Last weekend, I flew to San Antonio for Russ and Sarita's wedding. Russ goes to grad school with me, and he was the CSSA president before me, which meant I got to bug him whenever I had a CSSA question.

I went to sleep Friday night with my window open, listening to the rush and patter of the heavy rain outside. It was so nice. It's been ages since I've seen a good rain storm--since the spring at least--and NC is in the middle of an "exceptional" drought (the most severe type). It wasn't raining when I woke up at 5:45, though. I quickly got ready and drove to the airport, making my 8:38 am flight with time to spare, and having time to talk to Jim K. a bit as well. He goes to Grace Church and works at the information desk at the airport.

I read a good chunk of "Star Wars: Survivor's Quest" by Timothy Zahn on the plane. I also napped a bit. I had to hurry in Houston to make my connecting flight, since I only had about 15 minutes before boarding. An hour later I arrived in San Antonio. I had arranged a shuttle from the airport, but I didn't get the details of how/where I would meet up with the driver, so I sat around for a while, trying to call them and getting no answer. Eventually I got a hold of them and they came, though--when I was literally 3 pages from finishing the book. :-/ Oh, and I rode in style: a shiny new Lincoln Towncar L. The "L" means long, and I actually had room to stretch out in the back seat. It was ni-i-ice. :-)

I met up with my friends at the Casa Rio restaurant on the river around 1:30 pm. I scarfed down some enchiladas, then we all went to our various hotels to get ready. We walked by the Alamo on the way. We were a little confused about how and where to meet up with the wedding shuttle, and we only made it by virtue of our hotel's concierge calling ahead and having them wait on us. This, of course, made us the object of some good-natured teasing by our friends on the bus, once we got there. :-)

The wedding was beautiful. It was at a place called the Patios: a little pocket of beauty tucked away among highways and construction. The wedding was outside, on a green lawn, among those rather short, scrubby, south-Texas trees, and surrounded by old, Spanish, hacienda-style buildings. The weather was nice--about 75 degrees, I'd guess. The ceremony was short, and the reception was on site, so it wasn't long before I took advantage of some cold Shiner Bock. I'm sure it's just in my head, but, being on Texas ground, that Shiner tasted particularly good. :-)

The dinner was good. Most of the UNC students and alumni hung out together, and it was good to see old friends like Vince, Tynia, Karl S., and Avneesh. The dancing was kinda boring at first; they played a lot of slow, old-timey (read: boring) stuff at first, like "Unchained Melody". But Sasa eventually prevailed in getting the DJ to play that "Superman" song by Soulja Boy, for which he had earlier taught us the choreography. When it came on, the guys took the floor and made a mess of the choreography, all kinda looking around at each other, thinking, "what's next?" But it was fun. :-)

After that, we bombarded the newlyweds with bubbles on their way to the getaway car. I mean, we had a serious gauntlet going. I think the soap solution was particularly good or something. Then we caught the shuttle back to our various hotels (trying and failing to get a good song started from the back seat), changed, and went out on the town. It was about 11 pm at that point. We ended up at a place on the Riverwalk called "Dick's". It was nice that we got to sit by the river and that it was quiet enough that we could talk. But, the place was kinda...meh. Intentionally run-down and trashy-looking, for one. The server was quite scantily clad, and intentionally rude/sarcastic--which is part of the supposed allure of the place, I gather (hence the name). I was also kinda grumpy, having had a long day and a headache and being up way past my bedtime. It was still nice to hang out with everyone, and I gotta give 'em points for having Fat Tire on tap, but I was very happy when I finally crashed into bed sometime around 2am.

I got up again at 5:45, caught the shuttle at 6:15, caught my 8:15 flight, and slept all the way to Houston. Then I slept almost all the way to Raleigh. Then I got home, and slept some more. You'd think I'd be caught up on sleep by then, but after a full night's rest that night, I proceeded to take a 3-hour nap in my office on Monday. But, now I'm all caught up. 'Twas a good, fun, full weekend! Congratulations to Russ and Sarita!

Last weekend I flew to Chapel Hill for Claire (ktria) and Ed's wedding. Claire matriculated at UNC with me but left with her master's.

I left San Diego Friday night around 11pm, taking the red-eye to NC. I'd never taken a red-eye before. I got my boarding pass and saw that I had seat 47D. I happily assumed that meant I'd either have a window seat (if there were 2 seats per side) or an aisle seat (if 3 per side). Either way, I wouldn't be stuck in the middle, right? Wrong. The plane was huge--by far the largest I've ever flown on--and it was one of those with 2 seats on either side and 3 in the middle. So, seat D is basically the only seat in any row that is a middle seat. Also, row 47? Very last one in the entire plane. So I pretty much had the worst seat (in terms of layout, anyway) in the whole plane. I didn't mind, though--it was kinda fun to be so distinguished. :-)
( In which I recount the sundry adventures and misadventures of your intrepid hero. Or something. )
It was such a fun visit! It really made me realize how much Chapel Hill has become home for me.

Friday, I flew to Arkansas to attend a wedding. I got there around 9:30 pm, and my dad picked me up from the airport. I had decided that I wanted to hang out with the Hotzes while I was in town, and they were expecting me. So, after Dad went back to his weekday apartment in Rogers, I took his Cadillac (the one that was mine for a week or two) to Fayetteville, about a half-hour drive, stopping at Sonic on the way. (Mmm, Sonic...)

It was so good to see Daniel, Cassidy, and the kids. Daniel was my best friend growing up. We met on the soccer team, when I was like 14 and homeschooled, and he lived a five-minute bike ride away. It's so great, seeing old friends. Even though you haven't stayed in close touch, and you have to catch each other up on your lives, there's still such a bond there. You don't have to be mindful of accidentally offending them or anything, you can just be, and be loved...and love. It's great. We had a great time together, and when I eventually thought to look at my watch, it was like 3:30 in the morning. Wow.

I crashed at Dad's place, and moved to the bed when he got up. I got up at 10ish, and we left around 11 to meet my mom, my sister, and my sister's boyfriend at the Marketplace (a restaurant). After, we went to War Eagle Mill, a quaint grist mill where they actually grind grain into flour with water power. That's one of our favorite places to go on a Saturday afternoon in Northwest Arkansas. There are people around, and cars, but it's still mighty serene to stand on the one-lane bridge and look at the small dam, the mill wheel, the huge dark shapes of carp under the dam, the stream, the ducks, the minnows... And, like at the Hotzes, it was great to just hang out, love, and be loved. I'm so blessed. For real.

We went back to my Dad's apartment, and I got snazzed up for the wedding. It was on the U of A campus in Fayetteville, on the arboretum area and behind Old Main, the campus's most historic building and landmark. It was a pretty wedding on the back steps of Old Main, with a string quartet, and a minstrel friend who strummed the guitar and sang "Amazing Grace". Afterwards we ate and hung out at Carnall Inn, which was like a 2 minute walk away. Jonathan, the groom, was my old college buddy. I met him through MGB (Michael), who was also there, in from Boston. The three of us used to hang out and drink all the time, my junior and senior year. Jonathan is one of the funniest guys I know. He has the kind of natural gift of humor, being all animated, doing great impressions, and telling stories with just the right level of creative detail. I'll never forget the impression he did of ants getting sprayed with Windex. MGB is also pretty funny, sharp as a whip, and gregarious as anyone I've ever met. Heh, he's like 6'6"...we walked to Dickson St. to get cigars, and it was sprinkling outside, so he borrowed an umbrella from the front desk. But not just any umbrella, a tiny, hot-pink one. Yeah, we got some stares... (By the way, I gained a healthy respect for cigars, and learned how not to smoke them.)

I eventually drove to Dad's apartment at like 10 or 11pm, wrote in my (physical) journal for a while, and fell asleep. I had to get up earlier than I think I ever have before: 4 am. And that's 2 am the time I'm used to! But I made my 5:45 am flight, and I made it home OK, thanks to a ride from Matt. On the 3-hour flight from Dallas to San Diego, I had a great conversation with a 50-something business man named Leeman. He was such an interesting, fun guy. We got really into a meaning-of-life, wisdom-exchanging conversation, and before we knew it, two hours had passed. Now that's the way to fly.

I flew out to San Diego on Sunday (the 13th). After dropping my parents off at the airport in the afternoon, I came back and cleaned like a madman. My mom had already done a lot, but I actually tidied everything up. My apartment as I left it was tidier than at any time I've been there. I also did laundry and packed, fitting everything I could into two suitcases and a backpack.
( The thought of flying makes me sigh... )
On the next flight, I watched The Painted Veil with Ed Norton and Naomi Watts. It was entertaining, I suppose, most mostly forgettable. Then I slept 'til we landed. When I got there, I got my bags, and my new housemates were kind enough to come pick me up from the airport. Hello, San Diego!

Some of the workshop attendees complained about US Airways messing up their plans. One guy from Texas came a day late because of them. Now I have my own US Airways story.
( Why you shouldn't fly US Airways... )
Today, I went to pick up Russ from the airport, and got there an hour and a half early to hunt for my bag. I didn't find it. (There were at least a hundred bags on the ground there.) So I waited in line again. It was about the same length. I talked with some interesting people. One, Heather from Albany, NY, is a voiceover actor. She was in town to train people on voiceover acting. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, I finally get to talk to somebody, and they tell me that they can't put a claim in the database for me because it's been over 4 hours since my arrival. Have any of you ever heard of this rule? I wonder if it's just US Airways. The lady took my phone number down and said she'd call me if it turned up. I'm none too thrilled about it, but there's not much I can do, apparently. I'll try calling their general customer service line tomorrow. (I had done that today, but I got disconnected waiting for a representative. Others in line said they had the same experience.) Ah well, at least there were only dirty clothes in there. And my Bible. And my jacket. And my dress shoes and belt. And my books. And if you're wondering why I'm smelly/unkempt/unshaven, it's because my deoderant/comb/electric razor was in there too. :-/ Maybe this time I'll succeed in growing a scraggly beard. ;-)

Sunday I flew to San Diego for a workshop. The workshop is now over and I'm still hanging out in the area with my friend Matt from Arkansas, but I figured I'd post about Sunday.

Russ drove me to the airport. I got there around 12:15. My flight was at 1:25. Everything was pretty routine despite the Orange Alert, until I got to the security check. I took my shoes off and emptied my pockets and whatnot, and got through the metal detector fine. My tray, however, didn't make it through. The dude stopped me, held up my keys, and said "Are these yours, young man?" Whoops. I forgot to take my 4" knife off of my keychain. I'm pretty sure I could've gotten in big trouble over that, but thankfully, I just gave up the knife and that was that. Yeesh. (I also found out I was supposed to have taken my laptop out of my carryon bag for the check. Duly noted.)

The first of two flights was to Atlanta. I sat by Luther, a young professional-looking dude, who was going to Atlanta to recruit teachers to the Wake County school system. On my other side (the aisle side) was Laurie (I think), a 40ish mom of two. She was flying to Florence, and was going to meet up with her friend 3 days into a 10 day tour of Italy. She had quite a tale to explain why she was running late!
( Laurie's Tale )
I got off the plane in Atlanta and hurried to the nearest sports bar to watch the last few minutes of the ACC championship. Our pilot, knowing that the game concerned many of those on a flight from the Triangle area (Carolina was playing NC State), informed us at halftime that Carolina led by 8. I found a bar with 7:20 left in the 2nd half. State was closing the gap, but we held them off to become the 2007 ACC Champions. Woohoo!

The next flight went straight to San Diego. To the aisle side sat Mason (or Davis, maybe?), who was in the Army Reserves. He was flying back from Panama. I don't remember what project he was working on, but it was basically a goodwill project to help out the Panamanians, so that was cool. The weather was just barely good enough in Panama for him to catch his helicopter to the airport. If he had missed it, he would have had to go home after his orders expired, which means he would have had to pay for his own flight.

To the window side sat Sam, a 9-year-old. I don't really consider myself good with kids, but Sam and I had some fun. We talked (well, he talked, mostly...he was a chatterbox!), we played rock-paper-scissors, he listened to my iPod, and he watched the movie for about 5 minutes. At one point, the lady in front of us turned around, smiling, and made a "Mr. Chatterbox" motion with her hands where only I could see. Of course, the flight was like 4 hours long, and that's a long time to sit still if you're a 9-year-old. I think another couple hours and I would have gotten pretty tired of entertaining him, but it was OK as it was. Mason also helped entertain Sam. Heh, Mason asked him if he liked football, and Sam said he did. Mason said "I bet you're a Raider's fan, huh?" Sam, of course, was a Charger's fan. You should have seen his face, all pinched up in disgust. ;-)

We landed and went our separate ways. I caught a shuttle to the Radisson La Jolla, talking with the driver, a Brazilian named Felipe, on the way. I got to my room and met my roommate, Alessio, an Italian going to school in Napoli. He was busy working on a paper, so I left him behind and went out for a walk. There was a shopping area very near the hotel, so I thoroughly checked that out.

Across I-5 there was a beautiful, shining structure of some sort. I walked a while and found a gate, but it was locked. A motion-sensing camera clicked at me. I retreated a bit, found a good vantage point, and just stared at it for a while. I was just captivated. It was so beautiful. (Here is a picture.) It turns out it is a Mormon temple, and apparently only Mormons are allowed inside.

I eventually left there, grabbed a gyro at a place called Daphne's, and got back to the hotel around 10:30. I fell asleep quickly and slept well. I fell asleep on Eastern Time, and awoke on Pacific Time, so I was quite well-rested for the workshop.