If you still have your POL info, there's zero problems getting your character back!
Even if you deleted your character (I will
never understand why people do that), it's still easy to get it back if you have your original info.
The patching won't take too long at all. A few hours at most... updating only takes a long time when there's a brand new update and everybody is downloading it at the same time. If you really want to make it fast, there's
a torrent at BG with every single update since NA release. If you download and extract it, you can probably update FFXI in a matter of minutes!
The game has changed a lot in the last year! It's an entirely new experience! Your Garuda is now Lakshmi, but we all get along just fine!
...as long as you're willing to accept your new Lashmian overlords...
Welcome back to Vana'diel!