Wisconsin/August diary

Friday
The miracles of the jet age: it takes about three days to drive from California to Wisconsin, at least if you stop to sleep, but if you get a non-stop flight it's only three hours! For a seasoned traveler like myself, that's nothing! It's like a walk in the park. However, last weekend I spent twleve hours in transit getting to Erin, and nothing even went wrong! Here's the break down:
1 hour car ride to LAX airport.
+ 3 hours waiting in airport.
+ 1 hour flight to Phenoix.
+ 1 hour layover in Pheonix.
+ 3 hour flight to Milkwalkee.
= 9 hours traveling time.

Hmm. I was sure it was more than that. Oh yes, I forgot:
+ 2 hours for the difference in timezones.
= 11 hours,
+ 1 hour doing something else, like getting bags, or sitting around or whatever
= 12 hours!

So ok, two of those hours were imaginary ones that disapeared, which means I was really only traveling for ten hours, but I left here at 11:30 in the morning and saw Erin at 11:30 at night. By the time we got to her house, it was the next day.
And I was exhausted!
It was good to see Erin, though. She was a little surprised to see me because I had hinted that I might or might not have done something crazy with my hair, and she was afraid I wouldn't be easy to recognize. Of course, I looked as normal as ever, and the only thing abnormal about my hair was that it was probably matted from sleeping on the plane. I also was surprised to see her and her brother waiting for me in the baggage claim, as I thought she wouldn't park and would be waiting by the curb.
But the thing that caught me off guard the most was how natural and beautiful she looked. I guess I should have expected that, seeing as she is my girlfriend, but after two months it was great to see her face again, in real life.
From the way she said, "you look good, too," it seemed like she was going through the same thing.
She also had brought me a fresh peach, which I ate right there in the baggage claim.
On the way out of the Milkwalkee airport I noticed a sculpture of boats made out of faces, rather surreal, that were familiar to me and I guess I remembered them from the last time I was there, when Erin dropped me off to go back to California after our road trip in May.
Erin was sad to realize that was the last time we'd seen each other, and now that I think about it, we were bound to that airport in a few ways. Almost exactly two years ago we said our first goodbyes, she wrote her phone phone number on my hard with a purple pen and drew a heart next to it. She also told me she loved me for the first time.
Also, it's where I would be returning in a few days to once again leave her and go back to California.
Melodrama, melodrama, melodrama.

off to go see Tom Petty and Jackson Browne with A/C and Kirsten now! the rest of the diary will come tomorrow!