There's No Place Like Home

Whew! I am so glad to be home, especially considering what it took to get us here -- packed trains, frighteningly long security lines at airports, and a cancelled flight in Newark that left us stranded an extra 4 1/2 hours for the final leg home.

What kept me going was the cats. I was single-minded in my pursuit to return home to them.  "My babies, hang on, I'm coming," I telapathied to them. I was so tired I was almost sick with it--we'd been up close to 24 hours. "Must get home to the cats, must get home to the cats, I chanted.

Finally, we pull in front of our house. Leaving Blair to struggle with the luggage I race up the steps, fling open the door, drop my purse as I stretch my arms wide and announce  to Lucy--my baby, my darling--sitting on top of the credenza, "Mommy's home!"

She took one look at me and fled.  Not quite the homecoming I had envisioned.

She quickly came around, as did Olivia.  I am THRILLED to announce that Olivia--the cat who no one even believes we own because she has never been see by anyone except us--made friends with Melody, our housesitter. She sat on Melody's lap and allowed herself to be combed. Melody left me a note that noted what a "friendly little kitty," I had.

Hello, what? Friendly? My cat? But I'm SO relieved. It puts my heart at rest to know Olivia got some kitty love while we were gone. Unlike Lucy who apparently did nothing but hiss in Melody's general direction the entire time.

BTW, I'm going to recommend my friend Melody look into a new career as a housesitter. We came home to a SPOTLESS home, mail neatly stacked up, newspapers in chronological order on the dining room table, happy cats, towels folded and put away, clean sinks and fresh linens.  She was a God-send.

Okay, I have many amusing (or what I hope are amusing) stories to tell from our trip that I'll summarize in future posts. For now, I am dealing with what I think is a massive caffeine-withdrawal hangover. Apparently the word "decaf" does not exist in the UK. I'll spend the rest of this week detoxing, I'm sure.

But for now, I'm headed outside to enjoy that big yellow globe thing we here in America refer to as "the sun." I'm not sure Britons are familiar with the concept. 

Cheers!