Flight To Quito:

We had a little hiccup on the tarmac while pulling away from the gate in Miami. Our plane backed up, turned left to taxi out to the runway and everything electrical suddenly shut down: no air conditioning, no lights, and the TV display, that had just begun the emergency procedures film, went blank. The plane stopped dead. Oh oh, I thought. Not another repeat of the flight to London last time. Emergency number 2.

Thankfully, after about five minutes of inactivity and dead-silence in the plane (no one uttered a word, not even the captain), all the equipment just as suddenly re-energized and the aero-bus headed back out to the runway again.

As we were boarding, I noticed a group of women threading their way down the aisle with bottles of essential oils in their hands. Several had Aussie accents. The American women plopped down in the three seats in front of me, one Aussie in the window seat of my row, and three other Aussies in the row behind. Next to me, in the middle seat sat a young woman (probably in her early twenties). I turned to the ladies from downundah and asked if they were from Young Living. Sure enough, they were, so we talked about the oils for a bit before we strapped ourselves in.

"What are oils?" whispered the pony-tailed colleen next to me. Thus, she opened herself up to a stereoscopic dissertation on essential oils and the reason for our trip. When stuck-in-the-middle-girl finally got a word in edgewise, she explained that she was a military policewoman in the air force traveling from a base in Germany to a base in Ecuador (I didn't even know we HAD a US base in Ecuador!) We chatted back and forth about her nine month stay in Kuwait, and her expectations of what to see and do in Ecuador while she is here for the next nine months.

"Um... did you actually sign up to be in the military after 9/11?" I wondered out loud.

Certainly. She came from a military family and they were busting their seams in pride at her service.

Well, OK then. Wouldn't be my choice, but she seemed to be happy. At the very least, she will have her college education paid for and, no, she didn't have any intention of staying in law-enforcement (at this moment, I can't recall what her field will be).

No more excitement that day. After clearing customs in Quito airport, we Young Living people were met by a large, excursion bus (that took forever to load) and we made our way to our first night's lodging: the elegant and well-appointed Swiss Hotel. I hit the jackpot there. My lodging was on a corner and turned out to be a two room suite: one anteroom containing a full-size bed, and one with the widest king-size bed I'd ever seen. To give you an idea of just how wide it was, two rows of standard size pillows were leaning against the headboard, three pillows across. Being first in the suite, and rationalizing that my roommate might not come in for a couple of hours yet, I naturally chose the cushy big bed in the back with the fluffy, European comforter :-)

Early up (5AM) and late to bed (12:30AM) previously, I reluctantly rose again at 5:30AM to accommodate the pre-set, 8AM departure time. Little did I know that I was to be even more sleep-deprived by that day's end...