LEAVING

I am manic as I usually am before a complicated trip. I haven’t left the country in quite awhile, and never been to Europe. I swam this morning at Highbridge pool to let some of the energy out, more than I told myself I would but I’m always doing things until excess. It’s part of my charm and definitely much of my charater.

I come home and finally finish packing, giving in to indecision and just taking with me everything I think I’ll wear but know fully well I won’t. I finally check my messages to find the car service I called the night before to pick me up at 3p had showed up at 3a. It’s now 2:30 and I’m a bit alarmed but shouldn’t be, a car will be there still. It costs around 60 dollars for a ride to JFK airport. It’s about the worst airport you could fly out of in terms of convenience, and the international wing has a hot dog stand and a panini grill to choose from. The swim and the sun I got this morning have caught up to me. I spend $23 on overpriced airport food.

I have a row to myself on my Alitalia flight and watch the mediocre Pursuit of Happyness, which is not ever a film really, and Shooter, which I had no idea was such a strongly pointed criticism of the government where a progtagonist actually kills off the corrupt bad-guy Washington asshole. This is what you do the day you leave. You pack, you worry, you fly, you don’t really read all the great stuff you brought with you, and you eat poorly.