who says you can't go home?

transcript excerpted from wednesday, august 8, 2012:

1:14 p.m. 

mark: what's your itinerary for getting to utah today?  

jeff: i'm scheduled to land at 11:10 tonight.  

mark: i'm landing at 10:51 :-) which airline are you on?

1:24 p.m. 

jeff: dang. i'm on frontier. your girl picking you up? 

mark: i'm on frontier, too! i'll hang out in the terminal for a few minutes. yeah, em's picking me up. who's getting you? 

1:38 p.m. 

jeff: dang, crazy. my friend marin is giving me a ride, since it's probably the only way i'd get to see her. 

mark: gotcha. well, see ya soon, bro :-) 

jeff: aye. : ) 

1:48 p.m. 

jeff: wait... i get in at 10:50, too... do you go through denver?? 

1:51 p.m. 

mark: yes. yes i do. 

mark: oh boy oh boy oh boy!! 

jeff: : D see you in denver!

my plane from aus to den had
a fox on the tail

and that was how my trip to utah for mark's wedding started off.
we had a joyful reunion in the denver airport and i gave up my beautiful 6A seat to sit with him in the very back with on the way to slc. we found a restaurant not too far from our gate and got caught up. he told me the story of how he and emily went from "we just don't feel like we're supposed to be together" to "she moved back to missouri and has a boyfriend" to, a few weeks later, "so... me and emily are getting married."

as i was thinking about his experience and how i should apply some of those lessons into my own life, he was watching the time and said that our flight would be boarding soon. walking the short distance to our gate, he asked me which number we were, since there seemed to be no one there. an urgent gate attendant rushed up to us and told us to hurry, that everyone had boarded they were looking for us: mark had the "departure time" mixed up with the "boarding time" and, since they close the door ten minutes prior to departure, we weren't ten minutes early but seconds from missing our flight.

being that most of my friends have legitimate jobs or were busy convocating, i spent thursday enjoying some quiet time, taking care of financial aid for the fall and finalizing some plans for the rest of my trip. in a truly characteristic story, sariah suddenly ended up also in town on a very impromptu trip. and she, like me, had no car, so we spent the day alone in our respective guest houses. for a while, my evening was threatening to become a sort of disaster that occasionally happens when i visit: several "it would be fun to do something"s all converge into one evening, creating truncated activities and crammed schedules.

thankfully that smoothed out and i ended up having thai food with jaime, despite severe text delays and resulting confusion. dinner with jaime was great not only because i didn't get to see her last time and we had a great discussion at dinner, but because of the food itself. we went out for thai and there are NO thai restaurants in college station. and while my pad thai was alright, the pumpkin curry that she ordered was amazing.

not to be dissuaded, sariah and i finally met up later that evening. we were waiting to meet up with mark and spent the time with gina, watching the olympics and debating about which countries to cheer for. because any time with sariah is destined to end up as some sort of adventure, the remainder of the night included a miscommunication about church clothes, showing up a sleeping friend's house (sorry...), me agreeing to watch just go with it against my better judgment, and staying up much later than i should have.

the adventure continues....