Frequent Flyers

Charlie and I are on a trip around the world and then some. From Papeete, Tahiti, we flew back to LA, which was weird because we just passed through without stopping. We were home, but then we weren't. We still were subletting our apartment to Lissa through the end of the month and so we could not yet go home, except to drop off and pick up a couple things and quickly go through our mail. So, we flew 8 hours from Tahiti to Los Angeles, spent the night in LA and then got on a plane for another 11+ hours to get to London. And, did I mention that I was sick?

Somehow we both survived through it relatively unscathed. We arrived in London on St. Patrick's Day and dined in an Irish gastropub full of drunken guys in hats shaped like giant mugs of Guinness. I received a free bright green Guinness T-shirt and so I now have my go-to St. Patrick's Day outfit for the next 10 years. London is nothing if not fun.

As many of you know, I have not really hidden the fact that London is not my favorite city in the world. (Mostly because, with all of the gray brick, I find it rather Dickensian-style depressing. Nothing that a good whitewashing and a bit more sunshine would not fix.) But, I must admit that, after visiting that city so many times in the past 8-1/2 years and after all the wonderful times Charlie and I have had, most notably with his welcoming friends and family, for the first time ever, it felt a little bit like coming back to a home-away-from-home. Like visiting my grandma's; I don't live there, but it's a nice, welcoming place to visit. I won't say it out loud, but I won't disagree if you suspect that London is growing on me.