March 2017 Life Update

Things have been really exciting around here lately.  Mostly with good excitement.  I've kept my big news from February rather quiet because I didn't want anyone to know we were going to be gone for a while, but I won a big sweepstakes prize on SuperBowl Sunday.  So many companies have promotions on that day, I nickname it "SweeperBowl".   Turkish Airlines aired a commercial with James Earl Jones, and in conjunction with that gave away 10 business class tickets.  I won one of them!  For my husband to join me on the trip, we had to purchase a ticket for him, and we had to pay for hotel.  But still, we had planned a vacation for this month anyway.



We just returned from Budapest, Hungary last week.  I had visited there in 2002, and only had a couple days.  I always said I wanted to return, so this seemed like a great time to do so.  It was my husband's first overseas trip, and we had a fantastic time.  I will be posting more on the blog about that soon as we did so many neat and amazing things I want to share with you all.  (I know that the chances any of my regular readers would visit Budapest is slim to none, but I still think you will enjoy hearing about some of the fun experiences I had!)  I usually don't have a difficult time with jet lag, but I think this time is making up for all the trips I have gone on where I didn't suffer with the time difference.

My graduate school application has been submitted, and now I am in the wait and see if I get an interview part of the process.  I am not sure how we will swing it financially if I get accepted, but I am of the attitude we will figure that out when / if the time comes.

The weather in West Virginia was absolutely beautiful for about a week.  In fact, I don't remember ever turning on a ceiling fan in February because it was so warm -- until this year.  However, on the day we were to fly out of Budapest, over 4,000 flights were cancelled on the East Coast due to weather.  Unfortunately ours was not one of them.  I have automatic travel insurance on my credit card, and we could have spent up to $500 on a hotel room, food, etc. if our flight was delayed over so many hours.  (Since we changed planes in Istanbul, I was hoping it would get cancelled while we were there and we could see a little of Turkey.)

However, after my flight from Istanbul to D.C. I hope to never visit Turkey, hopefully not even to change planes again.  I was in business class and my husband in economy.  I wish I would have been allowed to change seats with my husband.  The men in business class were very dismissive of women, and it was one of the worst flights of my life.  (I can't decide if it was the worst flight of my life or if that distinction goes to a flight on the now defunct Malev Airlines.)  It wasn't Turkish Airlines fault -- it was the fault of other passengers.  The man beside me took off his shoes and socks during the flight and I got to stare at his foot fungus for hours.  Then he shoved me -- yes physically shoved me -- out of his way when we landed so he could get out the plane quicker than I would.  (I had the aisle seat -- he had the window seat.)  For his effort, he was able to exit 2 people ahead of me.  I hope that shoving me was worth it to him.  Ha ha!  This is just a small portion of what all happened -- the man beside me decided to unbuckle himself and stand up and walk around when we were LANDING.  The flight attendant yelled at him because we were landing and she wasn't going to unbuckle herself.

But we are home, lots of stories, both good (which will be coming up on the blog) and of course Mr. Executive Foot Fungus guy gets mentioned in stories from the trip as well.  We had a great time, ate lots of exotic food, and spent more than we should have, but that's the point of a vacation, isn't it?