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adiva_calandiaSo I'm on my way back to Alaska. I caught a cab to the airport this morning at 10:30 ($49, including tip); right now it's 11:53. My plane leaves at 1:31, boards at 1:01.
The half-hour long cab ride was mostly filled with the cab driver delivering a rant that would've made Glenn Beck weep with joy. (He led off with "Do you believe in global warming?" and when I said yes, I do, I'm an Alaskan and we see the ice caps melting every year, he was off. He told me Sarah Palin was being responsible when she quit the governorship because "she didn't want to spend the taxpayers money on a buncha lawsuits." He told me he wanted "FREE--DOM -- not regulation" and ranted about the government bailout of Fannie Mae. When I said that there's a problem not just with the government backing an institution pissing away the money, but with the institution itself, he agreed, but when I asked if he thought there should've been more government oversight in that case, he yelled "LESS." There was a lot of yelling. It was frankly a little nerve-wracking, not to mention surreal. I almost asked him about tea parties.)
When I got to the airport, my confirmation number wouldn't work, and I had to make a poor United rep juggle getting me my boarding passes, and dealing with an annoyed women with two small daughters. (Cute kids.)
And when I got into Security finally, I got held up because I had been an utter idiot and left an Exacto in my backpack after some lobby display session or other. (I had also left my Leatherman Mini in there, feeling fairly sure that nobody would notice it. Maybe they wouldn't have, if not for the Exacto. WHOOPS. Now I have neither Leatherman nor Exacto. So kudos to the TSA: they are, in fact, doing their jobs right, and making sleepy stressed college kids have heart attacks into the bargain.)
I hope like hell that burned up all my travel karma for this trip, because I have a long way left to go. And in a few months, I'll have even longer -- all the way to Athens.
(Man, the worst part of traveling -- not to mention of the end of the semester -- is the constant niggling feeling that you've forgotten something.)
A lot of me can't quite believe that I'm not coming back to Pittsburgh until June or July. So much stuff is happening next semester: Richard III, Therese Raquin, Dead Man's Cell Phone, animal projects, Playground . . . the list goes on and on and I won't be there for any of it.
Okay, okay, I know, every time I start getting maudlin about missing all the cool stuff at CMU, I or someone nearby jumps in with "But you'll be in GREECE. GREECE, dude. STFU about how hard your life is." And there is a lot of truth to this STFU! No academia until the end of March, and then academia in Athens? I really have no right to complain.
But I do anyway. I think what it is, more than anything, is the people I'm not going to see. My freshman -- who I don't get to see as animals, which is HEARTBREAKING, you have no idea, and who I don't get to see in play projects, and who I don't get to see grow further and become the next generation of freaking amazing people at this school. My seniors -- who I don't get to see perform and design and direct their final shows, and who I don't get to see in Showcase, and who are going to go off and be this generation of freaking amazing people and take the world by storm. My own class -- who I don't get to see discovering themselves onstage, and who I don't get to panic with about next year being senior year. And oh, my God, my housemates -- who I don't get to discuss Lady Gaga and Foucault and Bettelheim with, and who I don't get to go shopping with, and who I don't get to do photoshoots with (HeathKres, you better put those pictures from this morning up somewhere!). Although frankly, six months without having to clean up anybody's woks will be nice. (I love yoooooou~)
On the flip side, of course, I get to see my cat again. (I watched Alien last night for the first time and was practically sobbing every time Jones was in peril. I miss my cat.) I get to see all my Anchorage friends, and maybe actually spend some time with them, rather than my usual breaks where I flit out for a few engagements and then spend the rest of my time huddled over my computer making arrangements for when I get back to Pittsburgh. I get to have my first ever Moose's Tooth beer -- which you'd better believe I'm excited about.
But every time I think about what I'm missing in Pittsburgh, it makes me want to cry.
It's funny the way your idea of home takes on new dimensions.
The half-hour long cab ride was mostly filled with the cab driver delivering a rant that would've made Glenn Beck weep with joy. (He led off with "Do you believe in global warming?" and when I said yes, I do, I'm an Alaskan and we see the ice caps melting every year, he was off. He told me Sarah Palin was being responsible when she quit the governorship because "she didn't want to spend the taxpayers money on a buncha lawsuits." He told me he wanted "FREE--DOM -- not regulation" and ranted about the government bailout of Fannie Mae. When I said that there's a problem not just with the government backing an institution pissing away the money, but with the institution itself, he agreed, but when I asked if he thought there should've been more government oversight in that case, he yelled "LESS." There was a lot of yelling. It was frankly a little nerve-wracking, not to mention surreal. I almost asked him about tea parties.)
When I got to the airport, my confirmation number wouldn't work, and I had to make a poor United rep juggle getting me my boarding passes, and dealing with an annoyed women with two small daughters. (Cute kids.)
And when I got into Security finally, I got held up because I had been an utter idiot and left an Exacto in my backpack after some lobby display session or other. (I had also left my Leatherman Mini in there, feeling fairly sure that nobody would notice it. Maybe they wouldn't have, if not for the Exacto. WHOOPS. Now I have neither Leatherman nor Exacto. So kudos to the TSA: they are, in fact, doing their jobs right, and making sleepy stressed college kids have heart attacks into the bargain.)
I hope like hell that burned up all my travel karma for this trip, because I have a long way left to go. And in a few months, I'll have even longer -- all the way to Athens.
(Man, the worst part of traveling -- not to mention of the end of the semester -- is the constant niggling feeling that you've forgotten something.)
A lot of me can't quite believe that I'm not coming back to Pittsburgh until June or July. So much stuff is happening next semester: Richard III, Therese Raquin, Dead Man's Cell Phone, animal projects, Playground . . . the list goes on and on and I won't be there for any of it.
Okay, okay, I know, every time I start getting maudlin about missing all the cool stuff at CMU, I or someone nearby jumps in with "But you'll be in GREECE. GREECE, dude. STFU about how hard your life is." And there is a lot of truth to this STFU! No academia until the end of March, and then academia in Athens? I really have no right to complain.
But I do anyway. I think what it is, more than anything, is the people I'm not going to see. My freshman -- who I don't get to see as animals, which is HEARTBREAKING, you have no idea, and who I don't get to see in play projects, and who I don't get to see grow further and become the next generation of freaking amazing people at this school. My seniors -- who I don't get to see perform and design and direct their final shows, and who I don't get to see in Showcase, and who are going to go off and be this generation of freaking amazing people and take the world by storm. My own class -- who I don't get to see discovering themselves onstage, and who I don't get to panic with about next year being senior year. And oh, my God, my housemates -- who I don't get to discuss Lady Gaga and Foucault and Bettelheim with, and who I don't get to go shopping with, and who I don't get to do photoshoots with (HeathKres, you better put those pictures from this morning up somewhere!). Although frankly, six months without having to clean up anybody's woks will be nice. (I love yoooooou~)
On the flip side, of course, I get to see my cat again. (I watched Alien last night for the first time and was practically sobbing every time Jones was in peril. I miss my cat.) I get to see all my Anchorage friends, and maybe actually spend some time with them, rather than my usual breaks where I flit out for a few engagements and then spend the rest of my time huddled over my computer making arrangements for when I get back to Pittsburgh. I get to have my first ever Moose's Tooth beer -- which you'd better believe I'm excited about.
But every time I think about what I'm missing in Pittsburgh, it makes me want to cry.
It's funny the way your idea of home takes on new dimensions.
