I haven't written one single line here while I was in Boston! I didn't expect that, I thought I would have one tirade after another. See, i not only expected to visit with my son, but also to have some time to process my own internal crap. And true, I have, but a lot of that have happened with specific people using e-mail, and I honeslty forgot I had a journal.

Anyhow, I've actually had a marvelous time in many ways. I got to live in this beautiful old house, owned by a wonderful couple (the hubby is a fan of Scandinavian movies, which was quite unexpected!). I'll happily go to them again.

It was wonderful to see how my son has developped, and quite sad to separate from him. He's a wonderful kid, and I do miss him a lot. I loved playing, hugging, being cozy, talking, watch him do gymnastics, play with friends, solving all the little things he needed to solve and all other things that I currently forget.

Another unexpected thing was to discover different facets in my ex. Good things. That's good, because they were probably always there, I just wouldn't see them through my filters before, which means that I've really let go of some of my issues. Hooray!

While being away from Sweden, I also had the time to process some other crap, like what's happened in me in the last few stressful months, finally let out some emotions that I had bottled up for a while, and finding myself again. Getting more grounded, basically.

Right now, I'm sitting on the plane to Newark, grounded at Logan Airport (Boston). The ongoing blizzard is just enormous! My ex called me, telling me she had seen lightning, and that the last plane that left Logan got struck by lightning and had to return, and that's why they closed the airport. Last thing I heard was that the airport itself was (partly?) out of power, and it's quite possible the same goes for parts of Boston. It's rumoured to be the worst blizzard since many decenies.

Someone is currently talking on the phone, and telling her father that the snow has cleared up (which it has), and that we probably should be on our way in not too long. I can't really tell if that last was a small lie or not. The runway is still covered with snow, and the plows are working hard to shovel it all out of the way. Well, that's a bit better than a couple of hours ago, when they thought that they would have to close the airport for the night.

What worries me the most is that I might not be in Newark in time to catch my flight to Sweden, and it would really suck if I would have to stay in Newark over night, as I've heard it's really tough to get hotel rooms in that area. Ah well, we'll see how it goes, and when I'll find myself in Sweden. I'm having good faith.

Update at 16:09 EST (22:09 CET):

we were just told that we will take off in about 10 minutes! Woohoo! That means we'll get to Newark on time, I hope. Life looks a little bit brighter.

Update on december 10, 17:06 CET:

what an adventure! So, the taking off "in 10 minutes" was quite a misunderstanding. That was when the de-icing process started, and let me tell ya, the wings were covered with about 5 inches of snow! So you can imagine the de-icing took a while (I didn't clock it, but I'm guessing something between 30 and 45 minutes). We finally took off from Logan somewhere after 5pm.

When we arrived at Newark, we quickly found out that the plane to Stockholm had already left. At this point, Mr P (who I had already started talking to back at the gate at Logan, and who I decided at this point would be a travel buddy, since we were both going to Stockholm and found ourselves in the same predicament) and I simply had to go to Continental costumer services and see what we could get. We got a flight to Paris, and the flight from there to Stockholm would be with Air France, landing us in Stockholm at about 18:15 today.

Well, we had a couple of hours to kill in Newark, so we went for a bite. Found ourselves in some kind of "Portuguese" café, where we ate a pretty good chicken in herbs with rice and fried potatoe slices, and talked. I got to tell Mr P bits and pieces of what goes on in my life and where my passion lies, and got to know that he travels a little everywhere in the world, feels really stressed out, and especially now, since he is to visit his girlfriend in Stockholm and doesn't enjoy the delay, at all. He was really happy to hear I had a strong passion for something.

On we went, flying over the Atlantic, after another delay of, IIRC, less than an hour. We weren't sitting very close, so I read a french newspaper, played a bit with the entertainment unit that was individually available on this flight (I watched "Batman begins" and played a few games), then slept a little bit. Woke up an hour or so before we landed at Roissy Charles de Gaule. Before landing, I watched the french landscape, saw the small villages, one after another, before we started seeing the northern suburbs of Paris, and that's when it hit me! Oh, ce que la France me manque! Last time I was there was about 10 years ago, and that's just too damn long! I realised I got to come back, breathe the air, smell the smells, touch the ground. It really is a part of me that I haven't been in touch with for a very long time.

Anyway, at Roissy, we got through passport control, then went to the local transfer services to get our boarding passes, and I had the immense pleasure of using French with someone beside my mom, and it was as much a pleasure to help Mr P getting his boarding pass as well (more use of French ).

After a short personal browsing in the small local bookstore, and buying 4 French comic books (Ah, la BD française!), Mr P and I met again at the gate, and simply waited until the time of boarding, me reading one of the comic books I had just purchased, him reading some magazine he had purchased.

I'm currently sitting in the plane writing this update, having just eaten a good little dinner (my only complaint would be that it was served cold, but it was fish, so it still tasted good), with a good white wine (hey, I'm on a French plane, what other excuse do I need? and it was a Côte-du-Rhône, how could I say no?), and life is currently good. Mr P is currently watching a movie on his laptop :-).

You know, it's good to have a random travel buddy like that. Makes all the waiting much less boring. You get to talk and have a social time in the middle of all the waiting and (mis)adventures. This is good. It was meant to be. I really appreciate it that Mr P is with me on this trip.

Update on december 10, 18:05 CET:

Ha! I was just offered the "Flying Blue" card, with which I can collect miles and get some free one. Cool! And I'm noticing that I'm the only one who got that offer. Must be because I spoke French with the crew. I knew speaking would have benefits, but this was a bit unexpected. Anyway, I'm signing up. Hey, if it gives me free tickets to go see my son, I'm not gonna complain!

And now, we were just informed the descent to Stockholm has started. Guess it's time I close save this update and close the laptop.