From NYC

Sooo....

We had these nice plans of watching movies while we were delayed in NYC before getting ont he massive Airbus 380 that will take us to Dubai. Unfortunately, the world conspired against us.

I could not sleep last night at all. I've had terrible butterflies in my stomach for a few days now and those made me have to get up every twenty minutes or so to pee. And if that weren't enough, I was just managing to calm myself down (about 12 midnight and we had to get up at 3) when Dagny started to cough, a croupy kind of cough. So I took her into the bathroom for a hot steam and then rested on the couch until it was time to get up. No sleeping got done at all, both for me and for Marc, so we are exhausted.

So we get to Sioux Falls at 4:30 AM and check in our bags. I had these nightmares that they would charge us hundreds of dollars for those shoes. Not quite...the shoe bag weighs in at 77 pounds. The limit is 100, so we were still good. We paid $205 in baggage fees for United, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Our flights were on time, well-executed, and we got to NYC at 1:30 or so, and all our bags made it safely through.

Well, we've got hours to kill before we can even check in, so we found a place to store our bags, had lunch, and then went in search of a place we could rest for awhile that wasn't a food court. We found the oasis lounge on the third/fourth floor of Terminal 4. They charge $35 per person, but it's worth it if you have a long layover. The chairs are comfortable, they have nice bathrooms with showers, a business center (with computers, which is where I'm writing from) and a library area with couches AND they have free food and drinks, including a large selection of teas and bottled water. We're thinking of watching a movie, but we will probably both fall asleep in front of the DVD screen. Of course, that might not be a bad idea...

With all the nervousness, I've made myself sick to my stomach. I've taken a bit of medicine and I'm hoping it passes before we get on the plane to go to Dubai. And I'm really hoping I can sleep on the plane. I think I'm going to try sleeping on my own and if that doesn't work, I'll take a unisom and hope it doesn't affect me like the ambien did last time I tried it.

This might be the last reliable internet connection I have, but I'll make every effort to post again.