This morning Nigel and I tried the leaving each other at the airport routine a little differently by not going to the airport together at all.  It would have been another teary display, and I didn't want that, so we parted at the train station.  He walked me with my luggage to my platform, and then walked over to his.  His platform was just across from my seat on the train, so I made faces at him until my train pulled away.  The best way really.  Then a girl on the train asked me if I'm going to Helsinki in Finnish.  She said I looked like I was from Finland.  I'm glad she did start talking to me, because in Britain I'm too shy to start conversations with my accent and all, and I really needed to not be sad just then.

After I showed the Finnish girl to her gate, I went to my gate and got on the not so crowded plane to Newark.  It was really refreshing to not get inspected or pulled aside at Manchester airport.  It seems like I always am.  I probably looked more suspicious than usual as well because I hadn't had any sleep.  So that's the secret.  The guard did ask me, "You don't have a mobile phone on you, do you?" to which I replied, "No, it was stolen last week".  "That's Britain for you" he said back.

My flight over was pretty exciting.  Takeoff was funny because of all the planespotters out.  Hundreds of them.  Some with their families.  How do they make money?  I didn't freak out as much as usual on the transatlanic haul, I'm usually alright by Greenland, but I did try to get some wine to calm myself down when the stewardess told me that I'm not 21.  Honest, I'm 24!  "Let's see some id then...".  I couldn't get my passport out of the overhead bin fast enough, so she passed me by.  I then took a nap and woke up having panic attack.  Usually I can calm myself down, I don't know what came over me.  I thought I had DVT or something.  So the flight attendants came by with the oxygen thing and called for a doctor.  I got several.  They were all trying to take my pulse and what not.  How embarrassing.  One nurse asked where I was from and I replied "Austin" to which she exclaimed "Oh my god, I love Austin!... did you go out and have too much to drink last night?".  What?  Finally I calmed down and went back to my seat.  The flight attendant then came by with two bottles of wine and I continued to watch the bad movie selection to calm my ass down.  That's cheaper than landing the plane, which is what they were going to do.  When you're 37000 feet up it's always nice to watch people walk around on the ground, even if it's just on a little LCD screen.  Unless the movie was Deep Impact, which I saw once on a plane.  This time it was Down to Earth, What Women Want, and The Wedding Planner.  It could have been worse. 

When we finally landed in Newark, I made my way through customs and then found my gate for my flight to Austin.  You didn't even have to look at the number to tell it was the gate to Austin.  People were tanned, wearing birks and tie dye, and talking to each other.  One guy held a baby that was twice as tan as me.  He was trying to get it to come over to me.  "Go say hi to the lady" he whispered.  "No, please don't, I've been living in England" I wanted to say.  Then another guy intervened and started playing with it.  Stangers around me were talking to each other about their children's "development centers"... "is it really meeting Hayley's needs?".  I'm not ready for such foriegn gestures yet.  Please can everybody just keep to themselves and read the paper, talk on their cell phones, or make mutterances about the weather.  OK?  That'd be great.  Thanks.

So I just sat there with my I Can't Believe it's Yogurt swirl and read my copy of OK.  All this talking is giving me a headache.  Soon it'll be time to take some Tylenol and join in.  Luckily the guy next to me on the plane had some Tylenol and was very nice to talk to.  And the person on the other side of me was this brilliant boy.  He talked to me about his life in the past tense... "I lived most my life in Austin, but I'm not really from there, I've moved to NY now.  I've been there a year".  And how old was he?  10.  Golly.  Then he proceeded to pull out toys from his carry on that you would expect a boy his age to have.  Fingerboards, Color Gameboy, Pokemon, and a folder labelled "ideas" into which he put a drawing of a car he had done.  How cute.  I let him know that in my day Gameboy didn't have color and certainly wouldn't fit in your pocket.  "Wow..." he exclaimed.  Yes I do need some new toys.

My plane landed in Austin on time.  As soon as I stepped off the plane I could feel a rush of heat from outside.  Oh yeah, I forgot about that.  Temperatures as high as 80F would provoke British weathermen to use words like "mindbendingly hot", or "scorching".  This was about 95, and I was lost for words.  Boy it was hot.  Why did I pack three jackets?  What was I thinking!?

Alena was there to pick me up, looking very tan and happy.  And I was glad to see her.  I really felt like I was home just then.  I went back to her and her fiance Kersten's house, took a shower, and we made our way to Curra's Grill.  While I was there I saw three people I knew, and it wasn't even that crowed.  I'd only been there an hour and I was running into people.  The menu at Curras really threw me off.  I was confused by all the choices.  The waitress who was wearing cutoffs and a shirt that said 78704 on ("78704 it's not just a zipcode, it's a way of life" as the bumper sticker reads) looked a little annoyed as I said I was ready to order but didn't know what I wanted.

Me:  I'd like a shrimp taco and rice and beans please

Waitress: What kind of taco would you like, corn or flour?

Me: Flour.

W: Wheat or white flour?

Me:  Um, white flour?

W: and what kind of beans would you like? 

Me: Refried...

W: Refried boraccho or refried pinto?

Can I have a top up on my bottomless cup of Oaxacan coffee before I make these decicions? 

jacob at work

Quite full on food, and a little bit loopy from no sleep, I ended the longest Tuesday ever by visiting Jacob at one of his jobs at 33 Degrees, my favorite record store.  He recommended more things to me than I could get my head around, so I went back to Alena's and crashed on her futon. 

A pretty good day, but now I'm really missing Nigel.  I forgot what a long distance relationship was like, and now I'm starting to remember.

listening to:  Fennesz - Endless Summer