safely there

after 5 airport hours, 4.5 airplane hours, 2 car hours and a bonus hour driving in circles around DIA eating fritos with my dad while we waited for my mom (who was supposed to only be 10 minutes behind me), only to finally discover that her baggage didn’t leave philadelphia after her layover (groan), i am now settled into colorado springs for the next leg of the holidays ’05 tour.
though it sounds horrific when i list it out like that, and though my mom’s lost luggage is a hassle, i really had a great trip myself. the unbelievable luck that i haven’t written about yet continued (no one has been in the seat beside me on any leg of my journey so far [pause for jaw-dropping]. it’s astonishing, and i have now probably cursed myself for the one leg remaining by talking about it. i’ll get a fat guy holding a screaming baby in a “don’t blame me, my daddy voted for w” onesie, with a yippy dog shoved under the seat for good measure… oh well), and i had no troubles making my connection, finding something to eat in indy, or keeping myself occupied. my mp3 player didn’t even run out of batteries, even though i listened to it most of the way to florida and then forgot to charge it while i was there. i also figured out how to stop it from skipping or pausing even when i have the ‘hold’ switch on, which has been mystifying me for weeks (turns out there are Two hold switches – one on the player itself and one on the remote), so that thing gained some points for itself in two categories.

all that aside, though, the truth of the matter is that i just flat out like traveling. not just the going places and seeing things part (though sure, i like that, too), but the actual transit. i like the bubble of perspective that surrounds me as soon as i leave my normal sphere of activity. i like the abundance of watchable people, the excuse to just sit and soak them in, the reminder that the world is so much larger than my daily concerns. i like the reflective mood i lapse into, the time to think without feeling like i’m supposed to be doing other things, the license to indulge in special snacks and as many forgotten paperbacks or crossword puzzles that i can fit in the time allotted. travel is tiring and time-consuming, but the very annoyance of it makes it excusable to spend the time however we please as long as we follow the signs and sit in the right places at the right times, and i guess my brain does well with that particular ruleset from time to time.

i also like traveling back two time zones, going straight to bed, sleeping for what feels like forever, and then getting up to find that it’s not even 9 o’clock.
:)
that rules.

now i’m gonna call the silly voice-recognition baggage-locator for my mom because it keeps redirecting her into the ether and she’s up to here with it.

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