We had to leave this morning at 5:30am to get me to the airport in Jerez by 7.  I got to Madrid at 8 and sat at the airport for 5 hours until I left again.  Of course, when one has a long layover, one spends money - I figured since I’ll be home next weekend (surprise!) I would pick up some Spanish goodies for my family and one friend back home.  I bought packages of chorizo, a yummy Spanish sausage, to give to everyone, and before I checked out I asked if there would be any problems importing it to the US.  No, there wouldn’t be, so I purchased it and packaged it and put it in my luggage.  8 hours later when I arrived in Philadelphia for my next 6 hour layover, the chorizo was taken by immigration and in my over-tired and very irritable mood, I grabbed my luggage and sliced open my finger (ok, it was about as big as a papercut but!) which I didn’t notice until I made it back out of immigration, into another terminal of the airport in Philadelphia, through the baggage check, and to the counter to try and change my ticket, and that was when I looked down and saw that the stupid tiny little cut had bled all down the side of my hand and there was blood on my  pants and on both hands and it was just such a perfect end to my voyage out of Madrid.

I’m in Philly now on my second ridiculously long layover of the day en route to Newport, RI for a few days of training and then I am flying home! for 2 days.  It wasn’t meant to be a surprise to those of you back home, but my travel arrangements weren’t finalized until 4pm on Friday night and I didn’t get the chance to call home until today.  I didn’t want to say I was coming home and then have my arrangements fall through and force you all into grief counseling because I wasn’t going to be there.

You’re welcome. See all you Wisconsinites on Thursday night!