New York, New York

I had to leave my cocoon here in Malaysia and travel to New York for a business meeting all by myself. I was more than nervous. I am just not that adventurous and was so scared to travel all the way to New York without Scott. It actually turned out to be easy. The trip was long and I only got a few hours sleep but no major hurdles. I did have a guy grab my suitcases to give me a taxi ride. I was on my way to the yellow cabs and this guy came up and asked me if I needed a cab and I told him yes. I thought he would call up one of the cabs that were waiting in line but instead he took off with my suitcase. He was going so fast I could hardly keep up. We went to the parking lot and there was this white van. I was confused and asked him if he was the Taxi driver. I was supposed to be meeting Trent at the airport but I couldn't get hold of him and I thought I must have missed him. After I got in this guy's van he had just driven out of the airport when I finally did get hold of Jamie and she told me to turn around that Trent was still there and she told me where I would find him. So the little trip around the airport cost me $25. I was sure glad to get out of his taxi though.

I spent a few days at Jamie's lovely home. It was wonderful driving around and seeing her part of the country. Trent showed me this one house close to their home that had just been built and it was the biggest house. As you turned the corner, this house just revealed itself to be bigger all the time. Absolutely amazing. I thought Jamie's house was big enough. I kept getting turned around. Madelyn wanted to play hide and seek and I told her I was afraid I would never find her, but she explained that we would only use the main level. Good thing, I did finally find her. I had fun playing games with the kids and getting to know them. I had no idea that when Jennie and Julia came that I would be completely abandoned. It was so fun picking Jennie and Julia at the train station. Man I loved being with them again.

We went to Jamie's church on Sunday and were in the same Sunday School class as Glenn Beck. Cool!!!

After church on Sunday, we took the train to New York. I had to be there for a 6:00 p.m. meeting to start my conference. Jessie Bingham Kehl came into town to visit us. It was so much fun to visit with her. She took the girls for a drive around the city and then I met them around 8:30 pm for dinner. It was so fun to visit with them. I was pretty tired. I slept in the roll bed and Jennie and Julia had the Queen bed. I had to get up early every morning to meet my group each morning around 7:00 a.m. The girls spent the day visiting the highlights of New York and shopping. We would meet each night for dinner and one night we went to see the play Mary Poppins. Jessie met us there. The girls left New York early Wednesday morning and I sure hated to see them go.

I had a good conference, it was really busy. I needed to get back to work on Monday, so I had a late night flight out of NY on Friday at 11:45 p.m. Before I even got to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass I had heard that my flight had been cancelled. What a terrible feeling to realize that my flight home was not going to go as planned. I also missed my connection in Taipei. I found that my flight had been cancelled because of a typhoon in China. I spent the night at a flea-bitten Holiday Inn. Not much sleep that night. I had to change rooms because the air conditioner did not work in the room first assigned to me. They told me they would send a repairman up to fix it. I waited about 30 minutes and finally just told them I wanted another room. I was so tired. It was after midnight by the time I finally got settled. I had an early wake up call and took off for the airport and got a morning flight out. Got to Taipei around 6:00 pm. I had to stay the night there and take another morning flight out the next day. I was so worried about making my early morning shuttle to the airport that I finally gave up trying to sleep that night. I was sure glad to finally get home on Monday just one day later than scheduled adding 24 hours to my 30 hour travel time.

I have to say that the traveling is not my favorite thing to do, but being with Jamie and family and especially being with my girls was worth that long, long trip.

I sure am glad to be back and with Scott again.

Sure wish I had pictures to show you but the first time I went to use my camera I found that my battery was dead and had forgotten to pack my charger. Sure was disappointed.