Looking Bruised and Battered

I had a wonderful vacation in Florida with my sisters. The weather was typical of March. We had a day of 78F followed by a day of 56F. It rained and then was sunny. It was clear then foggy. But the ocean was right there and the beach was snow white. The sand was soft – so very soft compared to the sand at the Indiana Dunes. I was loath to return but with Sparky waiting for me I came home (even if he kept sending me photos of snow).

I can hear you asking how the title ties into this post so I’ll do a little show and tell. First the show:
 
The pictures above were taken 2 days after the injury so not as red as initially.

This one was 9 days later. The hand actually looked worse instead of better!

As you can see I had some nasty bruising on my hand, elbow and upper arm and there was more bruising that was a little higher up… It was on the first leg of my trip home. The flight was delayed due to thunderstorms. We boarded by walking across the tarmac and up a flight of very steep and narrow stairs in a torrential downpour. They were sending us across one at a time so that no one had to stand in the rain waiting to board. I started and the woman after me literally sprinted past me midway to the plane. She disappeared into the plane and I hauled my suitcase and soggy self aboard. I managed the suitcase into the overhead and took my seat. I had just buckled my seatbelt when the running woman came up the aisle searching for a spot for her luggage. I saw movement in my peripheral vision and instinctively threw my arm up to protect my head. She hit my hand with the wheel on her suitcase  (note the semi-circular mark on the back of my hand) and then grazed my elbow and upper arm. It hurt but I didn’t see any injury (until later). Instead of apologizing for hitting me or asking if I was okay, she scowled at me as if I had done something to her. Anyway, karma is never kind. She was seated next to a person who was vomiting violently and loudly (in defense, several passengers had stomach upset because the flight was very very turbulent) and then she fell down a flight of stairs at the Orlando airport because she was in too much of a hurry to take the elevator since the down escalator was out of order…

The trip back was nearly all day – arriving at the Pensacola airport at 10:00 AM for my 12:10 PM flight. I didn’t have any lunch. We arrived late in Orlando and my flight was boarding as I approached the gate. That flight was full of screaming and crying kids as they left “the happiest place on earth”. Obviously the boundaries for happy do not extend to the airport! Anyway, they gave me a bag of pretzels (8 mini ones that were so very tiny) and a can of cranberry cocktail. That was lunch at 3:40 PM (whatever time that really is since I kept crossing time zones and with the time change that my watch hadn’t registered). Arriving in Chicago I managed to get all my steps in for the day since I walked from one end of the airport to the other. I bought a nearly inedible pizza because it was the only place without an hour wait for a $15 hamburger. After a short and bumpy commuter flight, Sparky met me at the airport. I was finally in my own home at 11:00 PM. There is no place like home!