Rough landing...literally and figuratively

I'm back in New York. Aruba was wonderful, but I missed New York. Just a bit.
The last Arubian day was part pleasure, part pain. We had an enjoyable swim in the sea after an amazingly short downpour. The funny thing? It didn't change anything, except that the sand was wet. It was still 31 degrees C, and people were at the beach and in the water.
We had the late check out and a pretty smooth check in at the nice,small but uncrowded airport. Everyone loved Nina there. Seems that Arubians love cats. One more plus for the island. She was a little nervous, naturally. She meowed a bit while we were checking in, she gripped tightly while I was hugging her through the security and she wasn't happy when we took off. But the rest of the time at the airport, and three out of four hours on the plane, she was sleeping. With her bag opened! A remarkable cat, one of a kind!
The landing was a little rough, and the cold ever rougher. But the worst thing was one of my voice mail messages, I've only listened to at JFK.
"Hi Marija,..., I was wondering if you would be available to do some work at Law and Order tomorrow..." I swear,my heart almost stopped, right there in front of the carousel. It's what I wanted! A little too late! The message was from Jan.7, the day we took off for Aruba. In Serbian, there's actually a word for a person like me. "Maler." In lame terms, it means:I'm not that lucky. Hey, they might call again...