Stockholm Syndrome

You know how when do something over and over, even if it's not something you picked or even really liked at first, you kind of end up loving it? Like how my friend Ashley learned to embrace Scotch on a bus ride in Scotland where she was forced to take a shot of it at every stop, or how, no matter how terrible they are, you have a special fondness for reruns of Saved by the Bell, not in spite of, but because you've seen every episode at least 37 times?

In the same manner, I love flying. I love it. I love flying over America and staring down at our geographically diverse land- I almost wish there were big, obvious state lines I could see; wouldn't that be rad?- and thinking about all the lives of all the people: families in the suburbs where all the roofs look the same, or the single person doing a crossword puzzle over take-out in a cramped apartment building, or the one solitary farm house in the middle of nowhere.

I like busy airports that are full of excitement and the energy of hundreds of people going on vacation or visiting loved ones or coming home. I love empty airports, too. I love how the conveyer belt in San Francisco seemingly eats my luggage in San Francisco and 8 hours and 2 planes later it pops out on another belt in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I'm consistently amazed that it's someone's job to keep the hundreds of planes on dozens of airlines that are in the air at any given time from crashing into one another and that people still get angry when their flight is like 8 minutes late. I love that everyone in an airport thinks he is the only person there who is in a hurry. I love how people who are in boarding group 6 crowd up at the gate when they call first-class passengers only, like they will lose their assigned seat if they're not first in line. And I love sitting on the ground with my $3 bottle of water next to the only electrical outlet in general vicinity and blogging about my travels. I know it's not for everyone, but I will certainly miss it when I start the next chapter of my life.

Now, without further blathering, in honor of Emmy Sunday and the girls' night I can't have tonight because I'm stuck in a fracking airport, a hilarious and horrifyingly accurate faux tv guide:



Hope everyone is doing well. I just had a fantastic weekend in Iowa for Tonya's wedding. I will post photos and stories soon. Love, me.