Dispatches from the Central Time Zone

Merry Christmas!

We almost didn't make it to this time zone.  Our trip home on Sunday was harrowing and consisted of:

1. Nearly getting stuck in the parking lot where the airport shuttle picked us up at the butt crack of dawn.

2. Having another shuttle passenger abscond my luggage (he exited the shuttle first, took my red bag that apparently looked exactly like his red bag, and NavyGuy had to do some CIA detective work to track down the man at a different check-in counter in the insane Seattle airport).

3. Pulling a movie-type mad dash through the airport to make our connecting flight (we left Seattle two hours late, and landed in St. Louis when we were supposed to be taking off - luckily, we made it before they shut the doors!)

4. Our luggage however, did not make the connection, and we were left without fresh clothing until the following night.

After watching the news the past couple of days though, it looks like we were the lucky ones to actually get out of Washington!  It was a stressful, hectic trip, but we made it back to Madison eventually... only to remember we had to leave at 7:30am Monday morning to head for Chicago for a meeting with our wedding florist (NavyGuy's aunt), and a family lunch!  The fact that our car was being testy and only starting intermittently did not help the stress levels (the car is similar to myself in temperament and tends to pout in cold weather).  But, I'll save the Chicago shenanigans for a later post...