long time coming

with just a snap of my fingers and a flick of the wrist - la vie normale! normality has returned to my life as if nothing had ever happened. one of the best things about fargo is that it's always the same. there is a comfort in this. i woke up this morning and for a good 15 seconds, couldn't remember where i was. and then - ahhh, yes. home. sweet home. it's hard to believe that 24 hours ago i was in london. it almost doesn't seem like i just spent 3 months away - berlin, warsaw, bonn, munich, paris, barcelona, london. and don't forget fargo! the great cities of the world.

yesterday was thanksgiving - a relatively uneventful holiday in the erdmann family. well, in the midwest in general. i've always thought that people out here (midwest) don't get into the holiday as much as they do on the east coast. guess that's what happens when you dont have pilgrims. i'm not sure what's more telling of thanksgiving for my family - our thanksgiving dinner yesterday at buffalo wild wings or coming home to watch a documentary on the north dakota state fair on pbs. in all fairness, my parents returned from a 2-week trip to seattle yesterday a few hours before they had to pick me up from the airport. wait - had? got. before they "got" to pick me up from the airport. :)

someone asked why i was traveling on thanksgiving and i was like, "why not??" and here is a tip for you all: it's the BEST day to travel! the airplanes are EMPTY. people are FRIENDLY and HAPPY. and everyone wants to get on with their holiday, so things work ON TIME. it was great! i was originally slightly annoyed with northwest because last summer i booked my ticket (using my miles) to return on thanksgiving day from london to minneapolis and then to fargo. a month ago they changed my flight from london to detroit to minneapolis to fargo. now i know why - the flight from london to msp was completely cancelled for yesterday (not enough people) and my flight to detroit was half full. it was great! i watched 4 movies on the plane. elaines roommate in london asked me if i wanted a sleeping pill for my flight and i was like, "no way! i am going to bed early tonight so that i can stay awake the whole flight and watch movies." i do love me the cinema. unfortunately, the movies i watched weren't outstanding. but thats fine. i had nothing else to do.

so i got to detroit and went through customs - most of the people traveling were non-americans. it was interesting. then i noticed an earlier flight to msp that i just might make, so i went to the counter and asked them to put me on the flight that was boarding at that moment. since its thanksgiving and everyone is HAPPY (as stated before), they were glad to oblige and not charge me. so i got to msp 2 hours earlier than i was supposed to and thought i would jump on the earlier flight to fargo. no such luck. on a normal day, there are nearly hourly flights to fargo from msp. being thanksgiving, and this was the only negative thing i discovered about traveling yesterday, is that there was only ONE flight to fargo all day. and so i had to wait. but that was no big deal. i watched gossip girl on my laptop.

so that was my day yesterday - a day full of travel and a return to normalcy. how did you spend your thanksgiving??