| Home | Archives | What This Is | Intro | Comments |    

03.03.98     [Actually, 03.01] Okay.  So, I am a little nervous. Today marks the start of a wondrous journey.

Here I am, sitting on my parent’s couch typing on my laptop and watching a weird show that is apparently a spin-off of the eighties show, Night Rider, and mentally attempting to keep a realistic notion of time.  It’s 1:12PM right now.  I still have to shave, shower, and dress before leaving for JFK airport to pick up Liz.  She arrives on the 3:20PM flight from New Orleans – TWA flight 708.  Speaking to Liz earlier today, I noticed again that she is extremely nervous about flying.  Therefore, making this flight a little ironic.  I did not have the heart to tell her that just about a year ago (I think it was a year ago – progressing age warps realistic notions of time), that the accident of TWA flight 800 occurred departing from this same airport.

<Yes>, I am nervous and I am sure that she is too.  After all, this will change things tremendously.  Both of us, living together under one roof… yes, things will be different.  How different?  We shall see.  I have had experiences of cohabitation before and I know that there is an adjustment period that lasts, well… indefinitely.  I just know that I would probably have to express my great character traits of non-selfishness, non-stubborness, and mondo-negotiation skills.  Oh, or was it the other way around?  Guess I will soon find out.  Like I said, it will be a wondrous educational journey.  I will have to start by leaving the toilet seat down. <smile>

Okay, my dad said that it should only take about half an hour at the most to get to JFK.  He says to pay careful attention to the terminal signs while closing in on the airport.  They are pertinent.  One wrong exit, and it may mean a whole circle around the terminals for another try – therefore, translating into another twenty minutes.  Just to be safe, I head out the door at 2:20PM and head up the highway.  Would it not be my luck, but to have it downpour right at the moment.  Traffic thickens slightly due to the conditions and I speed up my windshield wipers to fight off the road-spray.  Even with the onslaught of unexpected traffic and weather, dad was correct, I still manage to arrive at the airport, find a spot, and enter the TWA terminal at 2:55PM.

I walk up toward one of the monitors marked “Arrival” and guess what?  Flight 708 was not delayed, but instead has arrived early…a half-hour early, at gate 21.  This means that her plane landed about 5 minutes ago.  Feeling a slight panic, I start looking around for gate 21.  I told her that I would meet her off the plane.  After passing through a batch of people standing around, I felt like I was tossing around in an Olympic obstacle course, racing for the best time.  I spot a sign that read “Gates 21-35” and headed in that direction.  I notice another sign that read, “Ticketed Passengers Only” and figured it did not apply to me.  After all, signs like that were meant for people whose motives were to manipulate the system, creating havoc and terror by carrying plastic explosives near airplane gates.  Or, the signs were meant to reduce the amount of people traffic.  In any case, I notice the guard was busy, and I gave it a try to slide by off to the side.

     “Scuse me! Sir! Scuse me! Can I see your ticket please?”
     Shoot, I was spotted.  I wondered if I could pull off an impromptu Asian accent noting that I do not understand English.  Another thought occurred to me about saying I have an electronic ticket and I wanted to check in at the gate.  The problem with the latter option is that I was unsure if TWA had electronic tickets, so I figured on the first option.  Waving my hands in front of my mouth and with a really bad accent, “…Sore-ly, (meaning Sorry)”  I interrupted myself and noted that it did not sound foreign at all, actually a little southern American instead.  Somehow, my sub-conscious must had played a little dirty trick on me at the moment.  Luckily, I was able to interrupt myself, played it off by pretending to clear my throat, and acted surprised when I did see the sign.  Giggling slightly, “Ohhh.. sorry about that.  Tell me, do the passengers come this way from the gate to baggage claim?  My girlfriend is coming, and I told her that I would meet her off the plane.”
     “Yes sir.  They should be walking down toward here first.”
     “Umm… thanks, I’ll just wait right here then…hehe”

It was not more than five minutes when Liz walked down the ramp.  She noted on the phone that she had had her hair cut and she thought she looked terrible – that’s Liz for you, she is slightly on the modest side.  <Of course>, she looked cute as a button, and greeted her with a very warm hug.  Hand in hand, we walked toward the baggage claim.  We would stop along the way and give each other more hugs.  It was very sweet and endearing, but surely, it was probably grossing the people out who were around us.

The conversation on the way back from the airport was centered on the initial shock value. We started talking about how temporary this all feels.  This was interesting for me.  Intellectually, I knew that this was much more than just a week’s visit, and I am very much happy about it being more permanent than that, but it still felt like it was just for a week.  The mind plays funny tricks.

<Anyway>, we are going to spend a couple of days here in Brooklyn with my parents, and then head back up to Rochester on Tuesday.  My parents have already invited us to dinner tonight.  Supposedly, we will call them at a friend’s place, after coming back from the airport.  We will meet them out in Chinatown <yum yum>, my favorite.
 

| b |