Last night was my last Friday in Rochester. Cait and I first had sausage and pineapple pizza with our supercool neighbors who also bake us stuff (homesick already)!! On a whim, barely 24 hours before it occurred, I Facebooked a beer session at my favorite watering hole in Rochester - The Elmwood Inn. I was expecting Cait and maybe Jonathan to watch me play pinball for 3 hours, but instead all sorts of folks turned out to have a brew. Thanks, all, for the hugs and wishes. My door is open in Japan to all of you as long as you bring me a Garbage Plate.
The last night Stateside, however, is in Boston. The Roc-Boston drive is always a great one; some weaving through mountains, always 6 hours on the dot (it was 9 once), frequent rest areas, bridges, and the seasons. Fall gets all the hype, but Winter gets no love as usual.
The fresh snow from Albany-ish onward put a clean veil of fluff on every dark, skeletal branch along the 90; it made for quite the relaxing drive with myself, a Japanese conversation CD ("What are you going to eat, Mr. Suzuki?"), and 700lbs of crap in every nook of the '98 Camry. Another great part of the drive are the crazed Massholes you meet literally the second you cross into the Bay State - fingers flyin' after they cut you off without a blinker... that reminds me, I never found my international driver's license I paid $10 for. Probably a good thing, since they drive on the left there. I found $24 in the car when I cleaned it out though - that's like ¥2000.
I'd show you a picture of the scenic drive, or my overloaded car, but I also forgot my camera cord to upload photos (yea I know). In the meantime, here's how I spent the final evening State-side.
Besides the empty glass and bottle, that image hasn't changed much. I still need to fine tune the contents of the carry-on (travel pillow, change of clothes, large bag of American candy...it's all gotta get in with books, a computer, camera, journals...hmmm).
Flight plan: Boston, Detroit, Tokyo. I haven't slept yet in preparation for backwards timeness (4AM here... 5PM there). I may pick up some melatonin before I roll to Logan, just so I sound like a pro when it comes to shifts in the time-space continuum.
So... phone plan: suspended in February.
Car - being sold (thanks for sucking again, NY State).
Malaria & prescription diaria pills: check.
41" Earthwing longboard deck: carry on, baby!
Emotions: Lack of sleep stops the roller coaster.
13.5 hour flight: aisle seat, for the win.
See you on the other side.
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