This was written while I was waiting to get to on the plane back to Swarthmore...

I’m sitting in the St. Louis airport, composing this entry to be posted whenever I get to my dorm and have Internet access. It looks like that will be awhile, unfortunately. As it was, I was going to be sitting here for longer than usual… My dad had a flight earlier today, so my brother and I were dropped off at the same time as he was. That easily added 2 extra hours of waiting time… And then when I check in, I discover my flight has already been delayed and is now set to leave a half hour later. Add this to the excess time I always have fit into my schedule anyway (on time for flights is good; early is better), and that means that I’ve been sitting here for awhile. And it’s just a little after 5 pm, so I’ve got probably about 2 hours to go. Gah.

Of course, I should be using this time to do something productive. Like read history or work on my English paper. And I have read some, but it’s so hard to focus while sitting in an airport. There are so many interesting people to watch (2 people have walked by that look really familiar, and then there was one guy that was clothed solely in shades of camel and mustard yellow), random cell phone conversations that are hard to block out, and the ever-present music. The current music, since it is officially the holiday season, is jazzy instrumentals of Christmas songs. Woohoo. I think airports do this on purpose. Maybe the theory is if you have upbeat holiday music in the background, people will feel really guilty about being grumpy and hassling the attendants despite all the crazy delays, over-bookings, and so on. As long as “Jingle Bells” is playing, no one will get (seriously) hurt, or something.

I don’t know. I’m probably just making up bizarre theories because I’m bored out of my mind right now. But I can’t take a nap, because I’m paranoid that a) someone will steal my stuff or b) I will sleep through them calling my flight and never get back to Swat. I think I’m more worried about b than a, actually. I have a decent amount of faith in people (or I could drape myself over my belongings), but I have little faith in my body to wake up at the appropriate time.

Someone next to me is reading East of Eden. A girl on my other side is showing a friend a dress she bought (cute dress, by the way). A woman walked by wearing pink pants and corresponding scarf. Everyone but me seems to have a cell phone. There’s a girl whose scarf is an extremely bright and disturbing shade of yellow. Nothing exciting is going on, and it’s only 5:24 pm. An hour and a half left. A girl walked by wearing a shirt that said “Ciao Roma!” and I immediately thought of Eddie Izzard and his impersonation of Italians driving around on their scooters saying “Ciao” to everyone. God, I’m bored and tired.

I feel a strong urge to sleep, or at least sprawl out on the floor and lapse into a state of pseudo-unconsciousness, whatever that would entail. Staring at the ceiling, probably, and ignoring the world around me.

It’s 5:31 now. Gah. I suppose I’ll go back to reading history. That’s almost like being pseudo-unconscious…

*Sometime later*

Okay, I just went and checked on my flight. It seems that the departure time has been pushed back to 7:42 pm. If I could, I would bang my head against something. But that could be deemed suspicious behavior and be reported to the authorities and get me kicked out of the airport. And we definitely don’t want that.

I wish I was back at ML right now.

*And now*

So I'm back at the dorm. Yay! When I went and found Matt, he greeted me with food, since he knew I probably hadn't had much of a dinner. How sweet is that? *grins all happy-like*

However, now I'm tired, and I need to sorta unpack some stuff before I can go sleep in my now-seemingly tiny (yet still really comfy) bed. Whee.