Day "1" - Airports, Flights, and Tel Aviv arrival

Part 1 of 3

In order to keep this entry from stretching on forever, I've split it up into three parts. If it helps, you can think of them as Pre-Airport, Airport & Flights, and Arrival in Tel Aviv.

{The blog client I'm using ate this post 2 or 3 times. Argh argh argh.}

The trip down to the airport was interesting, and one of the longest I've ever had. See, I live a bit north of Boston, MA, but my flight left out of JFK, in New York. This meant getting down there a day early or so. This apparent inconvenience was, indeed, intentional.

It was as nice as I'd hoped it would be having a day between the experience of "Hey, I'm packed and ready to go!" and the experience of "Hey, I'm getting on an airplane and shan't return for nigh on two months!"
To boot, it gave me the opportunity to run some last minute "I forgot to bring ____!"-type errands.

It also meant I got to spend some time with my old and dear friend Annie (who's also done a good bit more travelling than I, so had plenty of useful advice), whose fold-out couch I occupied that night.

The weather in New York was nasty. Overcast and rainy, and I timed my exeunt from the subway to perfectly coincide with the heaviest of the day's rain.
Good news: my poncho works and my bag is mostly waterproof.

Eventually got to the apartment. Took off my bag (which was of much fascination to the two cats), hung up my poncho, and set to (slowly, sleepily) fixing myself some food and making some last-minute web-updates before departure.

Later that night, after running a last-minute errand at EMS, I went to see a play that Annie'd done the set for. It was a powerful play, dealing with substance abuse and death, and most parts were played by actors who had struggled sincerely with the former.
After that, we met up with another friend and enjoyed some festivities, with live music and dancing well into the evening.

My excuse for being out way too late is that it helped with the jetlag (which I think it actually did, a bit)

The next day, I threw some things for the flight into my carry-bag (a lovely little thing from North Face that folds up into its own pocket when not needed, and has 4 compartments: 1 large, 2 medium sized, and 1 pouch) and Annie made a delicious send-off breakfast. After that, I hopped on a subway and headed for JFK Airport.