Anna

Since our checked luggage was lost by El Al (thanks guys!), we are still dealing with their absolutely stellar customer service and do not have the many souvenirs we bought for friends and family and for ourselves.

The one souvenir I did manage to bring home intact? Pneumonia. I'm never going to the States again.

I am now ensconced in our hotel room in Boston. And therein, my lovelies, lies a tale. You see, we left our house in Beersheva at 18.00 local time. That's 11.00 Boston time. From there we drove to Eyal's workplace to park, because it's about a 10 minute drive to the airport from there - much cheaper than long-term parking at TLV. We cabbed it to the airport and - since we both have disability cards - we got assistance to go through security and passport control. We sailed through (we both know the drill pretty well) and were sitting pretty in duty-free with a couple of hours to kill.

Eventually we made it to the gate and boarded. After take off we both took melatonin and...well. The in-flight entertainment was subpar. We each managed about four hours sleep during the flight. Eyal made the best of an uncomfortable situation by pillowing his head on my bosom for his nap. I contorted myself into an approximation of comfort - legs stretched out, head forward, chin resting on the airline-issued pillow I clutched like a teddy bear - and managed for mine. I am glad I remembered to wear compression socks. Protip: these will save your life on long haul flights.

We finally landed at JFK just before 05.00 and hustled through passport control and customs ("Nothing to declare") before being hauled to another terminal for our connecting flight to Logan. Which lasted 30 minutes, no joke. It took longer to get through passports and customs and transfer terminals than it did to fly to Boston.

I hate JFK airport with a passion.

Finally, after landing at Logan and collecting our luggage, we got a cab to the hotel. By then it was 10.00. Oh, but check-in time isn't until 14.00.

Well, fuck. Anna (the other co-worker traveling with Eyal) and Eyal didn't even get to go to rooms to freshen up for the convention. They made do in the public restrooms. I told Eyal I'd wait up to get us checked in and we'd go from there.

Luckily I had Uber Eats on my phone. Even better, I was able to charge my phone. I ordered lunch and felt somewhat more fortified and played with my phone until check in time. Eyal called then and reported that they were now coming back to the hotel. I told him I'd check in and get our keys but wait in the lobby until he got back.

We finally got everything settled by about 16.00 and were in the room. By then Eyal was hungry and so was I, considering I'd had an early lunch. We ate and then took turns taking showers to get the travel grime off. The quality of the soap and shampoo in the hotel room left a lot to be desired, so when Eyal wanted to take a walk (he'd noted that there was a CVS kitty-corner to the hotel) I gave him a list of stuff to get. I included imodium. I didn't need to tell him to get ibuprofen.

I stepped out myself a bit later, noting that I'd gone native after almost five years in Israel and that sweats and a jean jacket were no longer proof against the chill for me.

I managed to stay up to about 20.00 before taking my evening meds and a melatonin and conking out.

Today is my day to be worthless. I did help Eyal get dressed in his suit for the convention (he looks amazing) and finally managed to get up, take meds, etc. I called my mom (she's in Germany, and right now my nephew is sick with some coldy-fluey thing that's got him miserable, so I wanted to make sure everyone was okay) and she told me my nephew is on the mend, but has a bad case of cabin fever. Oh, HaShem give her strength. An antsy four year old with cabin fever.

I have had lunch. I am now going to spend the day being completely useless, and spend the evening holed up at the hotel because there's a Bruins game and we're a stone's throw from the Garden. Eyal will probably be going out to dinner with clients. I am very happy to be excluded from this because such restaurants are wasted on my four-year-old palate and also too many people.

So far no one has commented on my headscarf (festively striped), or on Eyal's accent. I did get a compliment on today's t-shirt, which is a fun one (How To Get An Engineer's Attention: Free Coffee, Break Something, Say "There's Got To Be A Better Way To Do This") so that was nice.

So far so good.