New Hampshire

There is a light above the toilet in the bathroom here that I keep hitting my head on. I always half-turn to my right when flush the toilet, and just now marks the fifth time I've bashed my head on this low-hanging fixture.

I'm in Boston right now, spending time with Jared Carson and his family. I'll be here until Tuesday, when my flight out to Iceland takes off at 9:30pm. I've never flown internationally by myself before and I'll have to take a lot of notes to pass on to Andreina. She's more afraid than I'll be, and I want to make sure that all the extra questions I've got now get answered by the time she's all alone, sitting in the airport, counting down the hours until her plane leaves. At least I've flown alone before. I've flown alone and waited for my ride to show up. That's no fun at all.

I flew out of Denver yesterday at 3:20pm, saying goodbye to my home state once more and this time for 3 solid, solitary months. I'd planned on getting a window seat to watch the world slowly vanish beneath the clouds; instead, when I made my way to my seat, I found a trio of old people sitting in the row. The older of the bunch, the dad (who looked like he was approached 90) had mistakenly taken a seat on that side of the airplane instead of on the other. I couldn't very well break up their group, especially to make the old man sit alone across the aisle, so I swapped seats and ended up sitting next to a bossy older woman (but not *old*) and her husband. And instead of staring out the window, I had an aisle seat. I was so tired from the night before with Lucas that I fell asleep before the plane even took off. I woke up briefly as we taxied down the runway, but then I was asleep again for a good hour or so.

My flight landed in Milwaukee and the old man got off before me, taking a significant amount of time to exit the plane. I wandered off the plane myself right about 6:40pm, spotting a departure information board straight ahead of me, almost getting knocked over as bossy lady and her husband ran to catch their connecting flight. Just as I chuckled under my breath about having to worry about connecting flights, I realized that my connecting flight was already boarding, with less than 15 minutes before take-off! Luckily the gates were about 30 seconds apart from each other and I walked up just as they announced my name on the intercom with a warning to board my flight in the next five minutes or forfeit my ticket. This answers Andreina's question about whether 30 minutes is enough time to catch a connecting flight; unless the gates are right next to each other, it definitely is not.

I arrived in Boston after a terrible flight where the child behind me wouldn't stop crying and the child in front of me wouldn't shut up. It was so chilly that I was shivering violently as I waited outside for Jared to show up. I called my babe and had a wonderful quick conversation, realizing once again that I'm going to miss him awfully over the next few months and hoping that things will be not-weird when I return. Jared showed up quickly and we were on the road, getting to his house in Nashua NH in about 45 minutes. Both of his parents were still up (this being right about midnight) and we sat at the kitchen table eating McDonalds, watching SNL for a good hour. They are really good people!

I was the one to break up the party and head to bed at 1am -- and his mom confessed to me the next morning that she'd stayed up until 3! I texted my babe and didn't get a response, leaving me slightly blue as I drifted to sleep Today, I meant to wake up at 7:30am just to prove that, as an early sleeper I was also an early riser. I ended up waking up at 9 instead, hearing some weird slamming noises coming from downstairs. I got my teeth brushed and my face washed before I headed down there to finally meet Jared's mentally handicapped brother. There is something wrong with him and he basically has the mental capacity of a 2-3 year old with several body disfigurements. He makes for a very special case.

Jared and I watched "Remember the Titans" a bit, got some coffee, and then headed out to Main Street for some breakfast. We ate at a diner then wandered around for a bit, getting back to his house at about 3pm. About a half hour later, we were in the car again, heading towards Massachusetts to go to an extravagant ice cream stand. It was chilly and overcast outside but the place -- Kimble Farm -- was still packed with people, everyone eating ice cream. We walked around there for a little over an hour, eating our ice cream, and then headed towards a large park called Mines Falls back in New Hampshire.

The place was gorgeous. There were rivers, waterfalls, still waters, beavers, swans, all manner of birds and flowers. The only problem is that, after walking about for about 2 hours, we were lost. By then, it was 7pm and still light out but a fading light with the promise of approaching dark. We took 3 wrong paths, each taking about 20-30 minutes of back peddling to try again. The posted maps were both inaccurate and worn away. I really had to pee. It got darker and darker, and my mind automatically went to horror films and ghost stories. We passed under a bridge at one point where, luckily, lights had been wired in to ward off the dark. If they hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been able to force myself into such pitch blackness! The trail got darker and darker, and then the trail -- the 4th one we were attempting -- split again in two. We chose one, and a little ways down it in split in two again. Again, we chose a way, and a little ways down it split into 3 ways! We, once more, chose a way and magically ended up in the right exit of the park. It was after 9pm and the sun had fully gone down at this point. My legs were tired from walking in the cold for so long and when we stopped to get food, they groaned angrily at me!We ate quickly and got home just at 10pm.

I was tired but called up my babe for a quick 5 minute conversation where it already felt like he'd drifted far away from me. I called Jess next, to get some feeling of connection again, and Allie picked up instead, immediately telling me she loved me with Andreina shouting the same words in the background. I felt much better at that, though I'm still a little bummed at how far away Lucas sounded over the phone. After a quick minute, I went back downstairs where Jared and his parents were, and we sat down there for almost 3 hours, laughing and talking about Donald Trump, alien invasions, and the best actors/actresses we could think of. I've had such a blast with this family, I can't even explain it. It's past 1am now. Tomorrow, I expect we'll go check out where Jared's dad works, as well as his old schools and maybe watch a good movie. Tuesday, we plan on walking the Freedom Trail down in Boston during the morning, being very close to the airport for me to check in later. And then...Iceland! Reykjavik!! Europe!!! Adventure!!! -- May 23, 2011 1:12 AM