Yeah... the day of reckoning.

Got up fairly early, called up Mish and we met downstairs. We saw a few GoGers around mostly Neemon who was getting some last minute souvenirs. We took off for the Golden Griddle for one last breakfast. Mish and I talked about stuff mostly dealing with the event itself and afterwards went for a bit of a walk to get that last breath of Toronto in. It had been nice and cool since Friday evening and I wasn't looking fwd to getting back to TX and feeling heat / humdity.  We walked to the Delta Chelsea and got us some tickets for the airport shuttle.

We got back to find Neemon heading out. There were hugs and goodbyes and Mish and I went up to get our stuff and head down to check out. We made our way to the Delta Chelsea and waited for the shuttle to arrive. It was a nice quiet and relaxing trip back. The bus driver was pretty chatty and funny too unlike the one I had coming in. He actually did a little bit of a spiel about sites around us. He mentioned when we passed Lake Ontario... said it was prohibited to swim in it because it was polluted. Therefore that's why it was their only source of drinking water.  That brought a few chuckles.

Along the way we passed an exit for Elington... that was the stop we had made on Friday for the Laser Quest place. Then we were at the airport (this place is HUGE! ) and I was first to get off. I hugged Mish and thanked her for everything.

I managed to get to my airport and get checked in. I decided I didn't need my carry on on the way back and only took what I needed out. Then I had to go thru Customs.  You can't believe how long the line was. It was like a line at Disneyland for a ride. Round and Round and Round you go... when you'll get to the end, who knows?  I dragged the one with wheels by the handle while kicking the other bag (my carry on) along on the floor. The couple behind me were the same way. It was funny so I chatted them up a bit and made a comment about we were in definite practice for Futbol (soccer) season. We should all scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL" when we made it to the end.

I finally got to the end and got checked thru Customs aswell. The couple was right behind me. I still had a bit of change when I got to my terminal. I moved down a ways to get some food and it ended up my terminal moved to that area aswell as I was walking. I got a bag of cookies and some chips and then spent my remaining change on 15 mins of internet on a kiosk. Was a terrible way to get online but it made me happy for about 5 seconds. Couldn't get to Cyanchat (although I could read most of my mail accts.) Waited for the plane and boarded. The couple behind me in Customs ended up being my row mates. Was nice to have interesting and nice people sitting with me. They were university people from Toronto I think going to Portland, OR. I fell asleep a few times feeling comfortable enough on the way back to do so... not to mention being tired from the weekend's events.

At DFW I found out my gate was A15. No biggie other than that I was at A36 and I had to walk a good 2 or so blocks to my stupid gate.  I get to my gate and the sign says "San Antonio." I go get something to eat at the nearby foodcourt. Ended up with Popeye's since they were the only ones accepting credit cards. I sit down at Gate A15 and notice everyone there speaks Spanish and now the sign says "Los Cabos." I kind of get worried but sometimes the signs have more than one plane leaving and I still had a good hour. After a moment though I get a little worried and ask someone for the time. This nice woman tells me in spanish it was 15 till 7 if I understood her correctly. Then she asks in Spanish  "are you going to Monterrey?" and I go "hablo muy poquito espanol" and in English she said "are you going to Monterrey" and I'm like "no... San Antonio." That's when everyone starts to tell me the gate changed to A38. So nice of the morons in the airport to put that over the loudspeaker.  I thank them for telling me and take off down the corridor again. It had to be a good 2 blocks and none of the morons would stop with those shuttle carts. I was kind of ticked off now having walked so far in the first place and stopped at some point to ask about the shuttles. They told me they were for Handicap only. That's when I see one filled with NON handicapped people come by and I continue to walk feeling more and more POed.  I finally get to A38 and sit down. I"m able to actually finish my dinner and converse with a few people there. They board the plane and I'm just so happy to be on board finally. I forget who was sitting beside me... I only recall these young girls in the row before me speaking spanish and singing stuff. My spanish comprehension must be better than I thought cause I was picking up more or less what they were talking about w/o much thought. I had only think a little about what was being said. I really got a gist of it (mostly they spoke of their parents and people they were staying with) and I tried to act like I wasn't listening but I still picked up so much. LOL Typical teen speak.

When we landed in SA, I just wanted to kiss the ground. Took a bit before my luggage came out but it all came out more or less around the same time so I didn't have a long wait like in Toronto. I actually remembered where I had parked (wrong terminal) and hoofed my way on over there. My car was in one piece and I kissed it (the enterior atleast)  It felt weird driving... not sure why. It just did. And looking around town as I drove back towards my place felt weird aswell. Maybe more surreal. I felt more like THIS was a new city than Toronto had been. I drove more or less back on Autopilot which was good cause I was so tired. Not thinking was a good thing then.  Got home and felt like I had been gone for months more than anything. My apt was still the same as I left it so I was happy. I managed to get online despite my stupid modem crapping out. I ended up online and chatted with people already back. It was nice to be back even though I missed hanging out with everyone.

The adventure was over for now and I had returned to my lovely (cough) Relto in my own age. Thru my KI (coughinternetcough) I communicated with others who were also back in their own Reltos. My avatar sat down and breathed a sigh of relief.

EPILOGUE:

I was saying to someone the other day... Mysterium is like a yr's worth of fun compressed into 4 days of exhaustive team building. I really enjoy it and it's tiring but it's fun as heck. Plus all the nice and interesting people make it that much more enjoyable.

I think I could do Mysterium every day... I really think I could specially if all my expenses were being paid.

Adieu... Shorah... Aloha... Sayonara... Adios... Good-bye till next yr!