Intermittence

So, it’s 8:32 PM on Monday, March 8. Donnell and I are in Paris, and this is a quick synopsis of what’s happened since I last checked in:

• We successfully left Minneapolis, but…
• …our luggage didn’t.
• Just before closing the door to the airplane, a ridiculously drunk vulgar American boarded and sat behind us. Things got so bad that he was officially warned that continued poor behavior would be considered a violation of Federal law and he would be met by the police upon landing in Amsterdam. We did not enjoy this flight, but it warrants a separate blog entry. Stay tuned.
• We rushed through the airport in Amsterdam, picked up some Dutch candy, and learned that…
• …security personnel in Amsterdam believe that the only knitting needles which are too dangerous to carry on board an airplane are those with a shawl-in-progress attached to them. The needles were confiscated, but many others which were not currently involved in a project were not. Donnell was not happy.
• The flight from Amsterdam to Paris was smooth, quiet, and provided us with the only sleep (short though it was) to be had.
• We discovered upon arrival in Paris that Delta had neglected to put our one checked bag on the plane, and that it was still in Minneapolis. We were not happy.
• Things got better from here on out.
• We were shuttled to Judah’s apartment without incident.
• Donnell and I fought sleep long for a couple of hours and went to dinner (which also deserves its own blog post, and will get it). It was, in a word, fantastic.
• Finally, after 36 long hours, we got some real sleep.

I’ll recount today’s experiences tomorrow. It’s late, we’re not totally rested, and the bed’s looking mighty inviting right now. The Louvre and Centre Pompidou are closed tomorrow, which ruins the plans we’d made (though apparently they weren’t very good plans to begin with, given the amount of research we put into them), so we’ll play it by ear until Judah gets off work.

It’s so nice to be here.