You gotta do me a favor? Please keep me company. I am in the midst of a 9+ hour flight from Oahu to Newark, NJ. As some of you may know, I am not the world’s greatest reader. In other words, I have no books with me to read. I don’t feel like watching a movie on a screen even smaller than my computer. The seats are sardinely uncomfortable.
I am sure all of you have had the pleasure of flying more than once. In my mind, the three most insane environments are airports, hospitals and laundromats. Each one, in its own way, is another worldly experience. I took that photograph at the Oahu Airport, because it had no business being there. I had gotten a grossly overpriced Quiznos sandwich and found this empty space. It wasn’t quite empty, even though I thought it was. There was an elderly Asian couple sitting absolutely still, against the wall. I was pretty sure they were alive.
Just like hospitals, everything at any airport is outrageously priced. Here, too, you are a prisoner and have no control. Admittedly, the laundromat isn’t in quite the same league. Everyone there seems to be both impatient and suspicious. People protect their folding table, whether the laundry is on it or not.
I want to tell you something, several paragraphs into this story. I feel better already. My mood is improved and the various ailments that were beginning to take over my body, have faded into the background, at least temporarily.
Traveling like this and cutting across time zones feels a little like being a space traveler. My computer thinks it is 6:00PM HST, while I am flying east into the night. Not only that, I will fly right through the night in just a couple of hours and land in Newark, NJ at 6:30AM, as far as Newark is concerned.
I had dinner on the plane, if you can call it that. For someone like me, with the dexterity of a hippopotamus, the packaging is a bitch. I immediately dropped my plastic fork on the floor. The “main course” was strangled with saran wrap and very complicated to remove. I don’t know how you’re supposed to cut a cold chicken breast with a plastic knife and fork. Well, I managed to have around half of it and several times, in the middle of a cut, the plastic tray nearly slid off the spacious, drop- down table we are all provided with.
Maybe, around six hours after this dinner feast, I will have my first cup of morning coffee. Clearly, I am not good astronaut material, but I’ll bet you could have guessed that without any help from me.
Around three rows down, I am watching The Sopranos, which is impossible to follow, both from a distance and with no sound or subtitles. When you have this many people, stuffed into a winged tuna can, you got yourself a banquet of energies and stories and I think it is one of a number of things that makes it impossible for me to relax. Of course, the idea of one of these huge contraptions, somehow staying up in the sky is a magic trick not lost on me either.
Oh shit, one of Tony’s guys just hijacked a semi-truck and I don’t know what to make of that! I also forgot to mention this is the period in The Soprano’s, where he is seeing a shrink. In the midst of all the craziness and his home life, there shrink scenes interspersed throughout. I cant even imagine the dialogue. It was such a great show.
Wow, a couple of hours ago, it was daylight and now it is the middle of the night, somewhere down below. Of course, I could poke the little screen and find the map of the planes path across the country, but that would involve research and that just isn’t what I do. God, he looks so lost in therapy and its funny, the furniture seems to change each time he has a session.
Well, she’s done with The Sopranos and I don’t have the energy to get into any other programs with her.
I figure by now, you’re probably waiting for me to start talking about why I am going to NJ. Of course, it is to visit with family. You have to know by now, i will say whatever I want about myself, but I will hardly ever bring anyone else into my stories. I do this for a reason and one that really matters to me. I have no right to invade the privacy of others, for the sake of my story.
I am going to be spending about a week and a half with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Some of you may know a little about my grandson, because he has been my muse. Without him, I wouldn’t be writing. At the same time, what transpires between us is extremely private. It is our story.
The other thing I have to thrown in is that the woman of my dreams is also traveling here and it is not something we planned. She will be meeting my family, which I am incredibly excited about and that, too, is very private.
It is funny. We are living in such a public time, where everything seems to be everybody’s business. I know my age is a factor in my reticence to be a part of all that, so I don’t feel righteous about it. I know it sounds kind of dumb, with all the writing I do, for me to say I relish my privacy, but it is true.
I think I want to come back to this story and finish it off on Saturday night. Somehow, I am on the verge of Saturday morning as well, even though it feels like a I just got up a few hours ago. I hope I can enjoy sharing the difference of being on the ground and with family. Airports and flying are the height of the impersonal and being with family is the flip side.
See you a little later.
Well, I made it. I have just spent a full day with family. I think I have been up around thirty hours now. Had a wonderful day with my family and never left their house. It was cold and rainy from the time I arrived early this morning until late this afternoon. I saw patches of blue Jersey sky before sunset today.
At the moment, I am under the covers in a large bed in a large house in a beautiful neighborhood. I have been treated royally and feel blessed to be with my family. Of course, this has nothing to do with getting here being a royal pain in the ass.
I am doing my best to stay up and pretend I live in this time zone of EDT. I am eating up the six hour time difference, so I can slip into this new rhythm as easy as possible.
I now get to be a real life father, father-in-law and last, but not least, a grandfather. This coming week is mine to experience and mine to own. The experiences will energize my writing, but really not my stories. What transpires between myself and those I love, stays within our hearts, not on paper. On top of all that, it will be magical to be with the woman I love and to share her with my family. Writing about it would be like eavesdropping on the privacy of others and I just won’t do that.
I will write you again at the end of this week, which has barely begun. I know it will be filled with looking forward to coming home and having being flooded with the love of family and my love for them.
Have a wonderful week.