-Day Sixteen-
Alex wakes me up in the morning and suddenly I realize that it is the last 90 minutes in Rye. I think back to the night before and how reading Matt Patches' Twitter account made me download this new thing called Vine. What is it? It is like the Twitter equivalence for Youtube. You film nonsense for six seconds and that is somehow justification for a new app. I cannot see it serving any purpose at all. However, I spent the night watching Matt Patches dance, so I got bored and downloaded it. I was intending on trying it out with Alex, but it never happened. Now I have it and I pray that it doesn't sweep the nation. It is fine, but I cannot fathom the world's attention span being cut down to six seconds.
After a bath and a last sweep of the room, I went down for a breakfast of oatmeal and tea. We had a fridge full of store name Coke knock-offs that were intended to be gone by morning, but ended up being in the fridge. Who knows if Viv will drink them all. In fact, who knows who is going to finish them off. We got our last conversations out of the way before heading off to the train. Viv decided to give us a speed rail all day pass. We saw her off at Ashford and after a few hugs, she went about her work schedule. I kind of wish that I thanked her more for the hospitality, but I suppose my good house guest style will shine through. Also, I left her a little something that I hope she liked.
Alex and I took the speed rail, which lead to a conversation about the stand up he performed a few nights ago. He downloaded the Rock of Ages version of "We Built This City" to play over and over. I went into listening to WTF with Marc Maron, which made Alex feel he failed me as a friend that I no longer listen to music in public. Truthfully, I think I overdo the podcasts, but I also feel like they have somehow centered me better than music was. I'm sure he understands.
We took the London Underground for the remainder of the train rides until we got to the airport. After checking in, at which point Alex called me stupid and demanded that the New Zealand Air attendant explain to me how to get through security and to the gate. Of course, the reason I looked confused was because I was following Alex, and we initially went through premium because he was walking that way. It was the start to a day that I partially wished I got sleep the night before.
We had an hour until I could be through security, so we had our last meal in the food court upstairs. It was going to be Wetherspoons, which is the first time that I got the words right. However, when it was discovered to be overpriced, we walked out and over to Viva Italia. Not knowing Italian, I fucked with Alex and began talking in Spanglish to describe Italian food. I had no idea if he was annoyed or laughing.Also, I pray that I didn't come across as ignorant tourist. It was all an extended, lame riff.
We both had lasagna and bought Lipton ice tea. We sat getting the last bits of conversation out of the way. Oddly, my biggest concern was that I didn't want to leave and go back to work. Why that overpowered my conversation, I do not know. However, we just chatted and tried to figure out ways to get Alex onto the flight. It didn't work, but it was a bittersweet way to say goodbye. We had some chocolate before he finally said his goodbye and suddenly like that, I was back to America. I was not ready to go, but the line was short and I had an hour before the flight to go. It almost breaks my heart that we usually only see each other in intervals of three years. It means that he either breaks it (talk is he MAY come out next year, but like every time he says it, MAY is a strong word, but it's really, really not like soon), or I wander life and wait for that time to come.
Going from England to America seemed a little odder than the flight out. This is notably because I have done most of the pre-flight stuff in America. It isn't drastically different, but it is in a bigger building and going into America isn't something I do often. I pretty much prepared myself for a quick venture through security. I had all of my electronics in my bag, not wearing too much accessories, and my belt was loose enough to slap off at a moment's notice. Yes, I was ready to walk through and tip my hat.
In an odd series of events, I walked through the scanner and first thing goes wrong. I have nothing on me, but the buzzer goes off. The guy pats me down and clears me. However, the British are blunt about things, so all he does is says "Cheers" and expects me to know that I'm done. I wait five seconds before leaving because, well, who knows if that wasn't the freedom word. Then as I am packing up my belongings off of the table, another guy asks me about my bag. He takes out the electronics, scans them, and puts me on my way. So basically, my intention of getting through quickly and harmlessly took an extra minute. No real loss, but ironic since I really did try to make things as convenient as possible.
I waited a few minutes to discover what my gate was. At first I was in disbelief. I haven't been in a big airport in quite awhile. Gate 48. Holy crap. I saw the signs and it pointed me to Gate 48. However, it felt like a tease because it just kept going and rounding corners until we finally landed at the end of the building, which was at least a five minute walk. I got through security and sat down with enough options for chairs. It felt like a V.I.P. room, as it was blocked off by a glass window and you had to flash your ticket to get in. I just sat there and popped on Operation Kino. I usually listen on Fridays, but this trip has been so crazy, I just decided to accept it. Also, it means nothing to all of you, but they have a remix clip of Patches' Matches sounds that really made me laugh, and I really hope a singular MP3 file exists. I was almost laughing in the airport whenever I heard the words "David?" or "Movies!"It is called Op Kino Orgy if anyone wants to do the grunt work.
In an interesting twist, the flight is boarding. However, unlike last time, I am the third section called. In fact, I am barely in that area, as he calls rows 51 back. I am 51 A! Last time I was 48 F, which meant I had to wait until that batch of people got on. I was on and sitting down, kind of hoping that I had good people sitting next to me. I didn't. I had an empty chair next to me. It was kind of glorious, as the lady two seats over and I took that chance to just stretch out and place our feet into the free space. You cannot ignore free space, especially on a 10 hour flight.
We took off and I almost immediately tried to get some sleep. It didn't work. I had my head down for three hours, trying to get to that point where I am just snoring. The wall was too painful, and the lady in front of me had her chair pushed far enough back that all I could do was lean my forehead on it. It was a pain in the ass to try and sleep. I am sure closing eyes does something, but lose consciousness, it did not.
Eventually, I decided to take a break from trying to sleep and watched Perks of Being a Wallflower. I get why people like it, but it just feels a little too familiar. Misfits hanging out and we discover why the lead character is shy. Truthfully, it reminded me of people I knew in high school, but that doesn't mean that I connected with it at all. As a shy kid, it seems like every misfit is somehow just thrown into random shit and loves life quickly. I don't quite see it that way. I felt it was going too much for melodrama, and it just didn't work. It made me almost glad that I wasn't in high school anymore. Also, the kids just felt like they were supposed to say the darnedest things. Either I am a special case, or I just don't get it.
Then I got into podcasts to try and pass the time. I checked out the recent Comedy Bang Bang episode with Bill Cosby Bukowski. For those that don't know, Jon Daly plays Bill Cosby, but with Charles Bukowski tendencies. It doesn't make sense on paper, but it is fucking amazing to listen to. I was consistently laughing and I almost wish that the character had his own show. 30 minutes. Somewhere on the internet. It is probably and byfar my favorite Bill Cosby parody out there. Tim Heidecker was also there, and I still feel like I am coming around to liking him. He's funny, though seriously, I should have just gone overboard and downloaded more Comedy Bang Bang. Everything else I listened to just went out one ear and in the other but poorly constructed a sentence.
The last three hours were a nightmare. I had nothing to do. Podcasts were officially too hard to focus on. I was contemplating watching 21 Jump Street, but I grew bored of looking at things. I tried the sleep thing again. It failed miserably, but it did help people to leave me alone. It was a fucking long three hours. However, about 40 minutes to landing, a steward comes over to me and wonders if I am all right. He thinks that I have been sleeping for most of the trip, notably because I was asleep during the first meal and when he passed out the last one. In a sense, he kind of made me feel guilty, so I ate as much of the second course as I could before we had to prepare for landing.
I don't know why, but looking at Los Angeles at night is pretty odd. The lights look orange from the sky, and it almost felt like the freeway was crawling with centipedes. The orange color kind of bugged me and just so many lights. I didn't get that at all in England. In a sense, I suffered reverse culture shock, and didn't know if I could handle being back in the busy, open areas. The plane eventually landed and I felt the dread of having to get through customs. I had enough trouble on the plane filling it out correctly, as I first wrote down that I didn't have any sellable goods (which I just assumed meant souvenirs), but eventually wrote yes because I thought it meant souvenirs.
After getting in the wrong line, a lady directed me to customs. Got through that with little hassle. Then I went through another version of customs with equally little hassle. I was now free and back home. The stress of being constrained was now almost gone. I only needed to find my ride home. I found my mom waiting in the lobby. I tried to persuade her that Alex was coming out, but she didn't believe me. We left without changing currency to American money. Don't worry, it was only L45 (just call that pounds).
We spent the car ride home talking about the flight before transferring into a discussion about the Oscars. She is up to an impressive 6 out of 9 Best Picture nominees that she has seen. I still seriously believe that it is a great year and I am looking forward to the actual ceremony now. Not too much to share that I already told you, but I enjoy that our second instinct is to talk about the Oscars, notably because she has seen way more since I last spoke to her. We're oddly split on Lincoln, but I still am putting money on Argo for Best Picture and Steven Spielberg for Director.
We got home and my dad was there to meet me. He had dinner and we sat around talking about the trip. One of my first instincts was to get a big glass of tea and just swig it down. After living in a very conserving country, that extra gulp felt like a relief. I have been attempted to be pedigreed into drinking a glass every other hour. I get it, but it really did a toll on my body. I don't know if it was good or bad.
After discussions, I said my goodbyes and caught up with the first two episodes of season two of Girls. The show is amazing, you guys. I probably will watch it again when I recap it (probably next week), but for the time being, the show is back, and while I feel it is somewhat more familiar than it should be, the cast is bigger and stronger, and I can find little to complain about. Gah! I need to find episode three. Episode two ends on such an intriguing cliff hanger that I need to know more. Girls may be slowly becoming a personal favorite of all time. We'll see.
In an odd twist, I actually didn't take long to get my sleeping pattern back to normal. I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 8. Almost perfect. All I have to do is maintain it and it will be like I never left. Thanks, body. Now, to start unpacking and hopefully catching Zero Dark Thirty this afternoon. Yeah, not exactly a great first day back, but it beats work, which I will probably go to tonight to look up my schedule. Side note, can I still drive? It has been so long since I touched a wheel.
As I said before, look out for a retrospective entry coming sometime in a few days. I don't know what I will say, but I probably will be taking up a lot of space. Also, pictures will probably be appearing soon as well. Until then, it has been a great trip and I love that I dovetailed this entire thing with Girls and Zero Dark Thirty. Females, you guys!
QUESTION: What is broad?
No comments:
Post a Comment