I'm back!

Landed on US soil this morning at 11am est. It seemed like such a longer flight this time because I could only sleep for 3 of the 14 hrs. As I was checking in for the flight the people around me we asking for upgrades and the attendants said everything was overbooked due to an event. I had no idea what that meant but it became apparent as I settled into my seat. It went kid, adult, kid, adult, kid. Apparently there was some kind of "family" fun weekend in ny this weekend, and a bunch of families were all traveling together. These were not ordinary families. These were wealthy to the unspeakable. The kid who was seated in front of me was verbally assaulting his mother because he didn't have his own cabin like he did last time. His mother was explaining to him that first class was not available and she was sorry but they were going to have to fly business. Sorry to have to fly business. Dear god. We still have our own secluded areas with mini bar, blankets, flat bed, and our own 24" flat screen tvs. Poor kid. He was having to slum it and probably ruined his whole trip! The other part of this was some of these kids were barely old enough to walk and they still had their own seat! They basically overtook the bar area on the plane as a big playpen for their kids with their nannies- because of course their nannies had to come with them all- so I was literally stepping over kids playing board games to get my grey goose martini. So that was the most interesting thing I'd experienced this month.
When I got through US customs the first thing I did was buy every magazine I had been missing. Vman, Fastcompany, Inc, Wallpaper and of course a diet coke. All this for under $20. The simple luxury of the living here. That is one thing i miss. Magazines are minimum $10 a peice inthe MIddle east, so four of them and a diet coke for under 20 made me giddy. I started with vman and it was great. Absolutely no content worth anything, no learning, just tacky fashion, fluf writing, and preetty advertisments. It was just what I wanted. A great way to let my brain know "yes, we are on vacation!".