Friday, April 18, 2014

you will become an accomplished writer

So says the fortune [censored] passed on to me from a fortune cookie he'd opened at some point - I'm not sure whether passing on a fortune is beneficial or is actually a curse, but we shall see!

Today was long but uneventful; I woke up at four and managed to shower, put on makeup, half-dry my hair, make my bed, and rendezvous with a driver to take me to the airport. I checked my bag at the curb to avoid all lines, and so I had time to have a real breakfast - not particularly welcome at 5:30am, but better than starving to death. Then I spent the plane ride to Minneapolis alternating between dozing and making notes on Thorington's book. In Minneapolis, I killed time, ate lunch, considered Thorington some more, walked all the way across the airport, and daydreamed until the Des Moines flight. I spent that one mostly dozing and trying not to rip the phone away from the person across the aisle from me who played her music so loudly that I could hear it escaping from her earbuds over the sound of my own music. She had been doing that in the terminal for over an hour (when she wasn't talking on the phone), and I had switched seats to get away from her, but unluckily we sat next to each other on the flight to DSM. So I got to practice my deep breathing, which I suppose is a benefit.

My parents and [censored] picked me up at the airport, where we had a brief celebrity spotting (Vilsack, the ag secretary and former Iowa governor - it's funny that I never recognize 'real' celebrities but spotted Vilsack immediately). Then we visited Aunt Becky and Uncle Brian, since we may not see them over Easter - one of their cats protested my presence by sneezing on me repeatedly, which was ironic since I'm more allergic to it than it is to me. We didn't stay particularly long, but it was great to see them, and I'm not even saying that just because Aunt B bought me off by giving me a couple of pieces of Gram's costume jewelry that went out of style forty years ago and that I plan to bring back.

We then proceeded to dinner, where we feasted like kings (or, like we always do when I fly into Des Moines) before making the long drive back to the cradle of my youth. And now that I'm unpacked and decompressed and all that, I should go to bed; I have grand plans to hang out with my family, but I also have grand plans to finish this draft of Thorington while I'm in Iowa, so we'll see how the twain shall meet. Goodnight!

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