Leaving the US

Our time in Dulles waiting to board is a blur to me now. I cannot remember if we were there a long while; for the life of me I cannot recall if we even bothered to sit down. I know there was a long line at the desk, and the agents were announcing the line was only for those who did not yet have seat assignments. Luckily, we already had our seats.

While in CLT Yesh had noticed that we did not have seat assignments for this leg of the journey, so he handled it at the gate there -- where he learned that the flight was overbooked by about 20 seats. His foresight also snagged us complimentary upgrades from Economy to Economy Plus -- giving luxurious inches of extra legroom. (Thanks, Yesh!)

When we reached our seats we found that we were seated two, two and one, with me across the aisle from the others. With some vigilance and luck we saw that the third seat on one row was empty after the hatch had been closed, so I quick popped over into that row. And since Lax didn't want Rose to 'eat my head' during this thirteen hour flight ('talk my ear off') there was a mommy-daughter struggle before Rose moved up to sit with Yesh and Lax came back to sit with me.

Mellissa was so excited about the long flight because, she asserted, she was gonna pull an all-nighter watching movies and TV. Rose, too, though with less conviction.

Between the time we had ridden the troop transport and the time we boarded it had started to rain. It was hitting against the tiny windows and they sky beyond was grey. "Will they delay our takeoff?", Melissa wondered. "Only if it is a storm," I said. We left with no delays.

Everyone started watching TV immediately. We watched through the nice dinner (I had veg, Mellissa had halal -- good cookie, no ice cream). I watched "American Hustle", then "Wolf of Wall Street". Halfway through Wolf, though it was only 9:30pm EDT, Mellissa was ready to go to sleep and lean against her Mommy.

I convinced her to wait until I'd finished my movie. And afterwards, after we'd switched seats, I went to sleep as well (Merci Marcel!).