While I enjoy visiting and exploring new places, getting ready to go out of town is just shy of tortuous. I suck at packing. Let’s not even get into packing light, which is exactly what I had to do this time.
I ended up getting about 45 minutes of actual sleep and was ready to leave well ahead of the time EA and JK were supposed to pick me up. Since only JK had been to the apartment before, I invited them in to take a look around. Kitty-mon, who had just settled in for her morning cat nap on my big chair, got caught (make that trapped!) in the living room and was forced to be somewhat sociable. She behaved herself and didn’t cause any messes while I was away. Apparently, she was only mildly traumatized. >^..^<
The drive to Tampa International was fairly uneventful and so was the first leg of the flight to Newark. Then, despite the fact I had been faithfully chomping on gum for the majority of the time we were in the air, my ears started popping with a vengeance. (As if someone was stabbing each of my eardrums with sharp scissors.) This triggered an almost-migraine headache that wouldn’t go away until later that night.
After we landed, we headed to the East Village residence of our gracious hostess. Introductions were made, we stashed our stuff and then headed out for a business call, followed by a great Italian dinner with EA’s mom and a long walk through the neighborhood shopping district.
That alone was plenty of entertainment for one day and cemented a commitment to myself that I will go back there someday for an all-out shopping expedition: I really want to hit the Japanese toy store that was closed by the time we passed by. The Kaiyodo action figures in the window were calling my name. ;-)