Things I Wrote in the Airport

Following are a few lists I made while waiting around on my worst day ever (see the post just before this for why it was the worst day ever). *ahem* Here we go ....

Reasons Why Today (Jan. 5 - 6, 2009) Sucks:

• I got 1 1/2 - no, 1 hour of sleep
• I didn't get to brush my teeth this morning
• I left my book to read on the plane at Caroline's house
• no makeup on
• bad hair day
• spending 11 hours in an airport
• I lost my jacket
• food is expensive
• I forgot my PIN ....
• ... but recovered it, only to find that my card STILL doesn't work
• permanently cold
• camera batteries died
• I got on the wrong train and ended up way out in the middle of nowhere
• NO MONEY
• had to overdraft my American account
• all alone
• had to lug my bags around everywhere
• phone's dead
• couldn't remember / too tired to speak German well
• 25 minutes spent in Whaley Bridge
• pants are falling down, but the only belt that holds them up makes me look fat
• couldn't pay for the toilets in Manchester station
• my Burger King meal was tiny and expensive
• smoking is making me wheeze
• wasted a cigarette, putting it out halfway through because the bus was coming. turns out it was the wrong bus.
• crowded, noisy plane
• bad-smelling man next to me
• I've got a permanent sniffle
  
• waiting in endless lines
• plane came in late
• had to put on all my clothes to keep warm. still not warm.
• missed the last train out of Bremen and must now sleep in the train station
• can't sleep
• lost my lighter
• didn't know the right word for "pickles" in German and got cucumbers on my sub instead
• tired of wearing the same clothes over and over again on vacation
• missing home
• my toes are cold
• my BahnCard is no longer valid
• even the bathrooms in the train station are cold
• still have to go to class tomorrow
• to reiterate: I AM STUCK IN A TRAIN STATION. ALONE. IN BREMEN. IN JANUARY. WITHOUT A JACKET.
• I owe people money
• people who say they have no lighter when you ask to borrow theirs. I see your lighter right there, No Lighter Guy!
• got Marlboro Lights, not Marlboros
• people making fun of my clothes in the station
• had to use my credit card and pay full price for a ticket when I shouldn't have had to
• slept on my lunch for tomorrow and squished it
• snow everywhere. I'm freezing.

... but, because I didn't want to be totally negative, I also wrote this in the station:

Reasons Why Today (Jan. 5 - 6, 2009) Is Okay:

• fed a puppy and played with it
• actin' crazy in a public place! woo!
• got to run on the moving walkway at the airport
• nice Subway guy
  
• helpful Moroccan guy
• it's a learning experience ... right?
• I have coffee
• I have cigarettes left
• happenstance meetings at the airport
• saw Manchester -- adventure!
• browsed through comics
• flying is fun
• my mp3 player has good music
• going home
• life is about to resume - work, friends, grocery shopping, etc.
  
• heard Spanish on the street car
• drew funny pictures
• made a joke about the really whiny screaming kid at the airport and made the old man next to me laugh
• people who lend me their lighters. Thanks, Lighter Guys!
• the warnings on my cigarettes are all in Romanian for some reason
• I have pink note paper
• the music in this all-night cafe is okay
• free coffee with random stranger
• trains are warm inside
• snow looks pretty!

Things To Do In A (Semi)Deserted Train Station After Midnight:

• skip merrily
• make airplane noises loudly
• take everything out of your purse and look at it. take pictures.
• lay on the ground
• count people
• sing opera-style songs
• make friends
• learn about the Arab-Israeli conflict
• try to sleep
• go warm up in the bathroom by sticking your hands under the automatic hand dryers
• play the slots
• window shop -- ooh, la la!
• play the "What Type of Headgear Can We Make With Our Extra Clothes?" game
• chip off all your nail polish
• wait. waitwaitwait. wait.
• write lists
• read a book. or the paper.
• better yet, read someone else's paper over their shoulder
• guess whether the guy sleeping across from you is a hobo or just stranded like you
• pretend that the walls are made of rubber. bounce off of them.
• count to 60 in all the languages you know, then make new languages to count in

and finally ... a list of things I'd like to do in my life.

Gee, I'd Love To ...

• bungee jump
• lose 30 lbs
• see a Broadway play
• climb a mountain
• adopt a child and have it turn out to be awesome ... or even just normal is okay
• save somebody's life
• buy nice things for my family
• give someone who deserves it a bunch of money anonymously
• save the world. don't laugh, I'm serious.
• be able to remember my PIN
• really know a lot about wines
• take a road trip with all my friends
• have some stranger come up to me and say, "Hey, I saw you onstage at that show and you were really funny/good/effervescent."
• give up smoking
• grow my hair out long
• go on The Price Is Right. don't laugh, I'm serious.
• not be spending 11 hours in an airport
• earn a black belt in taekwondo
• run a race. like, a real one.
• visit Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Poland, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Egypt, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Switzerland, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, Canada ...
• learn Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Urdu, Mandarin Chinese, Klingon ...
• pay off my credit card
• go shopping for a whole new wardrobe
• have $1,000,000.00
• tell off everyone who's ever been snotty to anyone I love
• leave the heat on in my room all night long
• write a book - a memoir, a work of fiction, a poetry anthology, anything
  
• have a house all to myself
• win a ballroom dance competition, or at least enter one
  
• be home right now