Farewell

My last night in New York was lovely. Dino organized an impromptu gathering at The Heights, a nice bar near Columbia. After working all day, I really needed to get out and relax a little (yep, I should have been packing, but was procrastinating, as usual!)

When I got there, Dino told me that he was expecting maybe two or three other people, and for a while, it was just the two of us hanging out. But it's always fun hanging out with Dino, so that was okay. However, slowly, people started coming...

Evin and Maryam Nicole, Emma, and Dino:















and Marisa(!) with Meghan, and Dino again.


Emmanuelle also stopped by (after, I think, spying us outside her window! After she went home, we saw her waving to us from her apartment), as did Suzanne with Josh.

It was so lovely seeing everyone who stopped by... and I probably stayed out far later than I should have considering that I still had so much packing to do.

After way too much alcohol, Nicole and Dino escorted me home. Where I promptly crashed in bed (after walking Fiji, of course)

The next morning, when I was mostly done packing, I went looking for Fiji's vaccination certificate. Because he was immunized for rabies right before I got him, my vet could not list that on the travel certificate, and said that I'd need to bring his vaccination record with me. It wasn't in the file I keep with his documents. Or, apparently, anywhere else in my apartment. Total panic. So I finished packing (more or less) and since there was nothing I could do about it, I headed out to the airport, with my folks on call in case either Fiji or myself wouldn't be flying.

My strategy was simple. Act as if I had my shit together. (Ha!) Well, even though there is an 8 kg weight limit for dogs in cabin on El Al, the lovely lady at the check in counter didn't weigh him (bless her!) but only patted him on the head and told me about the German Boxer she has at home, and sent me to buy his ticket.

Then going through security, again, no problem, even though he came out of his carrier, and I had to carrier. So on to the plane he came! After take-off and the meal, I took him out of the carrier and had him on my lap for about 6 hours or so (well, on and off -- he'd get tired of my lap and want to go into the carrier, and vice versa) He stayed there until breakfast time, and then went back into the carrier.

The last obstacle I faced was going in through customs in Israel, but again, no hassle at all. I don't think anyone even noticed us! (Only thing was that in the panic, I forgot the keys to our apartment here in Israel in my dresser in NYC, as well as the Israeli cash that I had left over from the last trip... as well as my static bar, which I was planning on hanging and training on. Argh!)

Fiji and I are both glad to have finally arrived and be with the girls. I might have learned my lesson though. Organization is my friend. From now on, I'm going to try to keep checklists, because the stress of leaving things to the last moment and/or forgetting is just too high a price to pay for being able to procrastinate.

My wireless access is sometimes spotty here in the apartment, so I'll post when it's working and won't when it's not.