Boston
12/31/2004 5:17AM (7:17AM Boston)
As some of you already know, my flight got into Boston late last night, and I missed my connection to NYC. Rather than getting upset about the whole thing and the fact that I hadn't had any more than an hour or so of sleep for the past 22 hours, I took it all in stride and called my good friend Ryan (ptooi!). After arranging for a morning flight to JFK, I started the long trudge to Alewife station where he would be meeting me, in his lady's jalopy. Trying to lug a 60 lb. bag through the Boston underground transportation is similar to dragging a screaming 8 year old through a toy store at Christmas time. Add a second bag of clothes and a book bag, and you have the recipe for an old school Lo Fat Mo slapstick episode. It was worth it though, since I hadn't seen Ryan in almost three years, and we ended up staying up all night talking and playing video games. City of Heroes is a uniquely comical experience when you've had no sleep in several days and are adding your own MST3K type commentary and dialogue.
My flight is supposed to take off at 9a or so, so I had to be at Logan at 7a, which meant that I ended up leaving Arlington at 6a. So no sleep for me. I am currently loopy, but inspired, and so cheerful that I am beginning to worry for my sanity. I don't know how hard I will crash, but I think that it won't be pretty when the time comes. The inspiration comes in the form of certain clear impressions of my vacation:
- walking in to find my old man drinking a tumbler of scotch, listening to Mozart
- waking up to the sounds Chopin wafting through the house like a sweet fragrance
- shopping in the Mercato in Addis Ababa. The Mercato is a mix between an Arabic souk, an Indian bazaar, and the edge of chaos
- having doors opened for me, and overall living the life of a young prince (not the artist)
- the poorest people in the world, with the most disturbing deformities sitting in front of a church
- grown, able-bodied men begging in the Khartoum industrial zone
- tears welling in my eyes at the sight of my young cousins all grown up
- praying in a mosque with my cousin who is the muezzin of that mosque
- answering the question "So what is the condition of Muslims in America these days?"
- hearing the words "you sure do look like your father," uttered a million times
- the sight of Khartoum at night from the air, the broad black band of the Blue and White Niles converging in Khartoum
- the sight of my college friends with their wives and children
- the realization that this may be the last long vacation I will have till the day I retire
The ideal vacation is not just relaxing but also enlightening. Like all the important things in life, you learn something important things about yourself just being there. It remains to be seen what that lesson will be articulated as for me, but I am a better man for it, I can tell you that for sure.