Sail, I hope everything's okay.

I am again in the rare position of being one of the morning posters. That hasn't happened since I moved.

My plane landed at 6AM EST. After getting luggage and rental car and driving the 50 miles down here, I finally arrived at my mom's house and flopped onto her guest bed in my old room. Considering my brain is telling me that it's 5AM, the clock here is telling me 8, and I got a grand total of 40 minutes of catnap on the red eye, I'm amazingly cogent. I think that the second I actually close my eyes, though, I'm going to be toast.

Mom's about to head back to the hospital, but we agreed that I'll be a better visitor once I've slept and showered and eaten, so I'm going to wait until this afternoon to go myself. I feel vaguely guilty about this decision nonetheless.

I have no idea how often I'll be online this next week, but I'll do my best to keep you posted on my gram and me. Thank the gods for this computer phone.

Thanks for your support.

Rest and take care of yourself, babe. I hope all goes better than expected.

Also, yikes. If I'd known you were on a red-eye out of LA last night this morning's doings at O'Hare would have freaked me out even more.

Mom's about to head back to the hospital, but we agreed that I'll be a better visitor once I've slept and showered and eaten, so I'm going to wait until this afternoon to go myself. I feel vaguely guilty about this decision nonetheless.

It's a good decision. Go. Rest.

Thanks loves. About to do that now.

Brenda, what happened at O'Hare? I was on a direct nonstop from LA to Hartford, so it wouldn't have affected me anyway.

Plane coming from LA had to make an emergency landing - without the front landing gear down. I've been watch-and-posting in Natter.

Kristin, rest well. Better to be at your best when visiting.

Eek, on planes landing without half their landing gear. Scarey.

Thanks for the good wishes for the company. Since we've been told to call the "emergency" number before coming in tomorrow, I'm guessing they think they'll have it cleaned up pretty quick.

Gronk.

Wow, Sail. Fire bad.

{{{Kristin}}}

Brenda - when returning from our honeymoon many, many moons ago, we had to fly through Chicago right after a big crash there. We had been out of the news loop, so had no clue what happened, but did see the wreckage while we were waiting for our flight. Man, did I NOT want to get on the plane home.

Took K-Bug to the doc yesterday to have her ankle checked. It is just a sprain and she is supposed to take it easy at practice today and then can start running again on Thursday. She is still so new to this team and trying to earn play time, that any set-back like this is HARD. Everyone in our house is emotionally frazzled.

Restful sleep Kristin. You and your family will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

{{K-Bug and Mom}} Ankle sprains so very ouchy.

What is this with crazy plane and building emergencies? Mad!

So I've spent the day puttering around Cairo in a taxi with Mr Said (our driver of choice, a gentleman of late middle years whose style of taxi decoration is remarkably spartan [nothing more than some understated rugs as seat covers; not even anything dangling from the mirror. Not even any extra mirrors decorating the wind shield!] and whose car, whilst some 30 or 40 years old, is in reasonably good condition and is driven very carefully) and with one of the school's Security Guards, a Mr Ahmed. We have managed to get the paperwork processed by the police, fingerprints and all, and now we need to get it okayed by the relevant government office, and THEN get that translated into English by a British Consul-approved translator, and THEN get that ratified by the British Consul. But it seems to be chugging along. I also managed to sell most of the rest of my books (not the comics yet...I'm going to give them to a family whose daughter I used to teach, I think - the mum may appreciate them, because she loves Harry Potter & suchlike, and then if she thinks they're appropriate she may let Malak read them in 5 years or so. Maybe. We'll see) for the princely sum of 200LE (...er, £20). Also I had Baskin & Robbins icecream, as did Messrs Said and Ahmed (to compensate for all the waiting around we were doing).

It was a surprisingly nice day, because I've been fairly purposeful and distracted so far all day. Which is good. And now I'm home, and sorting through more of my stuff. (Managed to give Mr Ahmed a bag of things - notebooks for his 13 year old son, pencils, that kind of thing. His suggestion, with many apologies, when he saw the 2 carrier bags of books I was getting rid of. Nice bloke. Good to know that people can make use of my stuff, and good to spread it around a little, rather than giving the lion's share to the cleaning lady and the boab.)

In conclusion: Let's make out.