i landed safe and sound yesterday… ricky, marie and rocksan carried me off to the airport yesterday morning. i bid farewell to everybody, reassuring them i would soon be back in action. it was an emotional farewell with enough hugs and cussing. i called the kids to tell them bye and ask if there was anything special they wanted me to carry for them… the phone conversation turned into a 20 minute dialogue of indecision and realization of choices. i ran into some problems at the security check, for some reason my carry-on wasn’t clearing the scan and none of us knew why. the woman began questioning my motives and asked me about the ‘secret compartment.’ i looked at her speechless and puzzled, showing her the ever-apparent zipper. she madly zipped it open and pulled out 2 bottles, one sunscreen, the other bug repellent. she demands an answer to her question of ‘what was i thinking?’ instead i look at her, laugh and try to explain how the situation and reassure her i was not planning to make assault weapons from sunscreen or bug repellent. she throws them away, while glaring at me, reaches back in the bag and confiscates my lighter, i think out of spite. i found myself with more time than i knew to do with once i passed the intrusive security check. an hour or so later we were boarding and soon in the air. before i knew it we had landed in florida. i made my way through customs rather quickly and was outside at arrivals within 15 minutes. there i waited for over an hour, peering at every passing car, hoping it was my long lost family coming for me. not so. eventually i heard my name being called overhead, originally i thought they had been calling a korean woman, till they actually pronounced it somewhere near my name. i headed back upstairs by the international exit gate and there i saw my parents. a big miscommunication, partly because i had no phone or money to use the pay phone. regardless, we met, headed to the car and headed home. all is good. everyone is good except my brother who has to sit for a very important medical exam next week, he is on a studying/stress spree. looking forward to this exam being done.