Yesterday

On my final day, Wednesday the 18th, I'm stoked up again by 7 full hours of blessed sleep and actually allow myself to go to my lovely gym for the final time and get some non-packing/moving exercise. My body loves me even more. I still don't get everything done that I need to, but "close enough for horseshoes". I'm flying out and anything left to do will just have to be so.

I arrive at RDU airport an hour later than my initial, optimistic plan, but still in enough time. However, despite having culled more than a third of my closet and putting 3 bags of clothing in storage, my 2 checked bags are still overweight, and one is oversized, for which I get docked a huge amount! I pay without argument. After all this though, it turns out that the flight is delayed 3 hours bc of backups at JFK in New York City. I barely make my connecting flight to Shannon. I mean barely! The only reason I made it was by running all the way from the other Delta terminal, with my shockingly heavy carry on suitcase (Thank God for all the exercise I've been getting!), and only bc that flight was 10 minutes delayed by not having enough flight attendants.

Everything goes like roses after this point, however. Somehow I end up in First Class! Which, given how freaked out I am by the whole day, I don't realize till an hour or more into the flight when they tell us that we each have a selection of 6 movies on our personal video monitor and that we get a complimentary drink. How did I not notice the extra leg room, leather seats, and extra wide aisles? Remember my last few days?! I definitely take advantage of the movie and the drink.

I arrive at Shannon airport at 9:00 am GMT (this is only 4:00 am EST) and am met at the airport by the business-suited recruiter who takes control of the cart with my immensely heavy bags, buys me a newspaper and a bottle of water, and brings me to his Irish-sized Land Rover for the 90 minute drive to Cork. It starts to strike me that my agency must REALLY need a psychologist for me to be getting all this star treatment! Thankfully, he's as nice and helpful a guy in person as he has been by phone and email these last 5 months. We arrive at the B&B after only a little bit getting lost in Cork and he lugs my bags up 2 flights of stairs! He then spends the next 5 hours driving me around town to meet with my new coworkers, meet with the HR rep to get the final contract, and then back and forth downtown to help me change money, start up a new bank account, and buy a new cell phone since stupid Verizon's system doesn't work in Europe (or anywhere else in the developed world, given how behind America's cell phone system apparently is).

I get back to the B&B around 5:00, stay up for another 90 minutes or so, then crash. That is until I jerk awake at 1:30 am (still only 8:30 pm at home) and find myself unable to sleep for another 2 hours :-)

That was yesterday.