7 Quick Takes Friday #56

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

Ah, being home is SO good. And I have a whole month of being home to look forward to! (Well, at least, as far as I know I do not have to travel anywhere in April, but that could change on a day's notice.) Of course, there is plenty to do since we have this new house. I dropped boxes at the new place, left Donnie to clean up the old place, and took off for the Middle East. Now I have to pay the price for doing that and get all the unpacking done while living for a while in modern cardboard decor.

1. Tripping to Qatar for a conference this past week certainly came with adventure. I should have missed the connection in Philadelphia on the Charlotte-Philly-Manchester (UK) flight because my flight from Charlotte was delayed for longer than my layover; then the pilot announced that he was too tired to fly and got off the plane. So, a new pilot had to be found. Now, nearly everyone would have missed their connections. However, the replacement pilot, a cowboy of the skies, was determined that we would make up all the lost time. He told us not to get out of our seats, put on the seat buckle sign, and then careened up the coast, bumping up and down among the air pockets. We arrived in time for me to make my connection.

2. My suitcase had an even greater adventure. It ditched me in the UK, was sighted a couple of days later, but was not captured and returned to me until two hours before I left the conference. When it arrived, the suitcase had a tag that read "traveling unaccompanied." That suitcase has racked up more frequent flyer miles than I have! My sister thinks it deserves its own frequent flyer number, and my niece thinks it should be decalred sentient and independent.

3. On the plane from Manchester, UK to Doha, I was thrilled to find myself seated beside one of the architects of contemporary Doha. His work is so beautiful -- large, glassy, sophisticated, modern buildings. He was actually not disembarking in Doha but continuing on to Saudi Arabia, where he is going to be working on the new Economic City planned by King Abdullah.

4. Upon arrival, things did not settle down, suitcase aside. With nothing to unpack, I settled into my room my opening my computer and plugging in my surge protector. Immediately, there was a fireworks display. The surge protector charred itself and my hand. It seems that I caused a surge instead of protecting the computer from one. I forgot about the 110/220 difference! Sigh!

5. Since I was traveling all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday, I was pleased to learn that there was a 6:00 p.m. Mass -- until I found out that we had a required reception for the conference at the same time. Ouch! Then, I learned that there would be a Mass on Monday at the same time. I talked my conference group into ending early, and four of us took off walking for the chapel, located about a mile from our conference location, across the desert. The wind was blowing pretty strongly against us, but we made it in time -- only to find out that Mass was every day at 6, except for Monday. Sigh!

6. On the return to the airport, we left a little early and stopped at the old souk in Doha for a dinner of hammour (the tastiest fish in the seas -- my opinion), mint lemonade (the tastiest drink in the world -- my opinion), and the regular run of "mezza" (humus, fettush, baba ganoush, metabel). For desert, I had om ali (lit., Ali's mother), the tastiest desert around -- my opinion.

7. Coming back through passport control in San Francisco, I guessed I raised the curiosity of the passport agent because he chatted with me for a while. I guess that makes a good agent -- someone who can act like he is carrying on pleasant chit-chat but is really looking for answers that are contradictory. Dunno what caught his attention, but I suppose it is not every day that someone from California goes to Qatar for a conference. Clearly, the agent had a good memory and good instincts. When my colleague stepped up after me, the agent asked him, "Do you work with Miss Beth?"

As I said in the beginning, it is great to be home, even if it means living amidst cardboard boxes, some of which I will get unpacked this weekend. Wishing you all a great weekend doing whatever you most want to do!