly, he resisted the urge to take a photo of my drool.
Aside from the drooling, the flight was uneventful. We changed in Huston. A whole plane of gringos was going to Guatemala. One lady from Nashville tried to recruit us to work at her clinic in the mountains as puppeteers. I did recommend my nurse practitioner friend as a great candidate. She said she’d be in touch :)
The real adventure began once we got off the plane in Guatemala. We haven't felt like such green tourists in a long time. Part of it was due to exhaustion and partly because it is the worst airport I've ever seen for signage. Fortunately no one was arrested.
I am so beat that I will relate more tomorrow.
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