Franken-Cake

At 4:45 a.m Malaga time I got a wake up call from the front desk of Hotel Las Americas. I stayed there the night before my flight left because it was the only way for me to get to the airport on time (aside from sleeping in the airport...). I had just enough time to bring myself to consiousness and check out of my room before I needed to be at the train station (which was just across the street) to catch the train to the airport. The train left at 5:19 and I arrived about 15 minutes later.

I finally found my check in gate, and waited in line for ages before being able to check my baggage and get my boarding passes. From Malaga I flew to Paris, France where I had about an hour to go through passport control and then the opposite end of the airport to my gate. At the gate I was interrogated by the airport officials as to where my luggage had been and who had packed it. I guess they were worried I was some kind of terrorist, although I don't really know where they got that one.

From Paris I had an 8 hour flight across the ocean to Newark, NJ. On this flight it was day time, so I didn't really do much sleeping. I watched a few movies and played some games. I also read a lot in my book. The flight actually went pretty quickly but I was really excited when it was over and I could get out of the cramped seating and move and stretch. In Newark I had to pass through yet another passport control center and then proceed to baggage claim where I would pick up my luggage and go through customs and then check it again to get to my next flight.

Newark is one of the least organized airports I've ever been to, and the people there are very unwilling to help you. I asked one of the women there about the procedure and she acted like these were things I was supposed to know already ( I haven't flown out of the country for 4 or 5 years... how am I supposed to know these things). She was very impatient and entitled, but I got the information I needed and headed down to baggage claim to await the arrival of my things.

After about a half hour they started to load the luggage on the loop, and after about another half hour they stopped. My things never showed up, and I asked another continental associate whether or not they were done with the baggage, which a radio call confirmed. This meant that all of my clothes and all of my gear were still in Paris, not in the U.S. where they were supposed to be. At this point I was on the verge of breaking down because I had already been traveling for over 12 hours, and still had another 4-6 hours to go. The representative told me I had to wait until I got to Burlington to file a claim, so I proceeded through customs, where I had to take a train to the next loading zone, and then promtly go through yet another security check point. Once I made it through there I had to walk clear to the other end of the section to get to my gate, where I was informed that my flight was delayed and I needed to proceed to another gate, which just happened to be at the opposite end where I had originally started.... Good thing I was wearing comfortable shoes.

Finally I was in the right spot, and finally my flight arrived and we left. I was so exhausted that I was out before the plane took off, and had to be awakened by the stewardess as we were landing to put my things away. I got to see a really incredible sunset over the lake and the Adirondaks that nearly made the delay worth it. Once I landed in Burlington I had to wait for over a half hour for someone to come to the Continental desk where I could make my claim for my lost baggage, which then took nearly a half hour because the woman couldn't figure out how to make it go through. In the end I called Cristina a little after 8 and finally made it home around 9. I was in bed by 9:30 and out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Matty got home around 12:30 and it was so nice to wake up with him next to me in our home once again.

Yesterday was Matt's birthday. We decided we'd go out to dinner and I would bake him a cake when I got home from work. So I bought all of the ingredients and spent a couple of hours baking this incredible looking and smelling chocolate cake. I even made the frosting for it. We went out for dinner (Sushi... it was incredible!) and when we got home I went to go and frost the cake. This promptly turned into a disaster because the cake was stuck in the pan, and the one nice thing I was able to do for him on his birthday I felt I had ruined. After a lot of tears, and some broken halves of cake, the Franken-Cake emerged. It was probably the ugliest cake I have ever made in my life, but in the end it tasted better than any I had ever made too. Matt reassured me that he loved it over and over, but I still feel bad that I ruined his cake. I guess looking back on it, it is pretty funny, and we'll definitely have something to remember for his 26th birthday... I just hope the same thing doesn't happen again in the future!

Now it is back to the grind stone of working again. I am so done here at the Howard Center, and I feel almost trapped in this job... hopefully soon I will be able to have something new that actually makes me happy. Until then I work and live for the evenings and weekends when I can be free of this place!