Ethpaña!

That´s my best attempt at creating a phonetic lisp.  And I´m back among the throngs of the lisp.  And I love it.  The trip was overall uneventful but there are always some quirks along the way if you´re dealing with me.  The most harrowing part was when I was waiting for my bag in the Madrid airport and it never showed up on my baggage claim.  I wasn't too shocked by this considering I had to switch airline carriers in Boston and re-check in, even though they assured me my bag was checked all the way through.  Another family was also missing their luggage and also switched from American Airlines so we waited with perplexed faces for a good 20 minutes (all the while thinking, oh crap, I don't have Ashley's address.  And she's waiting for me. And Omaha didn't give me a baggage claim ticket.  Awesome.)

Finally we decide to give up waiting but we decide to check the other baggage carousels near us (there are 10 total in Madrid, I believe) and low and behold, out pops my bag from the flight from Las Canarias, which I can only presume to believe came from the Canary Islands.  Insert a "what in the hell..." comment from me but at this point I didn't even care that they busted the handle of my suitcase because all I was thinking was, "That has all of Ashley's stuff from Patti!  They are going to be so disappointed!"  (All of my crap was snugly tucked away into my carry-on---yes, friends, I appreciate packing light.)  So finally  I walk out and see Ash (think of the scene in Love Actually for a mental image) and it was neat and there were lots of tears.

Then we take the metro, go to her apartment and decide that the best way to lug these 2 bags up four flights of stairs is to stack them and each carry one end.  FYI, this is NOT a good solution, as my carry-on suitcase then preceded to fall down an entire flight of stairs.  To which I reply, "Well that's fun.  My laptop is in that."  And we of course dissolved into giggles.  Once we finally made it, we unpacked Ashley's suitcase straightaway.  And these are the pictures of her opening her presents, mainly for Patti's sake (and Hudson and  Amiah.)

Quilt that Hudson and Amiah made (with Patti's help)

 She obviously loved it. (And Patti, I actually had packed that in my carry-on just to be safe.)

And here is Ash with all of her loot.  After she got done, in typical snotty fashion she said, "Ok, well thanks!  You can go home now."  Hahahaha, she thinks she's so funny.

After this, we went to breakfast at a lovely cafe and sat and caught up for 3 hours.  Worth my trip right there. And then came home, took an hour nap, then read and diet coke at the place below her apartment where I met a couple of the workers they're friends with.  Then we went to her chiropractor appointment and then got groceries and things for dinner from all the little shops, ate and watched 30 Rock and painted our nails.  And THEN I got to go to bed after being up for 30 hours.  All in all, a lovely day.  (There's no way I'm documenting every day like this while I'm here but thought this one needed the run-down.)