Airport Love

Airports are an adventure for me.  Sure I get annoyed at the security checks and feel rushed at the coffee line, but overall I really like airports.  One, I can watch CNN to my hearts content. Two, it is one of the few places where you can lie down on the floor in public, sleep if you need to with your luggage securely locked to your body, and not be considered inappropriate or homeless.  And I LOVE lying on the floor in public.  Three, airports are becoming veritable galleries and museums, and I enjoy the arts, in case you did not know.  The Boise Airport is lacking some artistic charm, but Denver, O'Hare, Atlanta, and probably Rome have amazing artwork displayed.  It inspires me, it makes me feel the warmth of the city even from the institutional setting of the terminals.  And finally, airports make for the best people watching.  You might think that people in lines waiting are boring, but I find them fascinating, and I choose to spend my time analyzing their footwork, their facial expressions, the way they hold their luggage (or drag it) and deciding what their lives must be like.  It makes me feel shamanic.  So many people are simply commuting for work, but there there are people like me (distinguishable by my 20-something year old backpacker poverty even though I am 36) heading out to great adventures.  There are people who are visiting families they like and others preparing for the family they dread.  There are lovers quietly anticipating a reunion, or a break up, at their destinations.  I don't know who is who, but I probably can relate to their stories (except for the drug traffickers and the cold-war era spires), and in that I can hold their hurts for a minute, love them, and send them good will. 

Airports become their own cities, busy with regular people doing regular things.  And as much as I can be a romantic sometimes, that banality attracts me. 

So I am at the airport this morning, after another wonderful breakfast with Phil, waiting to leave for my connecting flights in Denver and Chicago to Rome.  I will get there sometime tomorrow morning, but the adventure has already begun.  Phil planned a Bon Voyage party for me on Friday night, and everyone sent me away with love and good energy.  I feel very big for their participation in my adventure.  And as much as adventure includes parties and good friends, it also includes loneliness sometimes.  I tried to stick with Kari and Ellie as much as I could over the weekend knowing how much I will miss them over the next two and a half months, and I already miss Phil, Phil who loves me so much he is happy for my travels even though it means we will be apart for so long.  You really should get to know him.  He's Good.  But that is another post to come.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with me on Friday night--Doug and Daisy, Henry, Christ (oops) and Gretchen, Danielle and Brad, Allan, Stephanie, Steph, Miguel and Angi, Steen, Kari and Mike, Gary, Colin, Cate and Donna, Ellie, Wayne, Steve and Brian, Lindy and John and Sydney, and Teresa.  You showed me so much love, and some of you did not even know me.  It's a good world sometimes. 

Thank you also to Karl for sharing the night with me :) Happy Birthday, Love.