from one colony to another.

My front walk...please notice the height of the snow 

and the height of the car next to it....

I'm back in Boston after a long, totally relaxing five-week adventure through the South! My flight left Atlanta this afternoon around 5 p.m. and I bid adieu to the "warm" Georgia weather :)

The flight began interestingly enough due to entertainment provided by a new U.S. Naval company headed to Connecticut via Boston. (I was seriously sitting in a sea of blue Naval uniforms for my trip up.) After the normal "seat-belts on/cell phones off" speech, the head flight attendant guy welcomed the new sailors aboard and everyone on the plane cheered for them (which was a really sweet moment to experience). He then announced that there were two empty first-class seats available to the first sailors who could answer his trivia questions. (To which all they started cheering and hollering and standing up--obviously excited about a free upgrade and fancy adult cocktail of their choice!)

His first question asked how many buttons the original Navy uniform pants had....to which they ALL yelled, "Thirteen!!" (....like it was so obvious or something). Blown away by their intelligence, he asked if they knew what the buttons represented, to which they all answered, "The colonies!" (....clearly, they all passed their Navy history tests). Getting frustrated by their brilliance (and I'm sure desperately searching for a hard enough question to get them seated so we could get that bird in the air), he pondered for a moment and asked which two presidents died on the same day. Aha!! He stumped them! But then some smarty pants over my left shoulder screamed "Adams and Jefferson!" which was apparently correct, so he got to gather his items, parade all the way up to the front of the plane and claim his prize. That meant there was only one seat left--the heat was on!!

(Now, before I tell you what the last question was, I think I should defend these boys--whom I overheard had been traveling all day from somewhere else in the U.S.--by telling you that I'm 99% sure they weren't Georgia boys.) So the final question was posed: "What was the 13th colony?" Not one of them knew it!! (I fear for our country.) I leaned over to the kid next to me (who was maybe one day over 18 years) and said "It's Georgia." He looked at me like I was an alien. At any other time, I'd look at me like I was an alien, too, if Katy Capers was trying to tell me the answer to a history question (it's not my finest subject, FYI). But I said, "I'm telling you, the answer's Georgia." Again, he just looked at me like I didn't speak his language (which, I found out later, that I actually did). He obviously wasn't listening--but I was pretty intent on getting rid of at least one of the two fellas squishing me into the airplane wall--so I leaned to the guy on the aisle and told him, too. Again, alien! Apparently, I finally said "No really. I promise the answer is Georgia!" loudly enough so that another guy behind me heard MY answer, screamed it out himself and got a spot at the front. I didn't so much care that he got first class--I figure my living quarters will be much nicer than his for the next few months so, ehh, why not give it to him--but he could have at least had the decency to make one of the boys on my row move to his old seat so I could have a little extra leg room. Geez! But alas, he forgot all about us poor folk once he got beyond that tacky see-through dividing curtain. Whatevs.

My annoyance was soon forgotten, however, during takeoff, when the boy in the aisle seat on my row grasped the armrests with all that he had and muttered to his friend, "Dang it, man! This is why I joined the Navy, not the Air Force! I hate flying!" ....and he proceeded to sit with his eyes squeezed shut, head tilted upward, and hands firmly squeezing those poor armrests for the duration of the flight.

Anyway! Now I'm back in action and completely submerged in a world with which I'm totally unaccustomed and sorta terrified. Please see pictures for this rationalization :)

say cheese,
katy

PS -- Haley. I love you (and now you've been mentioned)!!