Six days until I leave
Apr. 23rd, 2010 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pseydtonneOn one hand, I'll probably have to get up at 5 in the morning to catch my flight on Thursday. I'll need to shower, shave, pack final objects and make sure I didn't do anything stupid with my carry-on bag. I'll have charged my notebook, put fresh batteries in the noise-canceling headset and done the real packing the night before or even this weekend.
Then I'll eat some breakfast and get out the door by 6 to catch the T. I'll ride the D train to the end of the its line at Government Center (22 minutes), go downstairs and take the blue line to Airport station (7 minutes). After that it may still be early enough that only the all-stops airport bus (the 55) will be running. That would give me time to dump my keys and change into a plastic zipper bag and shove that back into my pocket. If I have any water left in my bottle, it will be chugged or poured into the storm drain. I will also turn off my cell phone and slide it into the rucksack.
I'll have already checked in online before I get to terminal C. I'll hand off my one carry-on, get in the TSA line and slide out of my shoes and overshirt. Oh, and get out the notebook for inspection.
Then it's simple: toss the rucksack into one bin, put the notebook in another, toss the bag of metal into a tray and walk through in my socks. Then I grab the baggie, toss that into my pocket for later redistribution, slide my notebook into the rucksack and slip back into my shoes.
This algorithm allows for the most effective walk-away after the inspection. It also makes the inspection simple: everything is exposed but discrete (nothing dripping, nothing to be scooped or counted) and discreet (no fumbling, no crying, nothing but a calm face -- not a poker face, but a clear visage to the soul).
This is the ritual for entering Airportopia. One must understand the ritual as if it were a holy moment. You ask to be accepted into the magic tubes that take you to far-away places while you sit and read. You must prove that you can be chill enough not to be a threat while unplugged from the ground. We've traded the expense of a regulated airline flight with the time needed to get to level and stay there until the Fasten Seat Belt light has been extinguished.
This is far more elaborate than gassing up the car and driving somewhere. In return, it asks you to purge yourself of needless things you can buy at the drug store when you land... or you just don't need at all.
I come to your border with humble heart and slip-on shoes. I ask that I may be adult enough to sit calmly and expect nothing until the glory of the air is below me. Then may I observe and read the landscape. Once I am out of the tube, I will pick up the personality that suits my landing spot. I will be clear.
When I was hustling to catch the train from the language school in Rambouillet to the variety of trains that got me to Lyon, I recall feeling the people and events from those three weeks slipping away from me. I would miss people and not others. I was pissed at one person and that person could now dissolve. Travel is good for leaving things behind.
I look forward to the ritual on the plane when the stewards perform the safety demonstration. No two do it the same: some are lithe, others perfunctory, others thrilled to do the Dance of the Exits and the Oxygen Mask Tug.
In any case, I may pass out as soon as I get my headphones, book and iPod out and my bag in the overhead.
-friendly skies, Dante
Then I'll eat some breakfast and get out the door by 6 to catch the T. I'll ride the D train to the end of the its line at Government Center (22 minutes), go downstairs and take the blue line to Airport station (7 minutes). After that it may still be early enough that only the all-stops airport bus (the 55) will be running. That would give me time to dump my keys and change into a plastic zipper bag and shove that back into my pocket. If I have any water left in my bottle, it will be chugged or poured into the storm drain. I will also turn off my cell phone and slide it into the rucksack.
I'll have already checked in online before I get to terminal C. I'll hand off my one carry-on, get in the TSA line and slide out of my shoes and overshirt. Oh, and get out the notebook for inspection.
Then it's simple: toss the rucksack into one bin, put the notebook in another, toss the bag of metal into a tray and walk through in my socks. Then I grab the baggie, toss that into my pocket for later redistribution, slide my notebook into the rucksack and slip back into my shoes.
This algorithm allows for the most effective walk-away after the inspection. It also makes the inspection simple: everything is exposed but discrete (nothing dripping, nothing to be scooped or counted) and discreet (no fumbling, no crying, nothing but a calm face -- not a poker face, but a clear visage to the soul).
This is the ritual for entering Airportopia. One must understand the ritual as if it were a holy moment. You ask to be accepted into the magic tubes that take you to far-away places while you sit and read. You must prove that you can be chill enough not to be a threat while unplugged from the ground. We've traded the expense of a regulated airline flight with the time needed to get to level and stay there until the Fasten Seat Belt light has been extinguished.
This is far more elaborate than gassing up the car and driving somewhere. In return, it asks you to purge yourself of needless things you can buy at the drug store when you land... or you just don't need at all.
I come to your border with humble heart and slip-on shoes. I ask that I may be adult enough to sit calmly and expect nothing until the glory of the air is below me. Then may I observe and read the landscape. Once I am out of the tube, I will pick up the personality that suits my landing spot. I will be clear.
When I was hustling to catch the train from the language school in Rambouillet to the variety of trains that got me to Lyon, I recall feeling the people and events from those three weeks slipping away from me. I would miss people and not others. I was pissed at one person and that person could now dissolve. Travel is good for leaving things behind.
I look forward to the ritual on the plane when the stewards perform the safety demonstration. No two do it the same: some are lithe, others perfunctory, others thrilled to do the Dance of the Exits and the Oxygen Mask Tug.
In any case, I may pass out as soon as I get my headphones, book and iPod out and my bag in the overhead.
-friendly skies, Dante
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 11:24 pm (UTC)It only matters in that I don't even have to change planes this time. I get on a plane, I get off, and I go straight to the car rental pickup shuttle.
The only other time I didn't have to change planes was flying Virgin to Heathrow, but even then I had to schlep by tube to St Pancras (the temporary station during the International upgrade) and then take a train to Nottingham. I'm used to travel involving a lot of a day, not being done within the morning.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 07:26 pm (UTC)It was good seeing you.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 04:26 am (UTC)