Who wood have thought?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010After two motion-sickness pills, three tranquilizers, and six hours of armrest clutching, I resumed normal breathing as the airplane landed.
This was really the only way I could fly: drugged and muted. The stewardess didn’t even bother to offer me a beverage. I stood up with my head bent forward, ducking below the overhead compartments, and inched my way into the line of passengers in the center isle. With each step, I grasped the back of an unoccupied seat, struggling to find my balance.
Once I finally reached the front of the aircraft, I stopped to face the exit door. The searing summer heat shook me sober, and my eyes stung from the blazing afternoon sun. Beside me, a pilot’s voice mumbled, “Enjoy your stay in San Diego.”
The sunlight here was different from the sunlight back in Florida. Although it was roughly the same temperature, the air was drier, and my tank top did not stick to me. The shadows cast from the tall palm trees seemed strangely unfamiliar. Perhaps the fronds were a different species. Late afternoon hues along the pavement even appeared foreign, from another world.
My luggage made its way around the baggage carousel, and I yanked each suitcase off with fervor.
“One. Two. Three bags.” I thought doing a mental count.
I turned around and swiftly maneuvered my rolling baggage behind me. Weaving in and out of the congested arteries of the terminal- a dense network of blond hair and tanned skin scattering in different directions- I was clearly a foreign body. The wandering stares at my high-cheek bones and pin-straight black hair offered a self-conscious diagnosis that I did not belong.
But more pressing concerns sped the pace of my feet, nearly as quickly as my thoughts. Anxiety. Fear. Determination. All pulsated against my frontal cortex. With each step, each heartbeat, each breath, the uncertainty of a temporary work assignment for the next three months seemed too heavy to bear. No car. No map. Not a familiar face within three time zones.
This was not part of the itinerary.
Steps away from the exit, my stomach overturned as I whispered softly beneath my breath, “What the hell am I doing?”
But a blast of 100F degree heat from the sliding automatic doors focused my thoughts, as if they were curtains pulled aside to expose a new life.
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Somehow I knew, that on that day, my life would never be the same. However, I would have never imagined what I would discover during that “temporary” work assignment. Despite living alone out of a few suitcases, with a horrible job, and not knowing a soul, I somehow found Dadisodes.
Years ago we would lie about how we met, back when meeting someone online was deemed taboo, too dangerous, and merely for the eccentric internet user. But I have no regrets taking the dive to meet him in person on a whim. Even though I was only to be there for a few weeks, I took a chance. I figured my chance was lost when he ended of our first date with a handshake, but with a stroke of luck, all the odds were in my favor, and another date followed. Turns out, he was just a geek gentleman.
Happy 5th Anniversary Dadisodes…
Perhaps we can do Vegas again someday.
