Plate o' Shrimp

Travel

It seems I have been days and days in the weird half territory that is airport land. I am currently in my fourth airport in 26 hours. Yesterday morning I arrived at Point Salines in Grenada—having driven myself in my right hand drive Nissan Sunny—leaving my friend Sherri to drive on the left hand side of the road for the first time as she took my car back to campus. I was there early and lines were short because the plane was SOOOOOO small. 65 seats that I counted. One waiting area with three sets of glass doors and signs for gates one two three and four hung randomly across. Not much was available in the way of food concession but there was the Columbian emerald outfitter and all the rum and nutmeg I could ever want. The flight to San Juan was quick and smooth.. we walked onto the tarmac and got through customs and I settled in for what I hoped was a four-hour lay over. We finally left four hours after the originally scheduled time. This of course stymied my plans to see Steven and Kelly in Philadelphia, who were to pick me up at 6 in Newark, wisk me out of Jersey for a civilized dinner in Philadelphia, put me up for the night so that I could come here to the Philadelphia airport for my 9 am flight to San Jose. I knew that the ever diligent and hardworking Mr. S. L. Kenney had to be on the 4:50 Amtrak to D.C. for a 8 am meeting in the pentagon so I was more than reluctant to hold him to his promises to meet me at the airport. When I called Larissa to see if I could crash at her place in New Brunswick she not only offered to pick me up but also offered to drive me to the Philadelphia airport this morning.

One more 4-hour flight later I am in Denver. Having subsisted on airplane airport food for the better part of the last 36 hours I just finished my first baby green salad in a little over four months. I inhaled it. Larissa provided a lovely a lovely refuge—good conversation with someone who knew my stories and who I did not have to explain my story too is something I have been hungry for a long time. All this travel makes me pensive.. I wonder about the strange and ordinary stories that surround me. It strikes me not for the first time that I am a pretty odd duck. Here in my 40s having sold everything and on break from med school for 12 weeks. It feels appropriate to be traveling this long--spending my days in airports in this strange land of sudoku and blackberries.

posted by Sa @ 1:25 AM