Monday, January 11, 2010

Day 1

Its day one and I am on my flight to Trinidad from Miami. Last night I didn’t get much sleep because of some late night packing and mostly anticipation. I’m 24 and it felt like it was the night before Christmas. Last night before the packing I was glad I went to say goodbye to my grandma at the nursing home. She was apparently talking about how she wished I had said goodbye the moment before I walked in. This morning I woke up really early to say goodbye to my Dad before he went to work and then proceeded to finish up packing and get to the airport.

I said goodbye to my Mom and then checked my bags with my brother. Of course he only went in to try and get me into first class (which was $135 extra), not happening. I flew through security faster than George Clooney (don’t go behind old people) and found my terminal 2 hours early. I had a lot of time to decide what my last meal in North America was going to be. What did I choose? McDonald’s….Duh. Double cheeseburger, Mighty Kids Meal. Then back to the terminal to board.

Got on the plane. I met my first seat buddy and her name was Analy. Being the “Social Butterfly” that I am, we struck up a great conversation. I found out that she was going to Miami for work. She was a buyer for a flower company and was going town there to evaluate imported flowers so they are ready for Valentine’s day (the dumbest holiday every created). Anyways, I of course told her where I was going and why. By then my second seat buddy was listening and it turns out he’s a percussionist. I thought, “Oh cool he plays drum’s on the weekends.” But no. My second seat buddy, Jamey, is a percussion teacher at Berkley in Boston! And also teaches at Oberlin. He goes, “Yea, I also play with Simon and Garfunkel.” What!? Then we get to talkin’ (again remember, Social Butterfly) and he’s travelled all over the world and is on his way to Panama to play in a Music Festival. Crazy! I go to find out he’s played with Boogsy Sharp and Nexus and the list goes on. Again more talking, this time about travelling, and he brings out his computer and shows us pictures. Crazy drum studio, pictures from almost every continent, pictures of the back of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel on stage and his amazing setup. Crazyness! Anyway we all became buddies and exchanged contact info. [Side note: as I was helping Jamey with his Iphone, I saw Jamey Abersol on his contacts list.]

That flight flew by, and near the end as the pressure was changing I had the worse headache I have ever had in my life because my sinuses are funky. It felt like my head was going to explode, I couldn’t hear, my eyes and nose started watering, and It was very sudden too. Weird. It got better pretty quickly after landing.

As I was wandering around MIA after finding my terminal I saw Jamey again in the Cuban food court, He waved me in and he suggested I try some of this great Cuban food because we had talked about how we need to get some after the flight. He suggested the Vaca fritas which was pulled steak that was slightly fried. Amazing, especially with the black beans and rice and pineapple pop. I had to eat that pretty fast to get to my flight in time, which I did.

Now I am on plane listening to some old NIU steel band CD’s and podcast called Pan in Harmony to get into the mood. Right now its Misbehave from NIU’s “Return to Taiwan” CD and Liam just played some craziness (as usual). Well, my battery is about to die soon so there will probably be more to come in my 5 ½ hour layover in Trinidad.

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