Never check your toothpaste.

If I could impart to you one packing tip, it would be never to check your toothpaste when handing over your luggage at the airport. Now, this can be impossible if your trusty tube of Crest contains more than three ounces. So if this is the case, I suggest a travel size, available for purchase at your nearest Wal-Mart, or if in New York, Duane Reade drugstore.

I wish I'd followed my own advice when making the migration home on Saturday. It just goes to show my stereotypical belief in adolescent invincibility. "Oh, I won't pack much in my carry-on," I thought confidently to myself. "We'll be home by midnight."

But unfortunately our flight initially set for 4:30 p.m. didn't actually leave the La Guardia runway until approximately 9:15. Two of those layover hours were spent stock-still on the tarmac, watching big splatters from a huge thunderstorm slap the windows outside the cabin. The poor captain kept apologizing for his/the control tower's/the weather channel's oversight in thinking the storm had held long enough to board. There I sat, listening to South-bound travelers pronounce "well" as "wheel" and discuss their love of deer hunting. No joke, the man behind me must have monopolized his neighbor's ear for well over 15 minutes about his various outdoor excursions. The only thing keeping me from slitting my wrists was the hope that maybe he'd be one of those legendary passengers who'd checked antlers!! This I still have to see first-hand.

Needless to say we missed our connecting flight in Tennessee, necessitating an overnight stay at the Memphis International Airport... with all of our luggage unchecked. "Yay," you might say at the thought of me being reunited with my toothpaste. But no, with the effort required to dig to the bottom of two months worth of luggage, leaving the bags untouched was worth the furry teeth it caused.

If you were starting to feel nauseous, be assured I have brushed my teeth countless times according to the tenets of my personal hygiene, since arriving home Sunday afternoon!

But now I'm home and won't have to suffer toothpaste withdrawls ever again. Thanks for reading from my first take-off to the last landing. I'm a little sad it's all over! But home definitely has its perks, like the fact that I no longer have to keep my toothbrush in safekeeping, hidden away from a slobby roommate (sorry, Katie).

Next stop:



Hah!

Signing off,
Meredith