Back in town

Well, I am back in the States. The return flight went really well, without any major glitches. Except when checking in at the Tbilisi airport, it turned out that my single suitcase was 35 kg which lead to my rummaging through it to dig out 5kg worth of crap. Fortunately, my friend’s brother-in-law had checked my tickets the night before to figure out how much weight I can have in one suitcase and I knew ahead of time that KLM takes up to two suitcases, each up to 32kg so my friend argued with the check-in lady and I had to dig out only 3 kg worth of crap. As you can tell by my previous posts, I am brilliantly smart (hmm, brilliantly smart, is that an oxymoron?) - I also packed an empty Prospero’s Books plastic bag so I proceeded to fill it up with books, a collection of DVDs and my Ipod charger. The charger was then carefully inspected by security personnel who must have thought it was some sort of a terrorist device. Actually, I wonder if they knew what it was since Ipod people brilliantly designed it so that prongs retract and all you see is a small white box. So essentially, my carry-on was a back bag with three bottles of wine which turned out to be heavy, my laptop, and a 3.5 kg yellow plastic bag. I definitely wasn’t stylin’ with a set of matching Louie Vuitton luggage. Considering all the posters around airports, indicating permissible amount of carry-on luggage, I am shocked that they let me carry on three bags but I guess my usual bored look is a deterrent from being approached by KLM personnel.

When getting on Georgian airline plane, I was dreading my previous experience of flying to Georgia when I sat in front of several Georgian men who proceeded to speak loudly throughout the flight in addition to wobbling the back of my chair by leaning against it. This time, I sat in a completely empty row, keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that some young, dashing, and brilliant lad would sit next to me instead of some loud mouthed seat wobbler. I sat in the middle seat (I assume this was punishment from the check-in lady for arguing over the weight of my suitcase) and to my disappointment, every seat around me, including a row in front and a row behind, was taken by Georgian men in their 30’s and 40’s. All were laughing and joking as they sat down and at that moment, I knew that I would not be able to get any shut eye and someone would wobble my seat again. It turned out that crossing fingers does work! Kind of. All the Georgian dudes around me were car drivers, making their way to Düsseldorf to pick up cars to drive back to Georgia. Generally, most cars in Georgia are bought overseas and they are then driven individually to Georgia. One of them took a particular liking to me and chatted with me for a while and then delivered drinks when the stewardesses were taking their naps in the first class seats. He even assured me several times during turbulence that there is always turbulence on those particular spots and he knew this because he flew to Germany seven times in the past three months. He also asked for my email address so if any of you need a car driven from Europe to Georgia, I know someone.

I also realized last night that my neighborhood Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is a total dump. Before I get hate mail from people telling me to go back to Georgia, it really is dumpy. I am fond of some of its architecture, throughout you can still find amazing facades of former theaters and banks, but I have to say, garbage thrown all streets, red-nosed Polish drunks, and perpetual smell from the local sewage plant classifies it as a dumpy neighborhood.

Anyways, I am getting back into swing of things so if you’re looking for me, call me! Well, except that there is something screwy with my phone and it seems that calls go through straight to voicemail and I am notified of a voicemail about 15 minutes after a message is left. But I will call back, I promise.