3:09pm
The sky was an endless cotton arctic when this plane first took off from Saskatoon. After a certain height, I could see nothing of the city. This was disappointing because I like to see the city that I live in reduced to its most basic parts from up above. All the cars and buildings seem like toys from up here and that gives me quite a bit of perspective on things.
Now the clouds have cleared a bit and I can see pieces of the prairie (I'm trying to remember the exact phrasing of what Shaughn wrote once about this quilt).
This plane is old and shakes more than I remember from last time. It's also quite noisy here in seat 5F. But it's only a short flight. I am sitting just behind the first class curtain which I always think is ridiculous but moreso here because I've seen nicer curtains in Grama and Grampa's camper. I am sitting beside someone who has always been a redhead and seems vaguely annoyed by my presence. Or maybe I'm just making that up. At least there is an empty seat between us.
I don't want to write anymore now. I'll eat some Oreos and read Amy's "open on the plane" letter.
3:23pm
3:11pm Calgary time
I'm in the Calgary airport. I've asked the right people the right questions and managed to find out where I'm supposed to be in a few hours. Now I have time to kill.
I might as well be in another country already. Contrary to what Madelline Stowe said in a movie once, all airports do not look the same. This one looks more like a mall.
Across the way from where I'm sitting is Pat's Shoe Shine stand. He's very meticulous and looks like he's earning his four dollars from the bored businessman. Getting your shoes shined by a guy named Pat seems like one of those necessary life experiences (add it to the list with standing up on a subway and eating a hot dog from a cart on the street) and I'd do it if I had shoes worth shining.
In front of me is the Riley & McCormick Western Boutique, one of several not-so-subtle reminders that this is a cowboy town. It makes me think of Shanda's recent fondness for cowboys hats and whether that was a direct effect of living here for the summer.
An old man just walked by me humming a happy tune and Pat has moved on to a pilot's shiny shoes.
3:26pm
4:20pm
"Where are you, working girl with supreme device? The National Film Board hath need for you. Are you growing old in Winnipeg?" -Book 1-17 "The Favourite Game" Leonard Cohen
5:58pm
I shouldn't look at the clock
every five minutes.
Because every five minutes
is five more minutes
away from you
and it's easier to take
in hours.
7:34pm
The moon over the pointed centre of Calgary is like the moon over anything else.
7:36pm Calgary time
Ok, from now on this book will be that book and that book will be this book. Seems more appropriate to be keeping a tour diary in a book with my country's flag all over it. And besides Riki and Shavonne's present journal (with it's smelly gel pens and coil-boundedness) is more suited to poetry and other similiar forms of expression. I'll write personal messages in here to Amy and not put them on the website.
Oh wait, vegetarian plane food...
8:11pm Calgary time 7:11pm LA time 9:11pm Saskatoon time
Ok, I'm finished my plane food (mostly cold chick peas and a really crusty roll).
New time zone. Changing time is becoming more of a pain in the ass everytime I do it. But I like to know what time it is at home. It's been a logn day already and my body is trying to tell me to sleep, but I won't until I'm on my way to Malaysia.
I have crappy headphones (wonky, as my mom might say) and the stupid thing won't change from channel 18 or let me adjust the volume. I don't care enough to complain and the short feature they're showing looks uninteresting at best.
Amy's halloween candy care package is being put to good use.
9:53pm LA time 11:53 at home
I'm sitting in a food court at the international terminal at LAX. I can't hear a thing.
I don't know what happened. I didn't chew my gum properly on the way down or something, but my ears protested the descent into LA and I'm still paying the price. People talk to me here and I have to read lips and guess what they could be saying. This is especially difficult since most of the people I've talked to here thus far work for or are flying on Malaysian Airlines and have accents impossible to my suffering ears.
I am not looking forward to the upcoming 20 hour flight to Kuala Lampur. I hope I will be able to sleep through most of it, but I've never been too good at sleeping sitting up or with strangers around for that matter. Still, I have something to look forward to. At the end of that long flight, my "forced overnight" provides me with a hotel room and meals. I could use both.
Somewhat surprisingly, the beautiful people to average-looking people ratio here at the Los Angeles airport is considerably in favour of the average. On the plane on the way here there were some LA-looking people. One of them in particular (a boy with trendy blonde hair and boots that zippered up both sides) at first appeared startlingly beautiful when he rounded the corner at gate C26. Upon further inspection, however, he was just as average as everyone else on that plane. Come to think of it, in retrospect he looked a lot like that boy with the weird blonde hair on General Hospital. He was probably a better actor though.
10:15pm
11:06pm
I'm at Gate 104 awaiting a nearly day-long Malaysian Airlines flight. There are a lot of Malaysians here. This is the first time that I've been really scared so far.
I was watching tihs perpetual motion machine by the food court and lost track of how long the line was getting for Gates 101-123. It really was something. Sometimes the balls would get stuck until another one came along to bump it through and I just couldn't stop watching until that happened. A couple scruffy teenage artists were sketching the airport scene from the balcony above me. Funny, but they seemed like the ones who were posing.
Right now I simply cannot wait until I arrive in Melbourne and find Robert so he can take me home and let me sleep. But I'm not even half done this trip.
I'm gonna stop writing before I start crying and scare this nice looking Malaysian boy beside me.
11:16pm
to Friday, November 3, 2000
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