Home At Last

Good evening!

I'm back from faraway travels, and the monotony of everyday tasks haven't completely sunk in yet; i haven't put much effort into cleaning my catastrophic bedroom, i haven't responded to any of the letters and calls which i'm obligated to return, and i've actually taken the past two days (one on the plane, and then early this morning) to read a book non school-related.  Hallelujah!  i'm actually doing pretty good on that scale -- i've finished reading all three summer reads, now i just have to finish all the damn projects and memorization....

Because i'm lazy and the jet lag hit me not too long ago (sorry if i seemed tired Nathan -- I am), and being tired gives me memory/cognitive thought loss, i'm going to start by describing yesterday at the airport, which was perhaps the most epic thing on the whole trip (other than initially missing our flight, taking a boat ride under Niagara Falls, traversing about the alleys of Quebec and trying unsuccessfully to converse in French, seeing the Second City comedy club in Toronto, staying in a magical old house in Burlington, and being doused in unpredictable showers all over Vermont) other than all that, the airport is perhaps the most memorable thing on the whole trip!

We entered the San Francisco airport at 9:35 in the evening, and despite the hours of sitting which usually serve to exhaust, i felt surprisingly lucid.  I sang show tunes (people looked at me as if i were a lunatic) and bounced joyfully, completely in my own little world.  However lucid (almost giddy) i felt, i would not have predicted a full-on hallucination as one of the symptoms, which is why i was surprised to see Danny Wyrick and Cody Cox talking on the other side of the baggage claim terminal.  As i walked over to them and their features didn't melt away, it became clear that this was no illusion -- then I saw Jenna Wyrick and some of her family, and i recalled that Danny and Jenna went on a tour of Europe.  What luck that we'd come into the same airport, at the same time...

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Caity! What're you doing here?"

"I came to greet Danny and Jenna at the airport of course!"

"Really?!"

"No, of course not.  i just got off a flight -- i'm coming back from a trip to Canada."

And so our conversation continued.  I inquired after their trip, met Jenna's sister Claire for the first time, and bubbled excitedly as Jenna had the exact opposite, and more common reaction -- exhaustion.  Eventually I saw that my parents had picked up some of our bags, so i wished them well and said i'd see them when school started, and headed back to the baggage wheel.  

As I sat along the edge of the wheel (which you're not supposed to do but everyone does anyway) i was struck by pangs of familiarity.  The last time I'd been here was at the very end of the Orlando Band trip -- I'd sat at this very terminal with Nathan, my Nathan, before i could even hope that i would ever be able to call him my Nathan....  The feeling continued as we traveled down the sidewalk.  He'd been on my mind the whole trip, and not only as i wrote an extensive letter of my travels to him.  He was there when I laughed, as I talked to strangers and to my family, as I read a sign or tripped ungracefully.  Everywhere, all the time.  His presence haunted my thoughts, coloring my experiences with what i imagined would be his reactions. I realized in that moment how much he's influenced my every thought, my every action, and how much i rely on that influence, how much it's changed me.  And there's no going back, no undoing his change; his influence will forever hold some part in my self-guidance, (as some part of the lessons from the past always remain with us). Some lessons do us good, some don't; he's changed me.  And whatever happens to us in the future, I think he's changed me for the better. :)

Well!  It's late.  The clock tells me it's 10:21, but on East Coast time that's 1:30, and i woke up very early, so more delving into the innermost workings of my soul will just have to wait until later.  Ado, ado, parting is such sweet sorrow...

(ps. i took the photo of the flowers in a little garden in Burlington Vermont, at the back of the place where we were staying.  it was magical there -- if you want to see more, i'll be uploading pics to my facebook shortly)