what fresh hell?

travel is flexibility.  life is flexibility.  strength only comes with flexibility.  these are lessons i need to give myself to.

i didn’t have much luck at the ticket counter of us airways in tallahassee.  in fact, there was only one dude behind the counter and he said “you gotta call the airlines, i don’t handle this stuff” and wasn’t the slightest bit interested in my quivering lip and my tale of family emergencies.

then i called while reggie said “hey, you gotta be flexible.  i spent my twenty first birthday stuck in an airport”

reggie was right–got a us airways rep on the line and you would have thought i was asking to have us airways provide me with a parade of elephants to escort me back to chicago.  i came back to the apartment in defeat.  but also, i came back because i had accidentally left with the apartment spare key.

barbara left to take casey to the airport around twelve thirty and from there, barbara went to her office.  i am here with justin until barbara’s expected return at seven thirty.  he has been on the phone for the past hour with his research assistant.  he is explaining to him as i write that i am an example of what plato meant when he said “if you want to catch a thief you have to use a thief”. . . i will not correct him that it is calimachus who said “being a thief myself i recognize the tracks of a thief” which is really what he wants to say.

tomorrow i will aim to get back to chicago.  i am seeing facebook friend robbie thapa on wednesday afternoon, suzanne timble on thursday and on friday i travel to springfield to see melissa coulter and steve rahn.  then i return to indianapolis on sunday to see jay schwandt.  i am learning so much about packing too–go lite!

and i’m also figuring out that i have some real good friends.  even the ones i don’t see that much!  i had only seen reggie once before in person–hey, when somebody is deployed to baghdad it’s not like you get to take them to lunch and shopping all that often!