Sitting in the LA Airport

The mad dash at the last minute is over and in the last 2 days of orientation in LA I remembered only 1 thing I forgot to bring - my scuba diving certification card. Not irrecoverable. And, so far so good. And, I'm not the only one to bring duct tape, aroma therapy, art supplies and spices! There's 24 people in our group - pretty good size. They're a fun group, lots of energy, lots of different backgrounds, but we all have some of the basic things in common that brought me to this point. Feels like coming home to a people I've known for a long time.

For now, we're sitting in the LA airport with a 4 hour wait until we leave. Making new friends and because of that had an invitation to the United Ambassador Club and am sitting quietly, relaxing and taking advantage of the free internet. Don't expect much such luxury in the future, but it's a nice cushion for starting out. By the way, there are a number of people who brought computers and solar panels and had more than 80 pounds of luggage - no problems checking in. However, that 40 lbs of back pack I'm toting along with a 20 lb case filled with electronic equipment might be the end of me. :-)