12 December 2011
So, it begins.
All starting the night of the 11th: I pick up my phone to text Maggie Parker and in doing so, receive a message from my secret friend,
Maggie Parker: “You. Me. Bottle of Wine.”
Me: “I HAVE TO PAAAAAAACCKKKK!”
Maggie: “You. Me. Bottle of Wine. Packing”
Me: “Yes, but only if bourbon is involved as well.”
(OK, maybe I'm paraphrasing. But this is about how EVERY Rynne-Maggie conversation goes)
So, Mags comes over, we pour a bottle of Cab into two glasses equally portioned for our thirst. She drinking hers faster than I was drinking mine, but regardless, we got the job done. I packed (after packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, and unpacking AGAIN- at the suggestion a James Douglas I know) Maggie did an excellent job of writing down directions for me as I got off the plane in Heathrow.
Laundry, done. Packing, done. Dishes, done.
4:30 rolls around and I crawl onto the couch on account of my poor roommate Sarah and her strep throat.
Fast forward a lovely three hours and I am woken up on my FIRST alarm (YES SARAH, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED) with the only thought in my head as “!&#^ I'm leaving for EUROPE today!!!?!?!??!” Several pep-talks to myself in the bathroom mirror commenced.
Then, at a beautiful 8am, I whipped through a to-do list like my life depended on it. Registration card, signed. Registrar visited twice. (Very overdue) library books returned. Texas Pete picked up straight from the source (Yeah, it happened). Cellar balance cleared after talking to Public safety (four times), dining services (twice) and IT (twice). Ed in IT also fixed the lovely netbook I'm typing on this very second with his awesome judo-chop BIOS installation skills. Coffee with Micaela at the Krank. Maintenance called about the broken railing... that may or may not have been my fault?? (Flat 306 ladies, my apologies)
In the bittersweet category, my bestie Nicki and her man Mel came to give me a hug goodbye. Sammi came by to with me farewell. I mean, I'm gonna miss Sammi, but lets face it. I'm gonna miss Kelsey. My blue mohawked friend, we will meet again. And our bagpipe music will commence.
SO. The lovely Nicki Bennet came by to check me out of the flat, and then I was OFF! Dropped by and picked up Micaela in Main Hall where she was doing celebratory semester finishing dances. Drove over to my grandmother's to unpack the Subaru (SAD!) and pack up her Prius in preparation for trekking to the GSO airport.
In my hectic running around, I unfortunately misplaced my laptop cover! GASP! So, Micaela suggested using a pillowcase. When Judy discovered that it was for my laptop, her reply was to just make a case, of course! In the thirty minutes I had until we had to leave.... So, we did it! I used some old fleece and some scraps from her latest quilting project and pretty pink ribbon. Oh, yeah. It's cute. Real cute. Grandmother Judy to the rescue!
So, en route to the airport. I'm packing and repacking and packing and repacking and packing and repacking my carry-ons (still brought too much crap on board with me)
At the airport-ah the butterflies- tickets are obtained. Make moves to go to the gate, when we take every possible photo combination of Judy, Bill, Micaela and me. Onward to security! They of course make me take off all kinds of metal and I of course hold up the line with all. of. my. stuff. Made it through security and commenced a rather compulsory waving battle with Judy, Bill and Micaela that started before security and continued until I got to the gate.
Boarded plane to Newark. Boring. Seats uncomfortable. Woman next to me was complaining about changing diapers all day and her husband being a professional race car driver. Fun stuff.
Land in Newark and get a nice view of the city as I land in. Get of and shuttled to the international (!!!) terminal. Go walk around duty free shops, nothing too spectacular since I loathe perfume and makeup. Bought a sandwich of sorts from a group of Nigerian men. Fun stuff. Tempted to sit down with a cute yuppie couple with a cockney accent, but didn't get the nerve. Must work on that one if I am to survive the trip.
Board the plane, thought for a hot minute I had three seats to myself, but alas, two men sat next to me. I made the grave (and potentially hazardous) mistake of asking the gentlemen where they were from in Britain and they were of course from Ireland. Whoops. Just stamp a sign that says “Sorry, Stupid American” on my forehead. I asked the guys all about Dublin and I think that one will be added to the trip itinerary..... Hm..... ponder ponder ponder....
Turn on this (awesome) new touch screen deal that they have for the in-flight entertainment. I could pick between like 20 movies, 50 TV shows, games, flight maps and music. Movie choices started with “The Way” which was an excellent movie-- but started off with a young man hitchhiking through Spain and getting killed so the father finishes the journey with his ashes. Hm. Not something I want to watch, as I picture my grandparents doing the same for me in some small town in France..... Other choices? How about “Taken.” Hell-to-the-no.
So, watch some Big Bang Theory- which has been highly recommended to me on several occaisions, but I have never watched. Let me take this opportunity to tell each and every one of you that being an intellegent science person does NOT make you asocial and geeky!! (Reference: XKCD comic on the difference between geeks and nerds. I rest my case.)
Can't sleep. At all. Switched my watch, messed around with the netbook. Discovered I had a very powerful thirst and an empty water bottle. So, naturally, I used this as an excellent excuse to go hang out with the stewards in the back of the plane!! My upside-down periodic table shirt was a great conversation starter. One of the stewards was (get this) a Mormon living in Harlem who was currently using this steward position to pay for his passion of being a touring stand-up improv comedian. You can't make this stuff up. Not only that, but he had two roommates from Pocatello. SMALL WORLD. I told him that he was the only Mormon in New York City and those must be the only Idahoans in the Big Apple. Another woman who was a stewardess was from Virginia and lived in Charleston- but as we discovered, could not do the Charleston.
Fun fact: on United you can listen to Florence and the Machine AND Derek Trucks!! Woot!!
LANDING. THIS IS OCCURING.
No comments:
Post a Comment