A Piece of New Year's Advice From MsCaroline

Yes, this illustration is ironic.

For those of you who have been wondering, I am no longer in Thailand and, yes, it was a lovely getaway, and (most importantly) very warm.  I've been feeling a bit guilty, since I've hardly blogged at all and have not even come up with a witty, luminous (or at least amusing) New Year's post, much less shared some of the highlights of our trip, which included a monkey named Mr. Jack, Russian holidaymakers, and a silly misunderstanding in Bangkok which (as some of you may know) is a place known for its sex tourism.

Let it not be said, though, that MsCaroline cannot provide meaningful New Year's insight:  I therefore pass on this piece of wisdom to you, my readers:

If you happen to be a middle-aged woman living in Asia and have a son who is returning to the US for university, and

If you plan to accompany that son to the US to get him settled in there, and

If you happen to plan a family trip just before that to Thailand during the winter holidays, 

Do not, under any circumstances, schedule the return trip from Thailand a mere 48 hours before you get back on a plane to the US,

because, 3 hours into the international flight, you may be smitten with a violent tummy bug (caught God only knows where) and spend most of the rest of the flight in the airplane lavatory, wishing for death.

Oh, you will survive.  You will be dehydrated, sleep-deprived, and incredibly terribly unbelievably hugely embarrassed, but you will survive. 

And you will still have to drag yourself and your luggage through the lunatic merry-go-round of international customs and immigration in San Francisco before you embark on yet another 3-hour flight( followed by a drive of approximately the same length) to the peace and quiet of your in-laws' house on the river(where Son#1s car has been stored), where you will collapse in a grateful heap and sleep more or less around the clock until you have to get up and make the 6-hour drive with Son #1to get to the University the next day.

You have been warned.

Happy New Year!