Ireland...I Love You!

I got home tonight after a very long day of traveling. A day of traveling that almost never happened. Due to a cancelled flight and a lot of anxiety over Hurricane Sandy, I was offered an opportunity to volunteer to give up my seat and get $800 and all my meals and lodging covered for the day/night. I had to wait in line for nearly 45 minutes to get this offer. And when I said that I'd entertain this possibility, I had to go into another line and wait another 45 minutes. Sadly, after waiting for nearly an hour and a half, I was told that I'd have to go to the gate and they'd let me know there if I needed to give up my flight.

Unfortunately, this meant my relaxing morning at the airport where I could get something to eat and do some last-minute shopping got completely railroaded. Instead, I had to run through the airport, go through US pre-clearance, go through another security line and  rush to the gate with just barely enough time to get my ass in my chair.

Ugh.

Listen. I'm not really complaining. After all, I've just spent nearly three weeks vacationing around Ireland and Scotland and Ireland again. I've been blessed to have some really magical moments, to meet some really magical people, to spend time with even more magical people who have become good friends (even though there's an entire country and an ocean separating us most of the year) and I've been beyond blessed to have a husband who allows me to leave him and our dog for nearly three weeks to do all of this without him.

As I sit here, I feel nothing but gratitude for the beautiful memories I have, the experiences I was lucky enough to have and the people who made it as unforgettable as it will always be. I hope beyond hope that I'm able to return to Ireland again in 2013, but no matter what, my memories and photographs will be  more than enough to sustain me.