checkin

While absence makes the heart fonder, it does take its time doing so. Departure, however, will make you miss a place faster than you can say "drive safe." As annoyed as I was with the inconvenience of leaving for 4 days in the middle of school, at great expense of time and money, I must say it has been the realest 4 days I've had in a very long time. And I know that what I'll miss is not so much here but what we did. Or maybe even not what we did but who I was with and how I was with them - best friends, constantly. I mean here we have 5 guys who are close enough and understanding enough that they can stand 4 days staring at each other over the course of one of them getting married without overtly fighting or starting drama. To me it comes as natural as breathing but stepping back I know it is a gift and a blessing that I am not thankful enough for.
Either that or they're all just sick of me and don't want to say anything.

While I'm thinking about it, I should mention that the mysterious stop I mentioned in this entry is no longer such a mystery. Apparantly someone in their car had a thought that maybe we should go back to Cassie's house to take some pictures, but eventually someone with clue got control and realized that you couldn't FIT the entire wedding party in one room of Cassie's house. So know we know.

But meanwhile, here with more minute-by-minute reporting:
8:30am may not sound early, and really it's not, but it's the first time I've heard an alarm in weeks, so it certainly felt like early to me. But we had to be at Taylor's for gift opening around 10, so awake we did. I thought at first that this little brunch/gift thingy would be boring stuff, they usually are and they pretty much take forever. But this was much better. They had a big spread of fresh breakfasty foods, and there was lots of cool extended family to meet. Nice to get a sense of the mess Taylor's getting himself into. It was as good an experience of farewell as I could wish for.

Of course that was over and done around noon-thirty, which left the Seattle crew all checked out with nothing to do until 7ish when I had to be at the airport. Of course, there ain't much to do around Ontario, CA even if you live there, so it left a bunch of strangers quite lost indeed. So the only logical thing to do was see a movie. This is a harder proposition than it sounds. We had:

• No map
• No showtimes
• No agreement on what me might see
• No clue

So after much aimless driving and some argument, we picked up a paper and settled on the fact that we had no way to find the movies we really wanted to see, so catching The Girl Next Door wasn't so bad. And really, it was pretty funny, had hot chicks in it, and was about people in the porn industry, who are about the easiest comedic targets in modern film. So it really wasn't so bad, and at the very least was a very appropriate movie to be seeing in California.
I still need to get around to seeing both Kill Bills though.

I don't have to be in Cali very long before I start craving In-n-out burgers. I don't know what it is, they're just a burger joint, but something about a double-double with onions is positively magical to me. Maybe it's because I only eat them on vacation, or because I'm always there with friends, or something. Either way, if we were going to be hanging around southern california and hungry, I was going to get myself some In-n-out. Thus began another "where the hell are we" experience as we attempted to find an In-n-out near the Ontario airport. We ended up driving wherever Josh went in Rancho Cucamonga, which is like a really big Alderwood with no mall. Lots of dreary, sterile business parks and small strip malls. Not like Perris or Orange, which have lots of big strip malls and better scenery. It's a fine line. Anyway I must commend Josh here for leading us so close to an In-n-out that by the time we got around to asking somebody where one might be, she had to laugh because we were 2 blocks away. So I got my double-double and was happy.
As an aside, my church sends lots of missionary groups to our sister church there in Rancho Cucamonga. I feel quite sorry for them now, and hope they took lots of field trips to Anaheim and other fun places down here.

And off to the airport we went, where my path turns away from I-5 and toward the runways and sky. I feel quite sorry for the Josh's Car crew and how late their start was tonight, but I guess they can blame the airlines. I'm stuck in this terminal till 8:45, but will at least be home by 1am.

And really, home is not where I really want to be. I have nothing but hard work and homework in front of me. I like home, but for some reason it's not a very fun place to come back to, never has been. Maybe it's that the first thing you see coming back is Sea-Tac and SoDo, depressing concrete monstrosities (in dull gray, unlike the cheery stucco monstrosities of California) that are about as welcoming as a flooded basement. Maybe because its the only home I've had and secretly my perfect home is somewhere else. Maybe I'm not away from home enough.

People I tell about this trip will never have any idea what it was like. I hope maybe I can make them a little jealous. This was a good trip.

From here
no lines are drawn

From here
no lands are owned

13,000 and holding
swallowed in the purring of the engines

fear of flying

A well-known fact about airline seating is that seats in the exit row give you more legroom at the cost of the responsibility of managing the exits in an emergency. A lesser-known fact is that the seats in front of the exit row don't recline. My >6 foot frame really hates this situation. And really, but for being stuck in the bitch seat of a non-reclining row, this would be shaping up to be a much better flight. Night flying is such a different experience. People are more awake, and the darkness cut by artificial light creates an oddly calm atmosphere. There's little scenery to watch outside, so you get much less flying vertigo. Instead it's somewhat like riding a really nice tour bus that banks and climbs.
Speaking of scenery, LA is very straight, flat and bright from the night sky. Much different from flying over Seattle, which resembles a giant knotted ball of christmas lights. You can practically read LA like a map from the sky. I'll make sure and suggest to Caltrans that they put large, illuminated numbers on the freeways so you literally can read it like a map.
Wait a second, we haven't even flown over Weed yet. Seems my wit has left me behind and gone to join Graham's.