Returning from Abu Dhabi

I have finally arrived in the States. What a trip!
It is a 23 hour trip, with a few stops and layovers along the way. It began with me forgetting my phone (with contact data on it) on my desk at work, then the driver not showing up to take me to the airport. He argued with me that I was departing on the 8th, but could not grasp that my flight was at 25 minutes past midnight and that I needed to be at the airport 2 hours before - on the 7th!!! He kept telling me he would come get me tomorrow night, lol.
I have been home several times during this tour in the Middle East, but this time was different. This time I'm supposed to be going back to "normal" but you begin to realize just how much your idea of normal has changed. I did experience a bit of culture shock, in that everyone judges you to be just like them in familiar surroundings, but I feel so foreign and they don't even know it, so if you respond in an odd way they have no understanding.
Got to my lodging and found that I did not have a cell phone (as I had meticulously planned) and that my internet did not work. I was a little bit like a deer in the headlights, unable to think clearly. It is amazing what a bit of food, conversation with friends and a bottle of wine can do to make you feel normal again.