Silver Linings

Saturday was a mad rush for me. I taught my usual four classes, in addition to getting Dory to her friend Jessica's for "as long as needs be", going to base to run a ton of little errands, and packing for the two of us. I didn't get to bed until 11:00ish, which is super late for me, but I got through the day without any real ill effects from all the madness, so I was rather proud. Also, I was relieved to find that subs have been found for all my classes except one, so that's good.
This morning we were up at 6:00 to get showered and finish getting the house closed up. The duty van came to pick us up at 8:00. By the time we got to Fukuoka, I think both of us had come to two important conclusions: 1) having a broken leg and potentially messed up knee is a really terrible thing. 2) It's also a free vacation. I've never been to the base at Yokusuka before, and it's not often that I get 24 hours straight with Zack even on the weekend, so we more or less made up our minds to enjoy the time off, even if it came with a pretty nasty price.
With that thought in mind, we arrived at the airport. The van dropped us off right outside the place where we were to pick up our tickets. Since this is Japan, the lady at the desk took in Zack's leg in one glance and immediately asked what she could do to help. I think she would have carried both our carry ons and our suitcase (we packed in one rolling duffle bag thing so I wouldn't have to lift anything), but she settled for getting us two seats that were in the center of the plane such that Zack had an empty seat next to him for the trip, giving him plenty of room to stretch out his leg. We checked our bag and then headed up to our gate. Zack was walking on crutches that were about 2 inches too small, so he was really struggling and neither of us thought much about food until we were through security and it was too late. So while we waited for the plane, I had a pineapple softserve icecream, as my second breakfast.
The flight was from noonish to 1ish, which meant that lunch for Zack was totally postponed. However, the seats were super cushy and (for me) comfortable. And they had a super cool feature on the plane that I'd never seen before. During take off and landing, they had a camera set up somewhere on the front of the plane that showed us on the screens inside what was going on out there. When we got too high for that to be interesting, it switched to a different view of the ground below us until the clouds covered that up. I was totally blown away by the chance to actually see take off and landing from the front. Very neat.
When we landed at Haneda, medivac was waiting to pick us up, much to my relief, having imagined taking us through the subways. They were waiting on one more person, so we had time to grab some lunch. By that time, though, the past two days were catching up with me, so Zack enjoyed some onigiri, while I had chips.
Medivac drove us straight to the hospital where we checked in and got Zack a better pair of crutches. Then the called the hotel van to get us and take us there. I was delighted to discover a free internet connection in our room. There's also a mini fridge where we can keep some snacky food. After a rest this afternoon, we went to base for dinner.
We had Chili's. I realize that this may sound like nothing, but I almost cried from the sheer excitement of it. It was so weird to see a menu of familiar, albeit chain restaurant, items. The tables were all the same and it was more American even than going to the food court on base. I had no idea I was homesick at all until I looked at the menu and felt a sudden rush of familiarity. I had a lovely bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, and all became much much better with the world. By tomorrow (after a nice long sleep), I for one will feel good again.
So now we're back at the hotel enjoying some History Channel (another American treat) and Zack has an appointment tomorrow to assess the damage and decide what to do next, at least in theory. We'll let you know when we have some real news.