Update continued...

The next morning, Wednesday, Meg and I set out to drive to New York where we'd be taking a flight out to Paris. This went, of course, not without a catch. I had taken my car in for an oil change and tune up in preparation for the trip a week prior. They suggested the power steering and transmission be flushed as well so I had them do that. Later we realized they hadn't changed the oil we had originally gone to have done, however, exams and packing put it out of my mind until just as we were finally ready to leave for NY. We looked up the earliest oil change place that would be open and stopped there on our way out of town. Lo and behold, as we waited the guy doing the oil change came in holding a palette with a sample of my power steering fluid (black) next to a sample of what it should look like (pink). What gives?! I just had that flushed less than a week ago! When we get back into town I will have to go ask the first car place about this but it seems awfully suspicious to me.

Besides the catch with which we started our trip, the rest of the way was a rather uneventful but enjoyable ride listening to audiobooks. Those things are the friend of any long car ride!

We actually didn't go straight to New York but stayed with Meg's uncle's family in New Jersey. They dropped us off in NY the next day so we could catch a bus to the airport. It took us an hour wait just to get into the city! Couple the traffic with how expensive everything is and I am not sure why anyone would want to live there. I think I am a medium town kind of guy. Phoenix may be big but at least it isn't crowded like NYC!

I have a definite allergy to dust or whatever is related to dust, like dust mites. As soon as we sat down on the plane I couldn't stop coughing because of a tickle in my throat. At first I thought it was the heavy cologne from one of our fellow passengers but finally zeroed in on the airplane blanket I had already draped on myself. As sooon as I took it off, the coughing ceased! That's happened to me before trying to sleep on old carpet and I think it is the same reason.