Wake me up before you go-go

We went to bed early, for us anyway, Boxing Day so that we could get up horribly early the next day. We had to drive into Detroit to catch a flight to Trenton, so as to spend time with my family over New Year's, and hopefully get to Seaside Heights and maybe see bunny_hugger's brother again. This would be a long trip, about ten days, because the plane from Detroit to Trenton only flies three times a week, which will come back to be significant. It also meant we were leaving all our Christmas preparation and decorations behind, awfully soon, without the time to luxuriate in them, which is a shame. We took my car, with the plan to leave it in long-term parking, rather than get up even earlier and taking the bus in. We'd had to park in the covered lot, at an extra two dollars a day, since the uncovered lot was full, but we'd just have to absorb that cost. There would be about eighty feet of snow while we were out, so, I guess it turned out well.

Frontier Airlines has animals on the tail fins and maintains the pretext that one is flying with the animal. The online check-in claimed we'd be flying with the Fox, and actually flew with Erma the Ermine, because the online check-in is never correct about what plane we're flying with. This was my first flight into Trenton since they renovated and they really did renovate. Instead of going to the lone arrival gate in the building to have luggage brought in, they've got a temporary building set up for the arrivals claiming luggage. (It turns out they now have two departure gates inside the building.) And there's a pretty good hike along the sidewalk leading vaguely towards the driveway instead of an efficient way to get inside to the rental car counter.

There were only a couple people waiting for cars, but it still took roughly eight hours to get through because there was just the one guy working every part of the car rental operation, checking people in and running out to the rental car lot and driving the car back to the front door and showing people where the trunk is and all that. And, of course, the people in front of us were having the most complicated car rental transaction of all time, starting with the point that while they had a reservation it was from a different Enterprise rent-a-car stand, from over in Princeton.

We drove home, to be the last houseguests at my parents' house before they sell it. My parents were delighted to see us, particularly since they really, really like bunny_hugger, and they're kind of fond of me. bunny_hugger got in a bit of a nap --- she'd been sleep-deprived all semester and the Christmas rush hadn't helped any --- and I got to wrapping the stuff I'd brought for my family. I tend to not wrap stuff I'm figuring to bring on the plane even when it's going in the checked luggage.

That evening, we had a dinner while sitting in beach chairs around the coffee table, since all the dining room furniture was in South Jersey or in a storage locker, and exchanged presents. My mother was thrilled most with bunny_hugger's box of chocolates from Fabiano's, and announced that it would be carefully rationed, although we were free to have whatever we wanted of the other boxes of candy sitting around the house and finally being put to use. It's weird being in a home the last two weeks of thirteen years of living.

Trivia: Yearly Meetings of the Quaker communities in British North America alternated between being held in Philadelphia and in Burlington, New Jersey, from about 1684. After 1764 they were held in Philadelphia alone. Source: New Jersey From Colony To State, 1609 - 1789, Richard P McCormick.

Currently Reading: Analog Science Fiction, March 2014, Editor Trevor Quachri. Um. (From the letters column.) There are people who figure stars shining hasn't got anything to do with fusion? That's a new one on me.