fraggle rocks chile

even as i went to bed way too fuckin late after the packing party i kept thinking i cant believe im going to chile in the morning, well, by the time i got to bed it was already morning but who am i to quibble abt deets...so i woke up when my alarm went off some three hours after hitting the sack, hit some snooze for a few and then remembered i gotta catch a plane taking me far away from everyone i love for a year. i just stared at sleeping j beside me, he woke and we both just started to cry. we cried for a while, until we started choking on snot then had to get up and search our mostly packed somewhat destroyed place for tissues..finally found some but i started crying again, just having a hard time believing that we would be so far away from each other. its just unreal i told j, like the beatles breaking up or something...so then we were laughing hysterically and trying to stop crying in order to brush our teeth. i got in the shower and j put on the beatles all you need is love, we laughed, cried more, choked on snot more, and continued getting ready to go. meant to get breakfast but took too long with the emotional breakdown...so we headed out lugging way too many way too heavy bags...so finally we were headed to the airport with big coffees and scones...got me and all my bags and my teddy, Dakota Salvador Allende, through bag check where we noted that the security frowns upon baggage that includes chainsaws, torches, lighters, matches...they also provided a helpful display of these items near bag check. i took a picture. so i checked in, may my way to the gate where j and i hugged, i went through while j blew kisses...waiting to board i started compiling a playlist on my going away present mp3 player (thank you kerm, cheets, vic, and j) and noticed a few tracks that came up titled I LOVE YOU RA (actual title in parentheses) finally boarded and was seated way way way at the back of the plane. fortunately there was an empty seat between my neighbor and i so exile has its benefits, but it also has its downside. the seat behind me contained the requisite seat kicking toddler, and nearby the even smaller louder runt, the screaming baby. i know i know its the pressure and the canned air it makes em crazy. Salvador and i were strapped in and ready for flight well aware that the ocntents of the overhead bin tend to shift during flight...so that flight was to miami, it took years and all they fed us was pretzals. after we landed and maggie (the crying baby) was about to go nuts just wanting to get off the damn plane and i was thinking along those lines as well, we had some technical diff that kept us there long enough to make me late boarding my next flight..luckily the far far back of that plane was even more deserted...i got to stretch out over three seats with extra blankets, found that if i kept playing coltrane on the mp3 i could sleep somewhat restlessly...we landed at 7:30am local time...sal and i trudged sleepily through the customs line and noted to our surprise that some people were smoking in line...now i smoke, and i have been known to smoke indoors, you know like in tejas or vegas...but i mean really, smoking in the airport in line for customs? well i never...we got through, found our bags after a small child from the same flight intercepted our confused vigil at the wrong baggage carousel, and kindly (bless you sweet english speaking chilean child!) pointed us in the right direction...another line where a young woman instructed me to do something to a machine...i musta looked as confused as i felt, bc she then inquired in english if i understood, to which i replied kinda...then got that my bags had to be x rayed...changed money found an official taxi and repeated like a mantra the name of my hotel...had a long convo with the cab driver as he maneuvered along a busy narrow freeway through a dreamy landscape of enormous mountains and green green land...all of which was rather wet and really really cold. my part of the conversation consisted mostly of ¿si? ¿Si? ah ¡si! anyway...i checked in, stared out the window for a minute, stunned that i was actually in chile, repeated to myself im here, in chile. huh. wow. intense. but so tired....so i curled up with salvador and took a nap.