You Are Cordially Invited.....

...to my Re-Entry Pity-Party. Japan was AMAZING, trust me, I'll tell you all about it, just as soon as I get past this curse of re-entry into normal life. It all started at Narita Airport in Tokyo. As we were checking in for our flight home, my bags failed the security check-point thus had to proceed to formal inspection. Luckily I'm a total spaz about the organization of my luggage so it was rather easy to dig through my stuff, even if it were mostly dirty laundry. After 20 minutes we finally found the problem: a lighter in the front pocket of my suitcase. You see, in the U.S. if you want to travel with a lighter, you have to keep it in your checked luggage. Apparently it's the opposite in Japan, so the Nice Inspection Lady took the lighter from my checked luggage and put it into my carryon. Wha? Ok, you're the boss, lady. Keep in mind that there is not a whole heck of a lot of English being spoken during this process and I'm operating on not so much sleep.

Moving along, everything is fine, we're on the plane, the majority of our flight attendants spoke English which was a total relief by this time, but I get seated next to I Need Both Armwrests Guy for the 10 hour flight home. I'm on the aisle, so using that armwrest is out of the question unless I want broken bones from the beverage carts going up and down the isle slamming into my arm. I drugged myself into slumber, so luckily I didn't have enough wake time to be pissed off about the situation.

We land at MSP and all 4 of us are so excited to be home where we understand the language (8 days of a foreign language can really wear on you mentally) and we're relieved to see that our flight is the only arrival at Immigration so the line was only 400 some people long. We get to the Immigration Officer who askes me the strangest question: "Do you have any issues with high blood pressure?" Ummmmm, no sir, I'm just fine, thank you. "Well, don't freak out but I have to keep your passport." Ummmmmm, why exactly??? "It's not valid. How much did you pay for this thing?" [Blood pressure immediately sky-rockets, I almost have to ask for a crash cart, stat.] Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, this is a government issued passport, sir, I don't understand the problem. "Do you have a credit card?" [Self-dialog: what in the FUCK is going on with this guy?????] Yes. "What do you have to do to activate a credit card?" [Self-dialog: I don't know, call that little number or something???] The officer slides my passport over to me, open to the page with my picture and my signature…..signature being the absent item there. I had never updated my last name on my passport after I got married but for this trip I finally got a new one and apparently forgot to sign it before we left. So I signed it in front of the officer and he goes, "Ok, now you're legal to go to Japan, have a good trip." Sarcasm was not appreciated at that moment, but I let it go and went to go find my luggage. ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Next up, cab ride home from the airport. Reasonably uneventful minus the fact that I slammed my head on the door of the minivan, causing a rather large bump to form.

We're finally home! All I want is a shower and a nap, but alas, that was not to be. Greg and Jill had left their truck at our house while we were gone and now it wasn't starting. This didn't suck for me nearly as much as for G & J, obviously, who were equally excited to get home and relax. 2 hours later, Nate finally just drove them home. My dad and Greg just finally towed the truck up to a shop in Highland, yesterday.

Saturday (the day we got home, around noon) I took like a 5 hour nap, got up for pizza for dinner, then went right back to bed and slept till 4am. I was totally done sleeping by this point so I got up to watch some TV. After a little while, I got up to open some windows, in the process I fell down the back stairs and sprained my knee. We just found out officially yesterday when we spent 3 hours in the ER at United. I have a big huge immobilizer on my leg. The pain is pretty well contained as long as I don't move it. Oh, and have 800mg of Ibuprofen in my system.

Nate had to travel to California this week. He left shortly after we got home from the ER yesterday. I hate when he leaves at night. It totally throws off the routine. I went to bed pretty early, exhausted from hopping on one leg all day, but after only a couple hours of sleep, I woke up. My throat was sore and my nose was runny, I just thought it was dry in the house and my allergies were acting up. 5 hours later, still unable to get back to sleep, I realize that it's not allergies, it's a full blown cold. So now not only am I a gimp, but I'm an Ailing Gimp.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Fall quarter. I'm going to hobble into class, with my medicine head and clouded voice, which is going to sound so awesome on the radio….not, and everyone is going to be like, what the fuck happened to you in Japan?! Luckily I was fine while I was in Japan. It was re-entry that kicked my ass.